Wandsworth and Croydon confirm tendering out of libraries
430 libraries (345 buildings and 85 mobiles) currently under threat or closed/left council control since 1/4/11 out of c.4612 in the UK, complete list below. 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
- Future of Libraries – Telegraph. Article looks especially at national libraries and other special libraries that have unique content, seeking to put such resources online, often at a charge.
- Love Your Libraries – UNISON (Facebook). New Facebook page to publicise what the main trade union for public library workers is doing for libraries and to link up with local campaigners.
- Public Libraries: Closures – House of Lords (Hansard). Baroness Rawlings agrees libraries are important. Suggestions for keeping libraries open include volunteers and using Church buildings (“We have in Hereford diocese an excellent example, of a library in a church tower. A lift, loos and other facilities are provided”). “Big Society” seen as very important role for libraries and a very important role to keep same libraries open.
- Rethinking libraries? 3rd Axiell Symposium 2011 – Axiell. “The Axiell Symposium is a two-day international conference…We are all familiar with improvements in efficiency and savings. Reorganisation is also a well-known term that has characterised our libraries for the past decade. But what is the next step?”
- Social networking and British libraries – Wikipedia. Survey of use of social networking websites by libraries, including by campaigners.
- What will Amazon’s “Netflix for Books” do for libraries? – Publishers Weekly (USA). “Libraries have shared much of publishing’s uncertainty as physical books continue their slide.” …”In addition to embracing digital books, libraries are trying everything under the sun in order to save themselves.” … “But can local branches, many already running dry, survive if Amazon gives Prime, which is becoming more and more of a deal at $79 as it decorates its price tag with feature after feature, and its users the capability to access any book a library could provide, without having to leave one’s home?”. Will the word library in 2021 bring up an “image of a person, never leaving his or her house, pressing a series of buttons on a high-res Amazon tablet screen to check out a lent book, scanning the lines using the device’s backlight instead of the low ceiling lights of a library?”
- Amazon “to launch book rental service” – Telegraph.
- Amazon in talks to launch digital books library – RTT News. “Amazon.com was among the group that blocked Google, Inc’s attempt to digitize millions of books and publications to make it available online.”
- Libraries in threat of becoming extinct – My Bank Tracker. “One thing that they still have on their side: physical books. Although the amount of individuals who choose to read books via digital methods is ever-increasing, there is still a large percentage of the population that is steadfast on reading from actual books.”
- Now Amazon wants to rekindle our love of libraries with e-store that allows you to borrow books – Mail. “Customers would pay an annual fee to Amazon – the maker of the popular Kindle e-reader – to access the virtual library, though an exact cost has not been decided.”
“To lose bookstores hurts. But the idea of the library itself being supplanted by e-commerce is downright dystopian. Blockbuster was just a video store, Tower Records just a music store. But a public library is something ineffable and sacrosanct, a cornerstone of democracy. Libraries were the first pillars of the DIY movement, long before the age of Make and Etsy–they offered a do-it-yourself education, free of charge. No one is actually accusing Amazon of killing the library, the way Netflix pretty much killed Blockbuster. But as the e-book revolution continues to erode the physicality of books, we should ensure that it doesn’t erode, too, the physical milieus books traditionally lived in, and the crucial and uplifting services those spaces provided–lending, outreach, and the occasional talk by the likes of Amitav Ghosh, all free of charge.” Will Amazon’s “Digital Library” kill the physical one? Let’s hope not – Technology Review.
- Self-service libraries can leave you long overdue – Telegraph. New self-service machines in Gravesend cause queues and confusion, including giving back more in change than was paid in to pay a charge. “In all, returning those books and paying the fine took 10 minutes. When I was a boy, in the days of cardboard library tickets, the same transaction would have involved the following steps: 1. Enter library. 2. Hand books and coins to human librarian. 3. Exit library.”
Changes
- City of London – Camomile Street Library closed – to be replaced by new library in White Kennet Street late Summer 2012. Mobile library replaces branch in meantime.
