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Sometimes you come across something so right that one needs to tell everyone.  Such a moment came when I had a look at the brilliant Edmonton Libraries brochure explaining what they do every day.  Through several beautifully produced pages it helps library staff and campaigners around the world with a few tips on how to do it themselves.  I have placed it at the top of the “reasons for public libraries” page as it so neatly does the job for me.  In fact, I could have saved myself some time and just used it instead, if its existence had previously been known to me.  If your library is not like the one described within, ask your councillors why not. Perhaps it’s because libraries in this country have never produced anything like it.

395 libraries (319 buildings and 76 mobiles) currently under threat or closed/left council control since 1/4/11 out of c.4612 in the UK (for the complete list by area see the page “Tally by local authority”). Librarian professional body CILIP forecasts 600 libraries under threat (inc. 20% of English libraries).  The Public Libraries News figure is obtained from counting up all reports about public libraries in the media each day.

News

Councils must chase up their missing tax – London Evening Standard.  “Unpaid council tax means that councils make up the shortfall either by taxing their conscientious council taxpayers more or by cutting services. Before local authorities cut care for the elderly or close libraries, they should ensure that they are collecting the tax they are owed. In these straitened times, it’s the least they can do.”

“The LfL strategy recognised the important role that the library sector plays in achieving a number of the key priorities set out by WAG in its One Wales[1] strategy, not only in the development of the culture and heritage of Wales, but also in developing the Welsh economy, providing information that can improve the health and wellbeing of the Welsh people, providing access to lifelong learning and ensuring that resources are accessible to all. In addition, libraries were identified as playing a critical role in placing the citizen at the heart of service delivery and contributing to meeting the aims described in the Making the Connections programme (2005) for public service reform and Delivering Beyond Boundaries action plan[2]“.Evaluation of Libraries for Life – CyMAL (Wales). £10.5m budget from 2008 to 2011. Benefits shown “included increased employability, improved working environment and higher levels of job satisfaction. For library users benefits have included improved environments and facilities and more knowledgeable and up-skilled staff.”

Get it loud in libraries – Lancashire Libraries.  “Get It Loud In Libraries is a unique award winning project – it is the current Love Libraries Award 2007 winner-designed to give people, especially young people who love music, a damn good time in a library; libraries across Lancashire if you are someone who cares for the small details.”.  Singers include Chipmunk, Secret Sisters.
Is the future of books and libraries intertwined? – Kaser Info Today. (USA).
Is this the tipping point for E-books and libraries? – Read Write Web (USA).  
Libraries for a small community – Voices for the Library (Clair Humphries).  “These communities are local, and despite often being as small and narrow as the first library I ever knew, they deserve to be served by libraries that are local too.”
Libraries told to improve online – Public Service.  Libraries are a “top five online service” but “online council library services are often difficult to use, despite the fact that millions rely on them, research from Socitm has found.”
Santa Clarita prepares to open new library system – PublicCEO.com.  Favourable report on LSSI’s takeover of three public libraries.  “In anticipation of opening day, the City vastly increased the inventory of library books and media, as well as service days and hours at the three branches.”.  
Trade unions and anti-cuts campaigners plan summer of protest – Guardian.  “Earlier this month Dave Prentis, the head of Unison, the UK’s biggest public-sector union, promised to mount the most sustained wave of industrial action the country has seen since the general strike of 1926, vowing not to back down until the government has dropped its pension changes.”.  Most library staff who are in a union are in Unison.
We will not be Shushed: a new method of library advocacy – American Libraries (USA). The “Save NYC Libraries” campaign has put together advocacy events including 24-hour read ins, a Zombie Walk, petition and post card campaigns, and most recently a flash mob library hug around New York Public Library’s Stephen A. Schwarzman Building.

