Archive for April, 2013
This Card Makes You Smart
Apr 8th
Today we see some pretty good news for libraries, all in all, including refurbishments and a new library building. There’s darker news, if one looks for it (especially if one worries about the increasing use of volunteers) but let’s stay positive today. I especially love the slogans used in Edmonton Library (Canada) such as “This Card Makes You Smart”. Loans increased by 13% due to the publicity that is sometimes so sorely lacking in the UK. For what is happening over here, a new archive of resources has gone public, with the UK Web Archive listing 41 sites so far and on the lookout for more.
Wales shows the way: £1.5m in library grants massively more than English equivalent
Apr 4th
Editorial
The Welsh Government has once again highlighted its difference to England with an impressive list of investments in public libraries. It has announced funding of over £1.5m for libraries. This is a quarter of the amount Arts Council England has to play with for a population of less than one-seventeenth. Furthermore, it appears to be for a year, as opposed to the two years of the ACE funding, meaning an investment nearly nine times more substantial per capita than that of England. Wales has long since held on to public library standards, meaning that its councils are taken to task if they cut libraries, unlike across the border. All is not well in the principality as campaigners in Newport will attest but this announcement will emphasise the importance of different approaches. Wales is taking a hands-on role, with supervision and substantial investment. England, under the decidely non-interventionist Ed Vaizey, is far more laissez-faire. It would be a rare library supporter who would say that the larger nation comes out better in such a comparison.
Libraries cannot be around long enough, and they do not belong to any one person
Apr 2nd
There’s a very interesting article in the Guardian looking at how different non-profits and social enterprises are faring in taking over public libraries and a, frankly, beautifully powerful piece on the value of libraries from an eighteen year old in Nottingham. Meanwhile, in Lancashire, the underperforming computers in the libraries there show the need for more investment if the Digital By Default government agenda stands any chance of being fair.
“Have all other less harmful possibilities been explored?”
Apr 1st
Editorial
The quote above is from a letter protesting about a library closure in my home town of Newport in South Wales. It sums up to me what is happening in threatened libraries for the last few years, in that there are a whole pile of possibilities to look at before closing a building. One of these options, of course – running it with volunteers – is at once the most controversial and the most common. Others include less books, less staff, less opening hours, less everything in fact, except charges and self-service machines. Another is co-location with others services. Another is passing the running of libraries to another organisation such as a Trust or (whisper it quietly) a private company. I must make a flowchart some day …
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