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Eric Pickles, the Communities secretary, appeared to call library campaigners “luvvies” in Parliament today.  He also put forward the view that Cultural services such as cultural institutions should make money.  On the same day, a new graph – called the “Jaws of Doom” – shows that the planned cuts in council budgets combined with an increased demand for their services will mean a cut of nearly half in council’s spending.  This will mean – as the people of Newcastle (one of the few councils who have made their plans public for the next three years, rather than for just one) have discovered – the effective end of Arts provision and, at least, the halving of public library provision.  Not that Pickles will care, especially as he appears to believe  that such cuts can be achieved solely by efficiencies.  Conveniently for him, this means that he can blame councils – and not his own policies – for any cuts in services.  As a campaigner pointed out in an email I saw today, it also means that it’s “becoming clear that the real purpose of the Localism Act was to transfer blame, not power, to local authorities”. That the public will protest actively against such cuts has been more than proved by the last two years of protest.  Expect a lot more to come.

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The above eye-catching headline is not about libraries generally, nor the average time left for paid members of staff (although it feels like it) but the window of opportunity that public libraries have with e-books before things are settled.  An important article looks at the subject in some depth from different points of view.

In these hard-nosed times, one of the key weapons libraries have of defending their worth is to point out their economic value.  Two new resources have been produced by Carl Clayton (in his private capacity) that will be useful in this regard:

• The economic value of public libraries – Depression costs the Uk £12bn. Bibliotherapy – as well as library’s help in job hunting etc – can greatly help those suffering from depression. “Every pound spent on library services will create a future saving in costs for the council. It is not possible to quantify this saving exactly but a comparison of the limited cost of the library service with the large costs of depression (not to mention other illnesses) indicates that this would be significant.”
• Value of public library services – Covers “published reports that consider the value of public library services in a quantitative sense.”  Lists and summarises some very useful documents including some unfamiliar ones such as a Norwegian study showing that libraries have a cost benefit ratio of 1:4

For volunteers, a new court decision has meant that volunteers cannot claim under employment law unless they have a contract or are undergoing vocational training.  This removes an obstacle for volunteers taking over libraries in that it frees them from having to worry about employment law with their unpaid workers.  Of course, it’s also equally a detriment to those same volunteers who cannot appeal to the same rights that paid workers have, at least in this instance.

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The BookSeller has reported on the stakeholder meeting (covered here in the last but one post) and it makes some  subtly different changes, like the date of when 12% of libraries are likely to be “community supported” and what it actually means.  Otherwise, there’s an interesting conference in Edinburgh next year (the Edge) and the news that “free news” online may be on its way out will further support the argument for libraries.

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The following is a record of the meeting between the SCL and campaigners on Monday 10th December at Westminster City Hall, 4pm to 6pm..  It is largely written by myself but the SCL has given approval to it and made some amendments. The other campaigners have not themselves given approval for it and so it is not “fully agreed” in terms of formal minutes.  I have put in large quotation marks what I think are interesting points made but I need to point out these emphases are mine alone, as are the links.

The official SCL description of the meeting is here.

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Being the title of this blog is Public Libraries News, I tend not to cover school libraries but my heart is with them as well.  There are so many similarities between the two campaigns that I do sneak a story in here and there.  The recent survey that shows school libraries are in deep danger is an example.  The fact that the DCMS had the temerity to criticize the survey has angered Alan Gibbons – who has always equally championed both campaigns – who points out what weak ground they’re on.  Sadly, due to yet more cuts, the DCMS itself is even more of a shadow of its former self, with an estimated £34m cut.  Whether this will affect its funding of Arts Council England and thus it’s funding of grants for libraries, is as yet unclear.

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