Local News

Bracknell Forest – Libraries are owed £105,000 – Get Bracknell.  “The system of fines is used to encourage customers to return items promptly. We would urge anyone who has a library book or other library item to bring it back so it can be enjoyed by others”
Bradford – Tories attack cafe plan in light of ongoing cuts – Telegraph & Argus.  “It appears absurd that we cannot afford the staff to operate libraries or swimming pools, but we can staff coffee shops in City Hall. I am quietly confident that I know what residents would prefer.”
Brent – June Campaign Update – Save Kensal Rise Library.   (1) Philip Pullman to speak on 20th July, (2) Application for judicial review now issued, nearly half of the £30,000 required has been raised, review expected when time available July-September (3) Stall at Queens Park Book Festival, stall soon at Kensal Flea Market. 
Doncaster -Ed Miliband to visit Doncaster Libraries – Save Doncaster Libraries.”Ed Miliband will make a personal appearance alongside campaigners who are not giving up the battle to save 14 Doncaster libraries from the budget cutbacks. The Doncaster North MP is visiting Sprotbrough Library, in Sprotborough Road, on Saturday July 9, from 10.15am, which is one of the branches facing the axe because of cuts imposed by the Coalition Government.”

Mr Miliband added: “These planned closures – rubberstamped by Doncaster’s mayor and his cabinet – are being proposed because cuts imposed by the Tory-led Government in Westminster are going too far, too fast. Libraries are at the heart of Doncaster’s communities, like any other town in the country, and they should not be taken away.” Doncaster – Leader’s pledge on libraries row – Star.  “the Labour leader has weighed in to the fight to stave off the closure of many of Doncaster’s branch libraries”

Gloucestershire – 17 offers to get go ahead to run Gloucestershire’s libraries and youth centres – This is Glos. The 9 libraries are Berkeley, Bream, Brockworth, Lechlade, Matson, Minchinhampton, Mitcheldean, Newnham and Painswick.  Painswick is aiming to reopen a library closed in 2009.  Two comments point out going ahead by agreeing thse plans appears to go against the current court injunction which includes the line “Transferring or agreeing to transfer any library building or lease or responsibility for running any existing library”
Hertfordshire – Cuts to library hours come into force – Hemel Today.    Some of the most serious cuts in library services anywhere, a 30% opening hours cut, will come in force from Monday.
West Sussex – Council payoffs to officers “outrageous” – BBC.   Five senior officers received £1.5m in payoffs, including one who went into £130k p.a. job shortly afterwards. Same council planning to cut 1300 jobs -” the public faced cuts in adult social care services, libraries, buses and young people’s services.”

News

• Author attacks “hypocrisy” of library closures – London Evening Standard.  “Singling out Education Secretary Michael Gove, Ness said: “Here is a man who races to the latest news about what a tragedy it is that three out of 10 children don’t own a book. Yet he utterly fails to see the irony of how closing libraries will affect not only the three who don’t but the seven who do and who would like to read more and more and more.”
• Big Issue – Alan Gibbons. Argues that the government is encouraging any form of moving libraries out of council control – volunteers, trusts, private – that it can in order to cut costs and hope that one works. “Let a hundred flowers bloom, they cry. Close a few libraries here, toss a few to the community there, dangle a few under the noses of private providers elsewhere. There is no need for a strategic plan.”
• Community engagement in public libraries: an evaluation of the Big Lottery Fund’s Community Libraries Programme – MLA, March 2011.  A similarly pro-volunteer report to the recently publoshed Community Managed Libraries report.  However, this one concentrates more on the positive impact of using volunteers to complement existing library staff rather than replacing them. 
• Community-run libraries “could charge” – BookSeller.   Summarises the Community Managed Libraries report, noting that it was sent to all council chiefs last week, with a cover note by Jeremy Hunt seeming to encourage all of them to divest libraries – saying he was “conscious of the current budgetary challenges we are all facing and would encourage you to be creative about how resources can be managed in an efficient way . . . One option may be to consider if a community supported library may assist a local area rather than closing a library.”
• Front Lines – Times Higher Education. “At a Unesco forum, Matthew Reisz hears about the hunger for libraries, corporate creep, and what should and should not be archived on the net … Several members of the panel were eloquent in defending the continuing value of libraries. Sue Sutherland, acting chief executive and national librarian at the National Library of New Zealand, called them “one of the last bastions of public civic spaces”. After the earthquake in Christchurch in February, she noted, they were very often the places where “people came together to meet and make sense of what was happening”.
• Future of library services in the big society – Voices for the Library (Carl Clayton, SINTO).   “My own quick rough count of the attendees list shows c40 librarians, 11 senior directors and 4 councillors … [Ed Vaizey’s] message to local authorities appeared to be that he was happy to give them plenty of time to discuss options and alternatives but although he was keeping his powder dry he was prepared to use the weapon of intervention if all else failed … his phrase that “the public library service is a huge asset to be exploited; not a burden to be gradually got rid of” could well feature on the Voices for the Library website (although the cynics out there may well ask exactly how the “asset” of libraries will be exploited, and by whom!)”
• Future of library services in the big society: notes on Ed Vaizey’s speech – via Alan Gibbons. Also Questions asked to him (“I will respond to you after discussions with my officials”). 
• How to survive the age of distraction – Independent.  “The book – the physical paper book – is being circled by a shoal of sharks, with sales down 9 per cent this year alone. It’s being chewed by the e-book. It’s being gored by the death of the bookshop and the library. And most importantly, the mental space it occupied is being eroded by the thousand Weapons of Mass Distraction that surround us all. It’s hard to admit, but we all sense it: it is becoming almost physically harder to read books.”