- Croydon – Privatising/outsourcing service with initial tendering in collaboration with Wandsworth, although winning tender may not be the same for both councils. Interested parties (Sep 2011) are (a) Civica (b) LSSI (c) JLIS (John Laing) (d) GLL (e) Vision Redbridge (f) Essex County Council (g) Merton Council (h) Bexley and Bromley Council Consortium (i) Croydon Libraries Strategic Management Team (j) Wandsworth “in-house”.
- Wandsworth – Confirmation that library service will invite outsourcing tenders in collaboration with Croydon. Interested parties (Sep 2011) are (a) Civica (b) LSSI (c) JLIS (John Laing) (d) GLL (e) Vision Redbridge (f) Essex County Council (g) Merton Council (h) Bexley and Bromley Council Consortium (i) Croydon Libraries Strategic Management Team (j) Wandsworth “in-house”. Privatising/outsourcing service with initial tendering in collaboration with Croydon, although winning tender may not be the same for both councils.
Local News
““I can’t believe how incredibly short-sighted this is, especially when now, more than ever before, it is imperative that we encourage creativity in as many ways as we possibly can, especially for children and young people.” Bolton – Funny man Dave [Spikey] backs the “save libraries” campaign – Bolton News. “Spikey, who now lives in Chorley, spent his formative years devouring books in libraries in Heaton and Halliwell. Now, as both libraries face the axe, the funnyman is calling on Bolton Council to have a rethink and has branded the proposals “short-sighted”.”
- Bracknell Forest – Actor Miriam Margoyles launches audiobook service – Get Bracknell. “The service allows library members to download their favourite audiobook for free, straight to their MP3 players or PCs.”
- City of London – We’re on the road – City of London Council. “Camomile Street Library will be replaced in late summer 2012 by a brand new library and community centre in White Kennet Street. Plans for a temporary mobile library service to be provided at the following sites…”
- Croydon – Croydon and Wandsworth considering new way of managing libraries – Wandsworth Guardian. “Croydon Council is looking to work in partnership with Wandsworth Council to carry out a tendering process to find an external organisation to run libraries in both boroughs. At the end of the process, each borough would be able to individually decide who they would award the contract to.”
- Review and procurement of library services – Croydon Council. Similar document to that from Wandsworth below, including equalities impact assessment.
- Hampshire – Council confirms children’s library fines – Get Hampshire. “There are currently over 33,000 children’s books, which are long overdue, sitting in people’s homes, this is a huge loss for the county’s library service as well as other borrowers.”
- Kent – Why won’t Kent release library meeting minutes? – Voices for the Library. Council had originally planned to close many libraries but backed down due to public opposition. The precise details of the plan, though, has never been made public, with the Council refusing a freedom of information request on the basis that it would prejudice current plans, much to the bemusement of campaigners.
- Suffolk – Library users “dismayed” by latest plans – Suffolk Free Press. “Under plans being considered by Suffolk County Council, mobile library visits will be reduced from fortnightly to monthly, while stops in towns or villages that already have a library will be axed.”
- Wandsworth – Report by the Director of Leisure and Amenity Services on the competitive tendering of Library and Heritage Services – Recommended to allow outsourcing of Wandsworth public libraries in competition with an “in-house” Trust proposal. Those registering interest are (a) Civica (b) LSSI (c) JLIS (d) GLL (e) Vision Redbridge (f) Essex County Council (g) Merton Council (h) Bexley and Bromley Council Consortium (i) Croydon Libraries Strategic Management Team (j) Wandsworth “in-house”. Outsourcing would take place some point after return of tenders in July 2012.
“The information obtained from the market sounding exercise has provided a very clear indication that a competitive ‘market’ exists for the provision of library services in both Wandsworth and Croydon. It is therefore recommended that the Council market tests the management of its library and heritage service and that, subject to approval by this Council and Croydon Council, library services for both Councils are procured jointly.”
- Wandsworth – see also Croydon, above.
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