Anything goes?
“It is a matter for each local authority to configure their library services to fulfil the statutory duty placed on them under the 1964 Act—namely to provide a “comprehensive and efficient” public library service for their local library users. There is no absolute or single standard. Local authorities must assess local need and arrange their services to meet that need in light of available resource. It is for elected council members and local officials, in consultation with their communities, to make any necessary decisions about how money is being spent, to fulfil all their legal duties and having regard to all their community needs. A community supported [meaning “volunteer-run” – Editor] library can be used in addition to the public library service or, in a measured way, as part of it but only in appropriate circumstances and after careful analysis.” Ed Vaizey, Written Answers, Hansard
The Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) – another body that has been notable in its absence over the last year – has announced a National Digital Promise. It seems to include a multitude of things that every library service should be doing anyway. The list is below, with my thoughts, as should be fairly obvious, in italics:
- A promise to work towards a webpage “portal” for available online resources a national catalogue of library stock. This is just a promise, but should be relatively easy to set up, though, given willing by all parties.
- Free online access in every library for a minimum period. This is a reassuring move, as authorities would doubtless be looking at this possibility. Some no doubt are already charging. There is a slight worry that there is no definition of a “minimum period”. Half an hour would be the absolute minimum: one hour would be preferable as this is the minimum useful time for writing CVs/jobhunting etc.
- “Clear and accessible online information about library services”. Does some council somewhere not have a webpage like this?
- Staff trained to help users access digital information. They should all be trained anyway and it is embarrassing that it seems by this that many are not. There is no mention, incidentally, that these staff should be paid.
- Access to online public resources that don’t turn off in the evenings or weekends. Does anyone’s online resources actually turn off for the evenings now? Where?
- Libraries to be able to use emails for answering enquiries. Hmm, the SCL is promising libraries will enter the white heat of technology c.1998.
- Ability for customers to join online. Great idea which all libraries should already be doing.
- A single standard of library user authentication, which will be adopted nationally to allow collaborative access to digital resources. No idea how this will happen. Each library authority currently registers people in a different way, with different identification requirements using different computer systems. Presumably, this could mean having another national library user ID in addition to one’s own library card, using a simple online form?
- Attend the Lobby for Libraries event on 2.30pm 13th March at Central Hall, Westminster, London. #librarieslobby hashtag. Beforehand there will be a rally from 12 – 2pm at Central Methodist Hall featuring keynote speakers, films and entertainment. There will also be a ‘pop up’ library on display to demonstrate the range of services offered in a modern library.
- Book the singer of the “We Need Libraries” song to promote the cause at a place near you.
- National Libraries Day, 4th February 2012 – Organise an event or publicise an existing one on the excellent NLD website.
- Help fund the Surrey legal challenge.
News
- Digital standards agreed for public libraries – Guardian. “The heads of more than 4,000 public libraries across the UK have agreed to national digital standards, which include providing free internet access in every library, and the ability to join a library and renew and reserve items online.”. See comment above.
- Libraries go online 24/7 under digital promise – Public Service. “Libraries have helped more than a million people go online for the first time over the past year. The Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) said libraries offered many people their only point of access to the web. And it argued that libraries helping people to get online also helped them gain access to local council services, many of which are becoming digital. SCL president Nicky Parker said: “With this digital promise we hope to expand and improve the standard of online resources in libraries both now and for the future.”
- End the stigma of adult illiteracy says top author – London Evening Standard. “Backing the Evening Standard’s literacy campaign, [Mark]Haddon said poverty and library closures are also to blame for preventing people from reading. Haddon, whose book shows the world from the perspective of a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome, said: “The illiteracy rate in prisons is a sign of the damage that’s done to people if they don’t have basic literacy. “You are shut out from the rest of society and it’s something seen as shameful. People are embarrassed.”.
- Library lesson – Yorkshire Post. “Yet the Education Secretary would be advised to consider the merits of Rotherham’s Imagination Library that was being championed in the House of Commons last night by John Healey MP. It has achieved outstanding results since it launch four years ago when every child in the borough aged under five started to receive a free book once a month to, hopefully, inspire a love of reading, and help youngsters improve their literacy, before they start primary school. It has also been effective in sparking the interest of parents.”
- Wikipedia is closed for business tomorrow, but your local library isn’t – Diary of a contrarian librarian. Most library authorities provide great online resources such as Britannica for free and also – shock – even have buildings with printed sources of information in them.
Changes
- Bexley – A new expanded Crayford Library to be built due to housing development.
- Lambeth – West Norwood Library still closed due to roof being stripped and asbestos, fears of closure.
