A Labour library mess-up and the police in libraries
Editorial
You know where the parliamentary Labour Party has been when it comes to standing up for public libraries over the last year or so? Absolutely nowhere. And now we know why: the minister for libraries, Chi Onwurah, wanted to do something about it – indeed, did do a fair bit of research on it – but confusion as to who was doing what messed up the whole deal. I’ve emailed and tweeted Chi asking for the release of what research she has done as it would be such a shame to see such work going to waste.
Moving police, and traditional police jobs like lost-and-found forms, into libraries has also made the news. Councils, and police forces, see the co-operation as sensible one to deliver services at reduced costs. Meanwhile, others worry that a police presence in libraries spoils their neutrality and would deter some (no, not criminals, although presumably they won’t be impressed either, I mean some ethnic and religious groups) from using them. In practice, we’re all seeing such co-locations more and more often as cold financial reality makes bedfellows of more and more services that would once have been separate. There’s also advantages to a library for having, say, PCSO surgeries in the buildings. What’s needed, is a proper consideration of the impact before decisions are made.
Changes
- Angus – Police access offices integrating into libraries.
- Cornwall – Upton Cross Library to close.
- Isle of Wight – Mobile library stops reduced, £23,500 reduction.
- Norfolk – Libraries to assist with self-reporting forms for police e.g. lost and found items.
Ideas
- Storytellers without borders – collaboration with journalists and students.
- Summer reading challenge for adults
- Twitter emojis to publicise images
National news
- Announcement: free access to Oxford Bibliographies – Oxford University Press. “We are pleased to announce that two content modules from Oxford Bibliographies Online are now available free of charge to all public library authorities across the UK and Ireland. Your library members will be able to access the Victorian Literature and British and Irish Literature modules both within the library and remotely via library card access.”
- Corbyn’s ‘ineffectiveness’ meant Labour library campaign was ‘wasted’ – BookSeller. “When Thangam Debbonaire was appointed as a dedicated shadow minister for the arts in January, there was a negotiation about the division of responsibilities with Chi and Thangam, but at no point was anyone sacked. We regret that Chi feels she was singled out, but this was clearly not the case.” Corbyn has backed a national libraries demonstration which is due to take place on the 5th November. He pledged that a Labour government would ‘in-source’ public and local council services and increase access to leisure, arts and sports across the country. “
- Digital Champions sharing skills in libraries around the country – Lloyds Banking Group. “Earlier this year, research from our Group identified more than 11.1m individuals across the UK lack basic digital skills. One of the ways the Group is helping to address this is through a first of its kind partnership between Halifax and the Society of Chief Librarians. Launched with the help of the Minister of Culture and the Digital Economy at the beginning of the year, the partnership aims to boost levels of digital skills around the country, and help the almost six million adults in the UK who have never used the internet, to get online.” … “So far, the scheme has worked in partnership with more than 80 libraries and provided upwards of 200 hours of colleagues’ volunteering time and continues to add more libraries to the roster every month.”
- Future Libraries Hackathon – Carnegie UK. “The library service is re-imagining its role and functions: working in different ways in order to be sustainable and relevant. The Future Libraries Hackathon will bring together multi-disciplinary teams of students, graduates and entrepreneurs to work together over 4-days in Edinburgh (13-16 October ’16) to create working technical prototypes of new products or services. Participants will investigate how libraries can reinvent themselves as digital spaces – with a focus on user experience, maker spaces and digital inclusion. The Future Libraries Mini-Forge, held on 21st June 2016, was an invite only 1-day event for the SLIC Digital Champions, to demonstrate the potential of the main event format. We worked with library data from a library management system and generated ideas for challenges. Read our Storify for more. At the main Hack in October, participants will be charged with creating a new product or service over four days. They’ll seek out a business opportunity and conduct user research, hand in hand with the development of a working technical prototype. The event ends with a demo evening where the teams deliver a 10 minute presentation to a panel of experts.”
- Improve stock selection using Nielsen LibScan & BookScan for Libraries – Wednesday 28 September 2016, 11am. Gain a better understanding of how to use Nielsen LibScan and BookScan for Libraries more effectively. This freewebinar will demonstrate how to use library lending data and Nielsen BookScan sales data to inform buying decisions, event planning and stock assessments. The webinar will be hosted by Sara Mulryan, Retailer Account Manager at Nielsen Book Research, and will include: The key differences between author and title charts; How to run a timeline and trended timeline; How to understand and manipulate the reports to inform your stock selection; The webinar will also include a first look at the new landing page for Nielsen LibScan and BookScan for Libraries which will be released soon.
