£1m for Brum and Manc Central Libraries. Others not so lucky
Great to see £1 million being given to libraries by the Wolfson Foundation in order “to show the future shape of public libraries at a time of debate about their future role.”. Clearly, Wolfson, thinks the future lies in mega libraries: half of the money is going to £190m Birmingham Central Library and the other half to the £48m Manchester one. Drops in the ocean for them then but more than five times the cut announced in St Helens that will cut a fifth off their entire opening hours across the borough. This may be bittersweet for campaigners as they often care about the small local branch and not the massive showpiece five miles up the road. Great news, though, for the Government who have advocated philanthropy as a way of making up for public spending cuts.
Unalloyed good news from Portsmouth’s increase of 8% in children’s usage last year appears likely to be at least partially due to the issuing of library cards to all schoolchildren from July last year. Portsmouth is a pilot scheme for the project which many hope will be brought in nationwide.
There’s some irony about the decision in Worcestershire to reduce the Gallery at Kidderminster Library due to the need to cut council costs. It was built less than twenty years ago with a third of a million pounds from Arts Council England. This is the same organisation that has been given £6 million by the Government last year to improve links between Arts and public libraries. Just the sort of thing that the gallery at Kidderminster Library does. Or, rather, did.
Health may be an expanding area for saving libraries. A Sefton doctor has said that closing her local library could cost more than it will save as it may “have a severe impact on physical and psychological wellbeing”.
News
- Author Says UK Libraries Should Close Because He Says So – Library Journal / Annoyed Librarian (USA). “The angry remarks hurt his feelings. It’s almost like he called for the abolition of a beloved public institution used by millions that’s been around for a couple of centuries while making provocative, unsubstantiated claims. Why would people get upset about that?”
- National Year of Reading 2012 – ALIA (Australia). “Although figures were hard to come by, we know anecdotally that some
- public libraries added several thousand new members as a result ofparticipating in this membership drive.”
- Not everyone is on the internet, Iain Duncan Smith – Guardian / Comment is free. “Making the universal credit system online-only will cut off many of those in greatest need, on the wrong side of the digital divide”. Those in most need of benefits are precisely those without the internet. Closing libraries, or insufficently funding in them, is not going to help. 426 comments.
- Public libraries backed with major grants – Wolfson. “The awards will help to provide world class library facilities in the heart of two of the country’s major cities. The funding from a charitable funder also makes a strong statement about the continuing value and importance of public libraries to British society at a time of financial pressure on these services.
“The Wolfson Foundation has a long history of support for libraries and archives as part of a wider programme of support for the arts. During the early 2000s, in a joint programme with Government, over £6 million was invested in IT equipment for public libraries.”
- Public libraries or private bunkers: the next war – Rustbelt Radical (USA). Libraries are a great model and should be extended to things other than books: lawn-mowers for instance.
- Thoughts from a library – Shoo Rayner. “The most important thing about libraries is to be able to come in and not be judged”.
- Three for: Awesome Ideas for Library Displays – Informania. Some wonderful ideas (and some not so wonderful – there’s thousands on here) – for library book displays.
Changes
- Barnet – £250k spent on self-service machines and wifi.
- Manchester – £473k from Wolfson Foundation to support Great Hall Reading Room and the Media Lounge in Central Library.
- Portsmouth – 8% increase in children’s library usage last year.
- St Helens – £145k cut met by reducing opening hours by one-fifth (from 507.5 hours per week to 406).
- Worcestershire – Kidderminster Library Gallery converted into council offices.
Local news
- Barnet – Libraries to receive £250,000 technology update – Barnet and Whetstone Press. For self-service machines and wifi.
- Birmingham – Library of Birmingham gets Wolfson Foundation donation – BBC. £500k donated. “The Wolfson Foundation said awarding the grant was a “strong statement” about the value of public libraries at a time they faced financial pressures.”
- Gloucestershire – Cotswold Lib Dems condemn cost of library challenge – Tewkesbury Admag. £238,317 called “reckless”. “If the job of reviewing the county’s libraries had been done properly from the start and not on the back-of-a-fag-packet then this money could have been better spent on new books for our existing libraries.”
- Halton – Libraries foster love of books in babies and tots – Runcorn and Widnes World. “More than 3,700 tots have received special bundles of books to encourage their parents and carers to read to them. Bookstarts are given to babies in their first year and treasure packs are children aged three to four.”
- Manchester – Charity donates to Central Library revamp – Place North West. “The £473,000 funding from the Wolfson Foundation will be used to improve facilities and support the refurbishment of the Great Hall Reading Room and the Media Lounge.”
- Central library receives £500k funding boost towards renovation – Manchester Evening News. “The cash from the Wolfson Foundation will allow culture bosses to carry out work which had been on their ‘wish list’, but which had not been budgeted for as part of the revamp. Engineers will be able to repair the central counter and its impressive clock in the famous reading room, as well as replace worn desks and chairs. They will also be able to provide new furniture for the media lounge, which will host a number of computer and film facilities.”
