Duh
Comment
Another nail in the coffin for the incredible statement made by the Local Government Association (LGA) to MPs that the “closure of a library does not automatically mean a decrease in access to library services“. Recent figures from Brent show a 20% drop in usage, 104,000 fewer visits and 129,449 fewer books issued since it decided, against gigantic massive opposition, to close six (even seven) of its twelve libraries. The LGA made its statement in its submission to the Select Committee Inquiry into Library Closures. Let us hope that the MPs on that committee notice the basic fact that, duh, closing libraries does equal less usage. Withdrawing funds from libraries does mean less visits. Reducing the bookstock does mean less borrowing of books. Refusing to intervene in the library cuts, Ed Vaizey, does mean more libraries will get cut. In fact, of course, it’s not a duh moment. Regardless of how they may come across, Ed is no that much of a (hard of hearing) Homer Simpson. In fact, he and the LGA know perfectly well the truth. They just think that, given the need for massive cuts, public libraries are not important enough to save. It is up to us, who realise that they are, to make sure that they don’t get away with it.
News
- Peru Nobel laureate donates library to hometown – Peter Scott’s Library Blog. “Mario Vargas Llosa will donate more than 30,000 books from his personal library to his hometown of Arequipa, where he was celebrating his 76th birthday.”
Print is not dying – as reported in the Guardian.
Although, to be fair, this film was produced by an
airline magazine company.
Changes
- Leicestershire – Opening hour cuts at Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Broughton Astley, Fleckney, Kibworth and Great Glen. Staffing cuts achieved through natural wastage.
- Shropshire – 2 mobiles taken off road. Moving towards more one-stop shops in branches.
- Thurrock – 6 libraries (Aveley, Corringham, Stanford, Chadwell, Blackshots and East Tilbury) identified as potential asset management sell-offs but council denies that they will be closed so not counted as under threat, yet.
Local News
- Barnet – A tale of two Barnet libraries – Broken Barnet. Saving library reject “after a year of campaigning by highly committed members of a local group, (see above) on various spurious grounds, including the inability to provide any further funding. The reasons given are irrelevant, in fact, because of course the intention has always been to close the library so as to free the building and grounds for sale and development.”. Hampstead Garden, though, in Conservative ward gets “all necessary support until at least 2016, or as long as the volunteer suburbanistas do not get bored with playing librarians”.
- Brent – Number of visits to Brent libraries plummet by thousands – Brent & Kilburn Times. Figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request reveal that in the five months after the libraries closed, there were nearly 104,000 fewer visits compared with the previous year. In the same period, 129,449 fewer books were issued.”. Usage has gone down by 20%.
“These figures are really important because it leads to the question – is Brent Council legally providing a comprehensive and efficient library service?”
- Calderdale – Cuts in library hours go ahead – Brighouse Echo. “Following the results of the Libraries Review 2011 consultation, the savings will be achieved through the reduction of opening hours of 13 libraries, saving £45,000, reorganisation of the mobile library service to focus on people who are unable to travel to a library, and those in residential care, to achieve savings of £105,000.”
- Central Bedfordshire – Library initiative planned for 15 years – Leighton Buzzard Observer. “The challenge for the service is that it needs to deliver more than £550,000 of efficiency savings in running costs by 2014. This will be achieved by investing in technology and reducing back room costs. In the next two years £850,000 of capital investment will support the implementation of self service technology, developing the 24/7 online library, modernising buildings, and piloting library access points in rural communities.”
- Gloucestershire – Seven Gloucestershire libraries expected to lose funding – BBC. “The authority’s new library strategy is suggesting 31 council-run libraries, with seven run by local communities.” … “The council proposes to offer community-run libraries the chance to buy library buildings or take over leases on a peppercorn rent, and an annual grant of £10,000.”
- Community groups offered help in library cuts plan – This is Gloucestershire. “Councillor Mark Hawthorne (Con, Moreland), leader of the council, said: “We are beefing up our offer to the community so we can provide that extra help to those groups who are considering taking on a library, but want the additional help we can offer. During our consultations more than 82 per cent of people said they broadly supported our strategy, so that’s a good basis to take this forward.”
- “More misleading information from county council”: Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries comment on library strategy consultation – FoGL. “There simply is not the support for the proposed cuts that Gloucestershire County claims there to be. The draconian attack on our library service, which costs less than 1.4% of the council’s overall budget, but which gets 3 million visits a year, remains deeply unpopular and disproportionate. There are serious concerns raised in the consultation report that we are waiting for GCC to address.” … “We have passed all of the relevant paperwork on to Public Interest Lawyers who were successful in the judicial review case brought against Gloucestershire County Council.”
- Isle of Man – New chapter for mobile and family libraries? – Isle of Man Today. “Age Concern has confirmed to the Manx Independent that it put forward a proposal to run the mobile library and underwrite it for three years – but that another organisation has come up with a better offer.” … “The mobile library currently has 335 adult members with 244 paying an annual subscription of £15. A total of 91 have free subscriptions and of these 33 use the home library service. There are 114 junior members with 110 paying the child’s £2 subscription and four receiving free use of the library.”
- Isle of Wight – Skeletons have a tendency to rattle – Alan Gibbons. David Pugh, leader of the Isle of Wight and proponent of volunteer-run libraries was reported in the Mirror many years ago in a suspected vote rigging incident.