“Q. You have recently been campaigning against the closure of libraries in Brent, most notably Kensal Rise. Local libraries are obviously a vital part of a community – what do you think the impact of these closures will be on local life and aspiring writers who will no longer have the ease of access these places afford them? “A.The question sort of answers itself, doesn’t it? I don’t think I would have passed my exams without my local library. Without the exams I wouldn’t have gone to college. Without college I doubt I would have written. It’s all so obvious. But no-one seems to care. It’s not just libraries – it’s a whole avenue of escape that’s been closed down. I was born in 1975. I was schooled for free, educated for free, when I broke my leg it was fixed for free, when I passed my exams I got to Cambridge for free. With a maintenance grant from Brent council that I did not have to pay back and without which I couldn’t have survived. That is what made my life possible – the availability of services that were free at the point of access. I should think I’ve paid the state back in taxes many times over by now. From the vantage point of 2011, 1945-1975 looks like a golden period in British history. It was a period where you at least had a chance of realizing the opportunities of a meritocracy. That time is over.” Interview with Zadie Smith – Literateur.  

• Libraries and library workers are community glue! – UNISON motion 43 passed at conference.
• Library: A world of possibilities – Voices for the Library.  “Libraries are magical places that inspire kids to read. They are community hubs, information centers, study halls, meeting places, story time theaters, craft centers, and most importantly, gigantic bookshelves! Show me a literate society and I’ll show you public access to libraries. Don’t close the doors to our world’s libraries. Save our libraries and open up a world of possibilities.” Dianne de La Cassas.  
• Libraries: Information and Knowledge Spaces – Huffington Post.  Quite a technical article but with some great pictures of libraries.
• Suffolk be warned – Private Eye, via Alan Gibbons.  Notes Suffolk’s plans to convert to a CIC are similar to that experience in Glasgow where “despite finding £54,000 for a rebranding changing the company’s name to Glasgow Life, by 2010 it was having trouble meeting the bills, resulting in community centres closing down, major cuts to opening hours at libraries, hundreds of staff redundancies and strikes at many of the city’s top tourist attractions.” 

Local News

• Bolton – Submissions on consultation process – Save Bolton Libraries Campaign, via Alan Gibbons. Long letter disputing the library consultation process in Bolton mainly in legal terms. 
• Bradford – Volunteers looking into running service in village – Ilkley Gazette. “Addingham Library, based in an Addingham Parish Council-owned building, could be the first in the Bradford District to be taken over by members of the public.” – Library was to be closed at end of next week.  Stay of execution until mid-July to allow volunteers chance to prepare a takeover. 
• Croydon – Leader defends colleague’s surprise meeting with private firm – This is Croydon.  “Mr Fisher said the council would be talking over the next few weeks to “a whole host of people” who could have the potential to run the library service. He added: “When you start market testing like this you don’t have to be a genius to realise that LSSI are coming to talk to us.”
• Cumbria – Today’s libraries are more than a place to borrow books – Times & Star.  Many reasons listed.”People at West House, a charity which works with people with learning difficulties, are also regular visitors and some find the smaller branches less overwhelming than busy main libraries.
• Joanne Fletcher, of West House, said: “If there weren’t libraries like this it would limit them getting out.” 
• Enfield – Petition opposing library closures handed to council – Enfield Independent.  400-name petition handed in.  Decision to be made on Monday. 
• Gloucestershire – Community services work best at their most local – This is Glos.  Formal business cases submitted for 22 of the 24 libraries”on offer”.
• Lewisham – Future of library services in the big society: notes on Antionio Rizzo’s Speech – via Alan Gibbons. Social Enterprise Company to take over libraries with 25 year lease on condition provide some library services in each building.  “Volunteers are a transient workforce” 
• Oxfordshire – County leader berates Oxfam chief – Oxford Mail.  Cllr Keith Mitchell – “We have no choice other than to cut public spending and, by doing it quickly, we have earned the confidence of those who fund our debt and kept interest rates low and affordable.”.  Comments on website include suggestions he is insane and/or economically illiterate. 
• Wokingham – Bookworms fight to keep libraries public – Get Wokingham.  “there is no requirement outlined in the council’s competitive dialogue process which will require a partner organisation to keep the existing libraries open.”. 
• Wokingham – More petition signatures and signing sessions – Save Our Libraries. “Excellent turnout from the campaign, and from local people, who were keen to sign. Got lots of thumbs ups from people driving by who saw our Save our Libraries signs.”  