- Increased reading and literacy: how libraries deliver – Public Libraries Taskforce. “This is the first in a series of posts in which we aim to explore the outcomes that libraries support individuals and communities in their area to achieve. As was stated in the post which introduced the new libraries minister, he is keen to ensure that libraries are recognised for the value they add, and laid out a series of areas where libraries do just that” … “Below is the icon we have created to symbolise this outcome. To make it easier to spot related content, you’ll start to see this on material produced by the Libraries Taskforce that relates to work being done that supports this outcome and, as it’s freely available to download from this folder, perhaps in other places too?”
- Labour MP: In any other job, Jeremy Corbyn would have faced an industrial tribunal – New Statesman. Chi Onwurah: “Jeremy made it impossible for two of the very few BME women MPs to do their jobs properly, undermining both us and Labour’s role as the voice of opposition to the government. I had undertaken a hugely labour-intensive Freedom of Information request on library opening hours, correlating the results to demonstrate how they had fallen exponentially under the Tories. It was impossible to launch a Labour opposition campaign to protect libraries when no one knew if they were part of my brief or not. All that work went to waste.”
“Power to Change Community Business Survey 2016. Power to Change, the organisation set up to grow and support community businesses in England, has commissioned Social Finance to conduct research into the state of the community business market. We would love to get your input! This research is part of an ongoing initiative by Power to Change to collect and publish in-depth, up to date information on community businesses in England, and identify market trends. The 2015 report can be seen online here. The survey takes approximately 10 minutes to complete, and aims to assess recent developments and measure confidence levels within different sectors. The findings will help to build a comprehensive dataset on the community business market, and will inform the future development of Power to Change. To thank you for your time, you will be entered into a prize draw to win community business produce worth £50. Click here to fill out the Community Business Survey 2016. Many thanks for taking part”
- Public and Academic Libraries – Learning and Working in Partnership – National Acquisitions Group. “NAG conference offers unique cross-sector networking opportunities between libraries, suppliers and publishers alongside a full programme of 11 papers, panel sessions, and the opportunity to attend two of the four workshops offered. We received excellent delegate feedback in 2015 and we hope we can continue to exceed expectations.”. Includes The Story of Local Authority to Outsourced Service by Fiona Tarn, Senior Libraries Development Manager, Carillon Services and #whatsYourStory by Alison Millar, Leeds Library and Information Service.
- Public libraries, police and the normalisation of surveillance – Infoism. “In an era of unjustified, economically incoherent cuts in investment in public services, there has been an increasing drive to make various parts of the public sector work together to cut costs (“cut costs” in a very superficial sense of course). One such collaboration that keeps popping up is a partnership between the police and public libraries. An idea that should never even be entertained, let alone discussed as a serious and reasonable proposition.” … “Where there is a police presence, no matter how abstract it may be, there is a risk to people of colour. ” [This strikes me as a somewhat extreme statement – Ed.] … “As public libraries increasingly become a place where the state seeks to control and observe the intellectual behaviour of others on the basis of supposed threats posed by organised terror, so public libraries lose their purpose. They cease to become places of exploration and interrogation and become nothing more than repositories of state sanctioned ideas and values. This process of normalisation needs to stop, for the benefit of all the communities we serve.”
- Summer reading challenges – for grownups – Public Libraries Taskforce. “The Adult Reading Challenge in Oxfordshire, A Midsummer Night’s Read, has got off to a good start. We are running the challenge between 9 July and 10 September with a Grand Prize Draw afterwards (drawn from those who successfully completed the challenge) – the prizes will be announced at the end of September / early October. Great support this year from local businesses and organisations – double the amount last year – due to greater community awareness. There is no doubt that this enhances the take-up from library members!”. Other initiatives include Shropshire, Sheffield and Derbyshire.
- UK Parliament Week 2016 and libraries – CILIP. “This year’s UK Parliament Week will take place from 14-20 November 2016. Preparations are now in full swing, but we need your help. This is your chance to get your library more involved in Parliament, generating ideas and discussion about democracy. Your time is limited. That’s why we’re asking you to do just three things to make UK Parliament Week a success. You don’t have to do them all, but the more you can manage, the better this year’s programme will be. “
- Use Nielsen BookData Online more effectively – Wednesday 7 September 2016, 11am – This free webinar, hosted by Kelly Francis Saetta – UK Key Account Manager for Nielsen Book Discovery and Commerce Services – will provide a step-by-step guide to Nielsen BookData Online’s key features including: search and stock selection; checking price and availability; sorting search results by Nielsen BookScan sales ranking (available for UK, Australia and New Zealand markets); creating, storing and sharing book lists; backlist promotion; setting up new title alerts; exporting reports; By the end of this webinar you will be familiar with Nielsen BookData Online’s key features and how they can be used to improve internal processes and customer service saving your library time and money”
International news
- Australia – School Joins Street Libraries Movement In A Tiny Reading Revolution – Vocal. “Tiny street libraries popping up in front yards across Australia could soon outnumber conventional public libraries and encourage a love of books among children as schools get on board.”