- Lincolnshire – £2m cut (from £6.2m now to £4.1m in 2016: not linked to inflation): school library service stopped, mobile stops cut. Changes (but not cut) to hours at Cherry Willingham Library. More volunteers required.
Local News
- Bexley – Library to bring in membership fees – BookSeller. “The library will continue to keep free membership but users will also be able to pay for extra benefits through memberships of £24 or £75 a year.”. Comments are interesting – if one pays then one can keep books for as long as one likes which means interlending is difficult/impossible. Also, it restricts books for other borrowers.
- Crayford to get brand new library as part of a development scheme in the town – News Shopper. “The new building will be larger than the existing library and will be built behind Crayford Town Hall.”.
- Bolton – Quiet first day at new library collection point – Bolton News. One tenth of the stock of the old library has been moved into a children’s centre, with a self-service terminal.
- What consitutes a comprehensive and efficient library service – one of the most impressive submissons I have seen, based firmly on geographic location.
- Brent – Library campaigners still awaiting appeal news – Harrow Observer. Still not clear if an appeal can be made to the Supreme Court. Barham Library campaigners setting up an expanded “pop-up” library including CDs/DVDs. Also hoping Government will intervene.
- Croydon/Lambeth – Rouse tells Lambeth to plan closure of library in secret – Inside Croydon. “In his letter, Rouse is at pains to ask for “discretion” – some might characterise that as meaning “secrecy” – over the valuation of the site, the library’s fixtures and fittings, and books, “so as not to undermine the ongoing work of staff at the Library, and it would be appreciated if Lambeth would carry out its initial planning work with similar discretion”.”. Article says that Croydon has valued Upper Norwood Library in preparation for closure, with letter from Croydon leader to Lambeth leader on the issue reproduced in full.
- Durham – Charity plans for council’s assets – Darlington and Stockton Times. Libraries/museums/theatres etc may be put under a charitable trust inc. 39 libraries. Could be a “Non Profit Distributing Organisation” [NPDO – yes, this is a new one on me too. Ed.]. Would save £1m by avoiding rates and VAT.
“However, questions still remain. Who will run this new trust? How accountable will it be to voters? How much freedom will it have from County Hall? Who will set its budget and spending priorities? What happens when spending cuts bite? Before final decisions are taken, taxpayers will want reassurances their museums and libraries are not being privatised by stealth.”
- Council could hand Durham leisure venues to new trust – Sunderland Echo. “Durham County Council’s cabinet member for leisure, libraries and lifelong learning, said: “In these difficult times, the status quo is almost certainly unsustainable.”
- Gloucestershire – County Council reveals new library plan – BBC. Council leader says “We’ve got some really tough decisions to make in our overall budget and libraries can’t be excluded from that and I don’t think it will be realistic for anyone to expect that libraries shouldn’t be delivering a saving,” he said. “It’s up to Friends of Gloucestershire library to decide what they want to do next but I would encourage them to actually engage in this consultation process.”.
- GCC announces new library plan: cuts in Stroud district unchanged – Stroud News & Journal. “The fresh strategy will see no changes to libraries in the Stroud district from the previous proposal, with libraries hours in Nailsworth and Stonehouse reduced to 12 hours and the service in Minchinhampton handed to the community. Stroud Library will keep its full hours.”
- Gloucestershire Counct Council in libraries u-turn – This is Gloucestershire.
- Thinking it through for Matson – Friends of Matson Library. “Now we are being guaranteed 21 hours (currently we have 23) of open library as a minimum. We were united in being pleased that the library service is being kept but there was a good deal of discussion on the pros and cons of keeping the library where it is or moving it to another site.”
- Lambeth – Fears West Norwood Library will be permanently closed – Guardian series. “The library, along with the adjoining Nettlefold Hall, was closed in June last year after callous vandals stole copper wiring from the roofs, causing substantial rain damage. Repairs were delayed after asbestos was exposed and Lambeth Council has stated that until a condition survey is completed it is impossible to estimate an opening date.”
“Our beloved library was not just about books. There really is no substitute.”Concerned long-term resident, Lillian Bedford, said: “I can’t get about very well and I’ve had to go to charity shops to get my books. The library is a vital service for elderly people – if it didn’t reopen I wouldn’t know what to do.”
- Lincolnshire – £2m to be slashed from library services budget in Lincolnshire – This is Lincolnshire. “Book loans to schools will be abolished from April and a number of the county’s mobile library stops are under threat.” … “Outlining his plans at a communities scrutiny committee meeting at Lincolnshire County Council, Mr Platt revealed more volunteers were needed in libraries. He insisted there were no plans to close static libraries but that opening hours were going to be reviewed in order to maximise usage.”