The DCMS has announced in the BookSeller that it will never in the case of library closures:

– Explain why it has not acted.
– Rule out action or inaction.
– Give a timescale as to whether it will ever act or not.

In other news, there is a very useful, possibly essential, 31 page report on public library closures produced by the Houses of Parliament and a report called “Libraries in Transition” has come to light, leaning heavily towards moving libraries into trusts or social enterprises.  Lots of reading to do.  Fewer libraries each month in which to do it.

393 libraries (319 buildings and 74 mobiles) currently under threat or closed/left council control since 1/4/11 out of c.4612 in the UK (for the complete list by area see the page “Tally by local authority”). Librarian professional body CILIP forecasts 600 libraries under threat (inc. 20% of English libraries).  The Public Libraries News figure is obtained from counting up all reports about public libraries in the media each day. 

News

Briefing paper on public library closures – Parliament.  Overview of the current and recent situation in libraries over 31 pages.
British Library makes Google deal – BBC.  “Thousands of pages from one of the world’s biggest collections of historic books, pamphlets and periodicals are to be made available on the internet.”
Community Knowledge Hub and Libraries – Information Twist.  A critical examination of the new website and its underlying thinking.
Libraries – Parliament UK.  “This page highlights some of the current parliamentary material available on libraries. This includes select committee reports, briefing papers on current legislation and other subjects produced by the parliamentary research services, and the latest Early Day Motions put down by MPs.”
Libraries in transition: are there creative alternatives? – Social Enterprise London. A pro social enterprise piece suggesting that Trusts are a way out of closing libraries.  Examples include Wigan (6 libraries under threat this year) and Prudhoe Community Trust (website down due to circumstances beyond their control).
Mystery object gifted to National Library of Scotland – LinkedIn.  Gramophone made out of books left outside of its doors, labelled “For @natlibscot- a gift- in support of Libraries, Books, Words, Ideas….. (& against their exit)”.
Sam’s story: Libraries are about people – Voices for the Library.  “Will library volunteers want to invest time and effort in managing complicated IT networks and understanding the needs of their local community? Will a private company want to run a holiday reading scheme and associated events if they don’t generate profit?”
Sheriff Vaizey – Information Twist.  Compares Ed Vaizey’s barnstorming performance in the Wirral campaign with his current inaction.
Stonewall from government on library closures – BookSeller.  DCMS confirms that it will never say why it has not acted and if it will ever act, or not, on any closure. “The spokesperson added no reasons would be made public as to why the government had declined to act in Gloucestershire or in Lewisham, where five libraries closed last month despite meetings held by the DCMS with residents and the council many weeks ago. “The duty on the department is to continually superintend the service so there is no point in which a case is closed and we explain the reason why we have not intervened,” he said.”
What does “professional” mean? CILIP new professional conference 2011 – Undaimonia. “Professionalism is in one’s conduct, is in getting involved with libraries and librarianship, is in how one stands in relation to the rest of the profession, and is in holding to an ethical code. In the words of Batman, “it’s what you do that defines you” rather than what qualifications, experience, or labels you have.”

Changes

Barnet – Friern Barnet library campaign.

Local News

Cumbria – Residents flock to keep library open – North West Evening Mail.   “All residents at the meeting were opposed to the closure of the library and felt there were no alternative venues for the service.”
Ealing – Meeting to decide future of Ealing libraries – Ealing Gazette.  “Councillors could be butting heads next week during a special meeting to discuss the future of four libraries in the borough.” 