- Portsmouth – Library is still going strong after 50 years – News. North End Library celebrates its birthday. 8% increase in loans by children in authority 2012/13 so far.
- Sandwell – Great Barr library reopens – Sandwell Council. “closed for four weeks for new toilets to be fitted”
- Sefton – GP claims closing library would be physical and physchological disaster for Birkdale – Southport Visiter. Doctor says library closures may “have a severe impact on physical and psychological wellbeing”. May cause “social isolation” and knock-on health problems”
“Not only is there a strong link with mental health problems (stress, depression, anxiety) but also with poorer physical health, including falls, decreased physical activity, obesity, poor nutrition, higher intake of alcohol and also with cognitive decline. Dr Markides believes closing Birkdale library could ultimately cost more in subsequent healthcare than the council hope to save.”
- Library reprieve for determined campaigners – Southport Visiter. “The decision to continue exploring the closure of libraries was deferred so the huge response from campaigners could be fully assessed. Placards and banners calling for much-loved libraries to be saved were paraded outside Southport Town Hall before Sefton Council’s cabinet last Thursday morning.”
“After the emotional speeches, leader of the council Peter Dowd said: “It’s no good any of us pretending we don’t have a budget gap of £51m over the next two years and that gap could potentially get bigger over the next two or three years.”
- St Helens – Library hours could be reduced as St Helens faces up to £50m budget cut – St Helens Star. “It is proposing to save £145,000 by reducing their opening hours by a fifth. This would cut the service from 507.5 hours per week to 406.”
- Swindon – Libraries postcode lottery – Library Campaign. Pie chart shows that smaller libraries are disproportionately affected by the proposed cuts.
- Worcestershire – Kemp event signals sad end to top-floor gallery – Kidderminster Shuttle. ““The coffee mornings will continue in June but at a rather inferior replacement gallery on a lower floor and without the grand piano [which is moving to Kidderminster Town Hall] or any music at all.”. ACE had given £326k for the facility in 1996.
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about 11 years ago
“£1m for Brum and Manc Central Libraries. Others not so lucky” A measly million? A drop in the ocean when you think of the almost £1 billion spent on libraries in England alone every year! When you think about this you have to wonder why library usage keeps falling, and before people weigh in and blame the cuts, usage was falling long before the banks fell apart!
There are a few uncomfortable truths about libraries, their actual popularity and their funding, but woe betide anyone who raises these issues! You’re name will be be mud, and a thousand 20-something academic librarians, with nothing to do but live on twitter, will tweet your damnation from here to eternity.
about 11 years ago
Two points.
The first is – it was £1 billion a couple of years ago. It’s considerably less now. The MoD regularly misplaces greater sums and has nothing to show for it. Two-fifths of the population use libraries at any given time and, if you remember that different people use them at different times in their lives, the real figure is far greater. Take into account inflation as well and there’s been at a far greater cut in funding over the last couple of years than decline in use. You are right, of course, that adult book usage of libraries has been falling. Online and children’s usage tells a different story though. I see the decline in adult usage as a challenge to reverse and – also – a nation’s (and the profession’s) shame rather than something to accept and to make worse. I realise that this is not popular thinking amongst those who think we should cut until there is nothing else to cut and that spending money to help others is simply slowing down the race to the bottom that seems so fashionable these days. I hope that the current prevailing ideology that sees giving a chance to others as wasteful may change one day. In the meantime, I am keen to report on its effects.
The £1 million was from a private source, not from tax payers and the description was intended to draw to attention the fact that money is being spent on big centrepiece libraries rather than the local branch libraries that are actually the ones under threat.
about 11 years ago
Agree with everything Ian said, would like to mention the fact that I’m one of the moaners on twitter but I’m not a librarian I’m a library user. The service has been getting cut before the banks fell apart, you look at the CIPFA data and the number of staff has been declining for years. The sad thing is the people in charge are simpletons who don’t read anything more than the summary briefing note or “the line” given to them by spin doctors, are born into privilege and have everything handed to them so they are unable to recognise the transformative effect access to libraries and reading can have. The politicians bang on constantly about aspiration, they don’t know the meaning of the word. While there has been a slight decline in usage in the past few years, this is to be expected but there are still more people using libraries than go to football matches and library usage from children is actually on the increase. Politicans though have to make cuts, I don’t dispute that, rather than make the back office more efficient, in most counties they are protecting this back office bloat and cutting the low paid library managers and assistants. They could easily setup half a dozen regional library management hubs which all the local councils could draw on. It would save millions and millions and some of this could be invested into the front line to make libraries even better. It would help make sure we don’t get left behind by the developing countries who unlike us are opening libraries, not closing them. Sadly none of this will happen, the upper tiers of the library management are looking out for themselves, the politicians are ignorant and useless and we are going to be stuck with a stagnant economy for decades because children are not going to have access to books that expand their understanding of the world, give them things to aspire to and teach them literacy.