Comments on: People power: the Community Right to Bid & Wolverhampton (sort of) bows to pressure. https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html What's happening to your library? Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:31:43 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: librariesmatter https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5585 Mon, 10 Dec 2012 20:31:43 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5585 The DCMS Secretary of State Maria Miller’s comment about the Lottery in her blog on the Autumn Statement is perhaps relevant. She said “….we [the Coalition government] acted in 2010 to increase the amount of Lottery money going into our sectors. And, yes, of course we know that Lottery money and grant-in-aid are not interchangeable, and that the additionality principle whereby Lottery money cannot be used as a substitute for public funding, must be protected. But for all that, our changes to the Lottery do mean that a great deal more money will go into the arts and heritage of this country from that source in the future. ”

Thus the obvious question is will decent amounts on lottery money reach the public libraries sector?

If I recall weren’t computers put into public libraries (People’s Network) about 10 years ago at a cost of around of £100m funded by the lottery.

Perhaps the lottery could fund installing wi-fi into ALL libraries which is I believe a government aspiration. It could also fund updated computers (laptops?) to use with the wi-fi. Just a thought.

]]> By: librariesmatter https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5579 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 22:20:29 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5579 In reply to Very Saucey.

Dear Very Saucey – I’m sorry you didn’t like my illustrative suggestion. You seem to be unhappy if lottery funds help libraries and equally if lottery funds help some community development work based at libraries. I suspect that the Library Services who benefited from the lottery funding in 2007 wouldn’t agree with you.

Your point on shortage of capital funds surely relates to government expenditure. The lottery is not part of government expenditure which is why it is an interesting area to explore as to whether it can help libraries directly or indirectly.

Where I live we have a very nice windmill so if you’ll excuse me I’ll just go and do some tilting.

]]> By: Very Saucey https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5578 Fri, 30 Nov 2012 09:02:52 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5578 *sighs loudly, bangs head on table*. I have gone and read the evaluation report of this work. It is interesting. it is quite clear that the investment made by Big in these libraries was all about community stuff that had almost nothing to do with libraries as librares (although it’s good to see it happening from them) and could have been done from youth clubs, doctors’ surgeries, police stations, whatever. That is because this is the sort of thing that is allowed by the good causes that Big invest in. They’re not interested in libraries, and neither is the lottery, so unless you change the lottery you won’t get money into libraries as libraries. As for saying that this investment was complementary to existing capital investment, that is true, but in 2007 there was some capital to invest in libraries. It’s now not 2007 and there is no capital, and there won’t be, if the press are to be believed, until 2018 at the earliest. I am very happy to see people campaigning for libraries and do so myself, but this constant tilting at windmills isn’t really that is helpful, unless of course we think changing the way that the lottery works is something we want to fight for so that it can be used to directly invest in libraries. but if we do that, then the principle of the lottery changes, and it can be used to fund mainstream services, and then you’re asking people what they want the lottery to go into and you open up the question of libraries or the NHS, and I think even the most fervent library advocate knows where the public will have a preference.

]]> By: librariesmatter https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5576 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:36:16 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5576 No – I’m not saying replace taxpayer funding with lottery funding. The Community Library fund in 2007 was designed to fund work that was complementary to the normal library capital work. it was used to develop libraries in new ways particularly work with local communities. That need is still relevant I would of thought. But it is only one example.

All I’m saying is it would be nice to see some library development work around funding and not just the normal quango stuff of writing reports!

]]> By: Ian Anstice https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5575 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:03:14 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5575 In reply to Very Saucey.

If I may come in here and say that the lottery funded the refurbishment/building of 58 libraries a few years ago. Google “”Big Lottery Fund” + libraries” for the details (choose the top item and then open the cached version).

]]> By: Very Saucey https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5574 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:42:17 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5574 Capital investment in libraries. Very dodgy territory for the lottery to be on. Very dodgy indeed. Remind me what the good causes were again? The logic of your argument is to get replace tax with lottery funding. Shall we invest in road repairs with the lottery as well? Could do with some new street lights in m y dark village where they go off at midnight. Lottery can stump up for them too. Don’t even mention the hospital. If libraries, why not these things too? I bet people would vote for all of these ahead of libraries.

]]> By: librariesmatter https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5573 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 21:29:54 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5573 Re very saucey’s comment. I’m sure we are all aware that public libraries are funded by the taxpayer via Councils (cost c. £1,000m a year). But the point is surely that the Arts Council has taken on the development role for public libraries and this surely implies more than just writing a few reports. The UK public library world is not short of reports. At the moment it is very short of money (capital money is worse than revenue funding). The lottery has provided funds for public libraries in the past e.g. the Community Library fund £80m in 2007. The funding mechanics might be direct from the lottery to Councils but surely it is within the role of Mr Davey to get something going. If not him who is it?

]]> By: Very Saucey https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5572 Thu, 29 Nov 2012 19:52:31 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5572 Has it escaped everyone’s attention that libraries are funded by local councils and not the Arts Council of Great Britain? Apparently so. Any money that the Arts Council spend on libraries can only be icing on the cake and not a top up or a replacement for local council funding. And as for the Olympics, well they may well be over but that is no reason for libraries to be funded from the lottery. They are local council services. Do you want schools and social services and waste collection funded from the lottery too, because that is the logic of your argument?

]]> By: librariesmatter https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/11/people-power-the-community-right-to-bid-wolverhampton-sort-of-bows-to-pressure.html#comment-5571 Wed, 28 Nov 2012 22:46:02 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=3326#comment-5571 Alan Davey’s answer about Arts Council funding for public libraries was feeble. He has had responsiblity for libraries development for over a year now. The Libraries Development Initiative fund was only £0.23m, surely an insulting amount, and the lottery funded Arts in libraries fund of £6m is by its nature very restricted i.e. it can only fund Arts activities in public libraries. More should have been achieved by now on library funding especially as lottery funds are no longer required for the Olympics.

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