“I absolutely agree that we need to preserve our libraries, indeed I have been fighting a campaign in my constituency to stop the closure of three local libraries that are of endless value to the community around them. I am also pleased that the Department for Communities and Local Government is also undertaking work on the ownership and running of community assets in the Localism Bill. Ministers want to give individuals and community organisations a fair chance to take over facilities and assets that are important to them, including their local libraries” (Enfield – Nick De Bois MP, Digital Democracy)

Hammersmith & Fulham – Council accuse Brent of being “lazy” in shutting down libraries – Save Kensal Rise Library.  Refers to full London Evening Standard article.
Merton – Volunteers work with council to keep libraries open – London Borough of Merton. West Barnes Library will be staffed by 40 volunteers on Mondays.
Milton Keynes – Online Questionnaire – About My Area. “Milton Keynes Council is facing a large reduction in funding and the Library Service needs to find ways of changing the way it currently works to meet this reduction.”
Oxfordshire – Volunteers aim to keep library open – Get Reading.  Sonning Common library is likely to stay open with a professional librarian and a “staff” of volunteers
Surrey – Libraries to get next generations service whilst tax payers save money – PRLog.  Wi-fi in all libraries, more self-service.

Sometimes one wonders if other countries are experiencing the same serious issues about (and against) their public libraries as we facing.  Certainly I know that our colleagues in Western Europe look upon what is happening here in shock, wondering how anyone can cut what is so obviously such a cheap common good as the public library service.  Other days, I think that we are truly all in it together, or at least the English-speaking (strange that) nations are.  This is shown today by two reports. One is from New Zealand and is part of a campaign to make free public libraries statutory.  It’s weird to read about the UK being an example of good practice but some of the arguments are very apropos in today’s climate.  The other, possibly at the moment far more relevant report given recent headlines, is from the American Library Association (ALA) on “Keeping Public Libraries Public”.  It is a well-researched, thought-out impassioned paper and one which all advocates, and critics, of public public libraries should read.

393 libraries (319 buildings and 74 mobiles) currently under threat or closed/left council control since 1/4/11 out of c.4612 in the UK (for the complete list by area see the page “Tally by local authority”). Librarian professional body CILIP forecasts 600 libraries under threat (inc. 20% of English libraries).  The Public Libraries News figure is obtained from counting up all reports about public libraries in the media each day.

News

Keep public libraries free – Lianza (New Zealand).  Campaign to keep public libraries free in New Zealand “New Zealand stands out from countries like Australia, the UK and Canada – all of which protect free public libraries via legislation.”
Keeping public libraries public – ALA.  Comprehensive guide to the reasons for keeping public libraries in public hands and the problems with privatisation.  Slight American slant but still highly usable.
Merging library services will save £1m – Guardian.  “Part of our rationalisation is reducing middle and senior managers, which will need to be fair and equitable, but will be a big chunk of initial savings,” he said. “What we envisage later will be looking at more support systems such as IT.” Ruse said the councils will have to move in stages towards full merger. “It’s a radical idea and the three boroughs will have to effectively manage in a very different way.”
Mutual interest: How the public sector can do more with less in the Big Society – Public Sector Executive.  Argues for the Big Society, including the case of Wandsworth’s York Gardens Library.  Article does not mention widespread resistance and criticism of the plans.  

Northamptonshire – Horror as mobile library faces cuts – Lutterworth Mail.  “We’re just horrified at the place it’s stopping. It seems a strange thing to do because where it’s due to stop is a blind corner.”

“The High Court has stopped Gloucestershire County Council’s library cuts in their tracks today. It cannot proceed with closures, and must continue to fund libraries, until the legality of these cuts has been properly decided by the Court.” Phil Shiner, Public Interest Lawyers, High Court issues injunction against closures – FoGL.

“Nothing arouses people’s emotions like libraries because they are a source of enormous knowledge and closing them is a death knell to peoples’ prospects of educating themselves.  “I have known many people whose lives have been completely transformed by libraries. Browsing libraries with their experienced staff is how many people develop their curiosity and imagination.” Brent – Author Deborah Moggach joins campaign to save Brent’s libraries – Save Kensal Rise Library.