Pay increases for some

428 libraries (339 buildings and 89 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.

• Pressure your local MP to write to John Whittingdale, the Chairman of the Culture Media and Sport Committee, to ensure that the issue of DCMS intervention is brought up at the Autumn evidence session.  Someone in Parliament needs to start advocating on libraries behalf and your letter or email could be the spur that gets them to act.
• Please sign the national petition in support of public libraries.
• Email Justin Tomlinson MP for Swindon about your concerns.  He is the chair of the new All-Party Parliamentary Group for libraries to be launched in December.
  

News

• Key Blairite John McTernan has tried to justify Osborne’s cuts to shut our libraries.  Here’s why he is wrong – Green Benches.  Excellent riposte to infamous Telegraph article using evidence not previously seen.  There are some great graphs in this post, including:

• The % of adults who have volunteered at local libraries has grown 60% in 3 years. This is evidence that, for the 392,000 who volunteered in the last year at least, Libraries are still very much a crucial part of society.
• Library usage among the best well off in society is in sharp decline. There are plenty of technological reasons for this not least the arriving of the electronic tablets and the great strides in digital archiving. However, these technological benefits have not reached the poor in the same way. Also, of course, people avail of a library for lots of societal reasons (poetry reading, book fairs, debates etc.). And so for both of those reasons, library usage among the worse off in society has held quite steady in recent years and actually marginally increased.
• Library Usage has been declining in the south of England. This may well be linked to higher economic status or equally the cost of petrol commuting in less urbanised parts of the South East for example. But this has not been the case in the North East. Library usage in the North East of England has held fairly steady in recent years and indeed marginally increased. More than 40% of the North East/West of England still use their library services. In fact, more than 100 million books were borrowed last year. In this parliament alone half a billion books are set to be borrowed. Evidence suggest that the poorer areas of England still benefit enormously from their Library services. Evidence also suggests that people are still willing to give their time free of charge to maintain the library network.

• New doomed and the dirty past – Bibliothekpolizei (USA).  “When I started to work in a public library, I started to meet the people who did not have a computer at home. I met the people who really need the library. I didn’t hang with these “low income” people http://www.gatesfoundation.org/learning/Documents/LowIncome0209.pdf until I worked at a public library.” .. Library worker explains how important libraries are for low income people, from someone who knows.
• Philip Pullman Speech from Library Campaign Conference  – Bambuser #savelibraries.  Video from the conference of 22nd October.  Taken with a mobile phone so quality is variable.

Changes

Warwickshire – Harbury and Kineton libraries will not be council-run from March 2012.  Harbury volunteers will receive £8k grant in order to seed library/cafe.  Kineton will be taken over by parish council for 8 hours per week.

Local News

• Angus – Library laughter and smiles – Forfar Dispatch.  “Where’s Wally Day” attracts 60 children.
• Cambridgeshire – Petition: Stopping the 25% rise in councillor’s allowances – Cambridgeshire County Council.  Council wants at least £2m cut in libraries budget.  …. massive increases in councillor pay ((e.g. from £22k to £28k basic for council Leader) “in the current context of pay freezes, redundancies and cuts to frontline services including those affecting the least well off and most vulnerable, this is not appropriate”.  Councillor remuneration is now nearly £1m per year.
• Croydon / Lambeth – Re-run AGM farce as Croydon refuses to honour joint agreement –  Upper Norwood Library Campaign.  “The current administration in Croydon have a history of misrepresenting the Joint Library’s value for money, as a means of justifying low levels of funding and the scrapping of the library’s popular independent status. Independent studies have shown that the Joint Library service is proportionately around 50% cheaper than the Croydon library service.” … “Croydon Council leader, Cllr Mike Fisher, knows that by meeting the terms of the Joint Library agreement he would be obliged to nominate two opposition members to the Committee. This would remove his ability to force through the sort of damaging measures that are being inflicted on Croydon’s own libraries, such as significant staff redundancies, reduced opening, privatisation or closure.”
• Croydon Council terminates Upper Norwood Library agreement – Crystal Palace Magazine.   No prior warning to staff.  “Croydon’s move is bound to cause absolute uproar in  the area.”.  Described as a “coup”. 
• Mock the Week have covered Upper Norwood in July 2010. See also Casualties of Croydon Cuts – Inside Croydon (15/7/2010).

• Gloucestershire – “Should the mobile library be cut, it will be the end of a lifetime’s education” – FoGL.  Letter from mobile library user brings home the impact of its possible loss. “The library van is a vital link with the wider world. Cutting that link to save a few pounds will only increase social isolation and rural intellectual poverty.”
• Northamptonshire – Library launches new service to help people through tough times – Northampton Chronicle.   “…an official launch event at the Central Library in Abington Street, Northampton, on Friday for the new library Change! zones, which bring together a collection of titles covering topics such as job seeking, skills improvement, volunteering, financial advice and confidence building.”.  This may need to include former library staff as council is going forward with major cuts – £300k cut in staffing costs, with this being made up by including increasing number of volunteers from 400 to 1600.
• Warwickshire – Hope for some in fight to keep Warwickshire libraries open – Weekly News.  “Officials reported “disappointing” numbers of volunteers, with numbers varying between areas. Whitnash had only six potential volunteers compared with 17 in both Leamington and Warwick, nine in Lillington and ten in Kenilworth.”
• Closer to the reality of Bulkington Community Library – Jonnieb’s blog.  Volunteer-run library (supported with money and free building by council) preparations continuing.