Archive for November, 2012
ACE, in a hole?
Nov 3rd
Some more information and views on Arts Council England today. It has already been news this week that Arts Council England is reducing its staffing by 21%, more than one-fifth, due to a cut in Government funding. A whopping 117.5 full-time equivalent staff, from an old total of 559.5, will go. The details of the restructure are public but they are annoyingly vague about how it will affect libraries, beyond saying that the sector will be just one of 13 national disciplines. That’s just 1 in 13, less than 8% of the whole. Which makes libraries seem pretty insignificant.
Inquiry into Library Closures to be published on Tuesday
Nov 1st
Big news today is that the much-delayed publication of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry into Library Closures will at last occur on Tuesday. Since the Inquiry finished sitting, there has been a change of Culture Secretary and one of the most high-profile MPs on the Committee, Louise Mensch, has decided to leave parliament. Presumably, therefor, the only reason the Committee felt the need to publish the results now is that, if they wait any longer, none of the relevant people would still be involved. We will see if its conclusions have been worth waiting for (and the general atmosphere is, shall we say, pessimistic on this one) next week.
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