- Surrey – Library campaigners continue legal action against council – Guardian series. “SLAM said the council has claimed the group’s protests and letters of objection served as an ‘alternative mechanism’ to a public consultation releasing them from any legal obligation to consult before a decision had been made.Mr Godfrey added: “We expected them to defend their position. But we are slightly disappointed with the quality of their defence.””
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about 12 years ago
The question to Ed Vaizey was:
“Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport what steps he plans to take to ensure that the provisions of the Public Libraries and Museum Act 1964 are applied consistently nationwide; and what steps he plans to take to ensure proposed new community managed libraries remain part of the statutory service. [89530]”
To put this into context and the reason for the question no doubt, prior to the 1964 Act local authority library provision was optional and as a consequence library provision varied greatly in quality across the country, the Act made it mandatory, furthermore following a process that involved several committee reports and over more than 5 years, a minimum standard was set for the provision of that library service ensuring that the public could expect a minimum quality of service from their council (after all if libraries were to be made mandatory, if local authorities did dot have to provide a minimum standard of service they could at least in theory have continued to provide a very low quality service, rendering the Act little more than flotsam). The aim of the Act was very much to provide a minimum quality of library service across the country, as can be quite clearly seen in the second reading of the Act.
Ed Vaizey has probably been advised and this advice cascaded down to the chairs of local authority cabinets responsible for libraries that the Standards were “dropped” by the previous Government.
While it appears this did happen in 2007 (even though we seem to have no more than a tweet as the last and sole remaining artefact from this episode in the history of libraries):
i) it would manifestly (IMHO at least, I have not been able to read as comprehensively as I would like on the subject) have been an abuse of power, the DCMS had a remit to evolve library policy (one of the three parts to the Act), but not to drop the Standards, this could only have been done as part of an amendment to the Act, and
ii) even if the DCMS did find a legal loophole to climb through in order to do this, it surely can be classed as an abuse of democracy, and the loophole duly closed.
To say there are now no definition of comprehensive and efficient (a Judge has I believed ruled that it is for the DCMS to define these terms) to me seems to be saying that some of the wording of an act of Parliament is no more than flotsam, there for historical reasons – is this not bringing Parliament and our legal system into disrepute?
EV’s reference to assessment of needs I think is drawn from the Wirral inquiry, but all this is is a reference to process (the question is ‘needs’ to do what? Towards what objective is the assessment of needs inorder to meet that end being the salient question; the objective of the 1964 Act was an efficient library service, this can be quite easily demonstrated, and it was the standards attached to the Act that defined the starting point for what was considered an efficient service, the DCMS had a remit that recognised these would evolve, but the Standards as a component of the Act could never be removed – not until the day that the library service was perhaps judged not needed).
EV is I think basically shirking saying that he has reasoned that local authorities simply no longer have to provide a minimum quality library service (hence the wording of Annette Brooke’s question), this being through essentially the ‘slight of hand’ of the removal of the Standards, and that he has no intention of discussing the validity of their removal – it suits his ends now, and the Parliamentary Ombudsman has not as yet approached him regarding the matter (the subject btw is Constitutional & Administrative Legislation, DDC 342.06).
about 12 years ago
The public should be warned in future that they may or may not have a local community library (in Liverpool they are in fact closing in areas where economic activity has fallen in past years and so needs bringing back up – surely an argument for keeping the libraries open and further hiring the most highly experienced qualified and knowledgeable librarian library manager as possible with a proven track record of creativity and in raising a community culturally and towards economic ends; instead policy seems to be going in the opposite direction).
I’m not sure of how much our public libraries currently cost the tax payer (considerably less after the cuts, approx. £20 a year I would guess), but they are very good value for money, raising the culture (“ideas and activities”) of communities, adding value to housing, etc.
about 12 years ago
“A community supported [meaning “volunteer-run” – Editor] library can be used in addition to the public library service or, in a measured way, as part of it but only in appropriate circumstances and after careful analysis.”
What are appropriate circumstances and what counts as careful analysis? This leaves the door wide open to interpretation and challenge, taking us no further forward. Legal challenges may be encouraged by this statement.
Lee Godfrey
Surrey Libraries Action Movement (SLAM)
about 12 years ago
Personal argument as to why the library Standards could only properly be removed from the 1964 Act with an amendment: The 1964 Public Library Standards in 2012.
Is the community supported clause essentially saying that Ed Vaizey does not mind if volunteers carry out statutory (or whatever the libraries are nowadays) local authority work?