- Islington – Petition launches to save historic archives as London Metropolitan University says it can no longer maintain Women’s Library and TUC collections – Islington Tribune. “The priceless collections could be broken up and, unless a new sponsor can be found by the end of the year, both libraries will close to the public six days a week. A petition has attracted 2,500 signatures since the threat was revealed last week in the Tribune. Professor June Purvis, Emmeline Pankhurst’s biographer and editor of Women’s History Review, said: “We are all devastated about it and hoping that some university will take in the collections.”
- Leicestershire – New library hours begin – Lutterworth Mail. “The changes will affect libraries in Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Broughton Astley, Fleckney, Kibworth and Great Glen. Leicestershire County Council said that no redundancies across the county have been made as part of the changes.”
- North Somerset – Self-service the way forward for North Somerset libraries – This is Somerset. “Councillor Felicity Baker, North Somerset Council’s executive member with responsibility for libraries, said: “Firstly, we would like to thank everyone who responded to our consultation. We have listened to your comments and where possible have matched proposals more closely to them, especially on the opening hours. We face severe financial pressures but we are still able to maintain, and where possible, invest in library services.”
- Shropshire – Innovation key to survival of libraries – Shropshire Star. “The county’s libraries have escaped swingeing cuts in the latest review of services by Shropshire Council. But Councillor Keith Barrow has warned that if libraries do not move with the times, they may not come through any future cuts to council budgets unscathed.”. 2 mobiles have been stopped.
- Thurrock – Calls to save library from closure – Yellow Advertiser. “Wendy Herd, from Aveley and Uplands, fears for the future of Aveley Library after it was named on a list of properties that could be sold.” … “We’ve four OAP complexes within walking distance of Aveley Library so closing this facility will affect many elderly people particularly those who don’t have a computer at home and use the library to get online. “It would be terrible if the council does decide to close the library.”
- Leader promises libraries will not be sold off – Yellow Advertiser. Council says rival councillor “…is obviously struggling to find a line for the Tory election campaign. He thinks if he says the council is selling off these libraries enough times people will believe him. Let me say now, and hopefully for the final time, this claim is absolutely not true!””
- Warwickshire – Final chapter but Gail had a ball – This is Tamworth. Successful small Dordon library that “bucked the trend” in usage is closed, passing on to volunteers. Librarian looks back at her years there.
“I cannot begin to say how devastated I am that something that held such promise has had to end, but I also know that the community group has worked so hard in trying to keep the library open and so much credit must go to them.”
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about 12 years ago
“These figures are really important because it leads to the question – is Brent Council legally providing a comprehensive and efficient library service?”
The number of visits to Breny libraries plummet by thousands
Discussing the above.
I think authorities can still argue that they can provide a comprehensive library service and the full breadth of our literary heritage. They may try and argue that the 1964 Act does not give a definition of the word ‘efficient’, and so this is anybody’s guess (we have seen this over the past year), however the definition is the sense of the word as used at the time of the formulation of the Act and what MPs voted for at the time, if this were to be successfully challenged then the public might rightly at that point start to question to what extent we have the rule of law in this country (criminologists usually acknowledge that the larger proportion of crime on our streets and in our workplaces goes unreported or unrecorded otherwise, to see this happen at government level though is very much another matter).
If Brent argue that any long term fall in usage is for any reason other than it becoming less efficient for people to access literature via their libraries then from what we have seen previously (these authorities are not properly briefed on the law concerning their libraries) a ‘frivolous’ argument will usually follow.
An authority could argue that it has no obligation to meet any standards as to the level of service provision (either comprehensive or efficient) — I would personally say that a) the standards we enjoy from our library service should over the years as our society progresses do no more than actually get better, and b) the baseline standards were what MPs actually voted for in 1964 – Parliamnet has not as yet been presented with an alternative improving on those standards (or possibly arguing that the Standards are no longer relevant otherwise). Without further ado in this paragraph, that essentially is the crux of the matter. If councils cannot afford to pay for statutory standards they should then simply and they are from what I understand well within their rights simply say so.
My own conclusion is that the DCMS have a remit in law to make stepwise changes to library standards, and the public can quite resonably expect in a fully functioning democracy for these to be both transparent and properly reasoned based on accurate research, but this has quite simply not happened. Instead we are presented by Government with a library service designed so that authorities still have to provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ library service, but the range of literature and how efficient it is to use the library service is now entirely up to the authority – there are no minimum standards they have to meet in any way, shape or form whatsoever. There was a point prior to the 1964 Act (when a library service became mandatory) when every authority, though discretionary, did actually provide a library service, but the quality of which varied greatly throughout the country. We have it appears been returned to this point in time.
about 12 years ago
To add one more paragraph to the above, Ed Vaizey has indicated that an Authority should whatever they do have a strategic plan in place that encompasses libraries – possibly indicating that the vision and role for libraries is to now be defined at a local rather than national level. I would argue that the Government should have then taken this back to Parliament as a major ammendment to an act. It’s certainly a valid approach, however the proof of the pudding is with us already – authorities do not have the planning infrastructure and depth of insight that an act of parliament does, their decisions are alltogether more practical and on the ground, they are not going to have the forsight to shape the society of the future. Local authority strategy for libraries is being determined at a tactical rather than strategic level, and Ed Vaizey has no controls in place to ensure their strategy is the latter (as an act of parliament inherently is).
about 12 years ago
Ed Vaizey:
“When authorities consider reorganising library services it is important that they have assessed the local needs of their communities and have prepared a strategic plan for their library services. Library authorities must provide a service which best meets local needs within available resources.”
Jarvis presses Vaizey on library closures