- Global – Four EIFL Public Library Innovation Award winners – EIFL. Winners are ‘Cercle de lecture et d’animation culturelle’ (CLAC), whose mobile library service offers online mathematics and computer coding classes to under-resourced schools in Yaoundé, capital of Cameroon; Cyberiada public library, which has inspired children in the town of Elblag in Poland to take action to protect the environment through their environmental education service; Kaunas Municipal ‘Vincas Kudirka’ Public Library in Lithuania, which provides a dynamic and practical electronics, 3D design and computer coding education programme to motivate young people to take up careers in technology and engineering; Micoud Public Library in the island of St Lucia, whose computer and job-seeking skills training programme is building young people’s confidence to seek work.
- Italy – The Italian government is giving teens €500 on their 18th birthday to spend on books – Independent. “In a move designed to remind young people that culture can enrich one’s life and bring people together, Italian citizens are to get a €500 (£430) ‘culture bonus’ on their 18th birthday. The initiative launches on 15 September, and the bonus can be spent on books, concerts tickets, theatre tickets, cinema tickets, museum visits and trips to national parks.”
- USA – Birmingham Public Library Board Funds Innovative Cool Awards – Library Journal. “The awards, launched in April, grant each branch up to two $50 stipends per year to help improve an existing program or develop a new, innovative, “cool” program (because of its size, each department of the Central Library is eligible for two awards). Branch managers are asked to submit a paragraph or two describing the programs and how the funds would be used, no later than the 15th of each month, which are then reviewed by the board’s Advocacy Committee and submitted to the board for final approval. Two awards will be announced each month through the end of the year, at which time the board will review the program and decide whether to extend it into 2017.”
- USA – 150 Free Things That Public Libraries Offer – Prudent Penny Pincher. “Public libraries offer a lot of free things that most people don’t know about. I know because I got my Master’s in Library Science; otherwise, I probably would have never known that you could get much more than books and media at the library.” Includes new ones to me such as electric car charging, bedwetting kits and MP3 players.
- USA – Op-ed: To stay relevant, libraries must rethink how they connect to communities – Newsworks. “individuals and communities they serve. The field is in need of greater cross-sector partnerships. Libraries can do a better job of collaborating with like-minded organizations working towards the public good. We’ve witnessed a model of this with Storytellers Without Borders, a partnership between the Dallas Morning News and the Dallas Public Library. This project is engaging librarians and journalists to help high school students learn about their community while building digital journalism skills.”
- USA – Poetic Twitter Bot Is Rescuing Public Library Images—with Emojis – Creators Project. “Tweet the alien emoji at @NYPLEmoji and it uses javascript to access a database of hand-selected pairings before firing back a vintage Harper’s Bazaar cover illustration announcing George du Maurier’s serial, The Martian. The “two hearts” emoji summons a Two of Hearts playing card from the George Arents Collection‘s impressive display of cigarette cards. The “tongue sticking out” pulls an amazing C. M. Martin snapshot of a chameleon in the act of catching a butterfly. The poop emoji, embedded at the bottom of this post, is surprisingly creative.”
Local news by authority
- Angus – Cop counters move into Angus libraries as part of one-stop shop programme – Courier. “The move is part of six-figure plans to integrate Angus Council’s Access offices and libraries into a “one stop shop.” Police counters in Montrose, Brechin and Carnoustie were axed as the new body sought to achieve more than £60 million of savings following the introduction of Scotland’s single force. Police Scotland announced more than 60 counter closures around the country arguing that people can report crimes over the phone.” … “Councillors approved the initial phase of £2.3m investment in the integration programme for Carnoustie, Forfar and Montrose libraries. The estimated cost of the full integration programme across the county has been estimated at £4.2m with all work due to be completed by 2021.”
- Cornwall – Upton Cross library facing closure as council calls on mobile service for villagers – West Briton. “A village library is to close and be replaced by a mobile service – the first victim of £1.8 million cuts imposed on the library service by Cornwall Council. The facility at Upton Cross near Callington, one of the smallest in Cornwall and based in the village school is open for only a few hours per week. Cornwall Council officials have been trying to find a local organisation willing to take over responsibility for the service, but now time is running out – and the school itself now needs the space once summer holidays end in a few weeks.”
- Isle of Wight – Mobile Libraries Hit By Isle of Wight Council’s Funding Cuts – Isle of Wight Radio. “The local authority said it plans to reduce the number of stops from 77 to 53, focusing on those stops which are least used. The frequency of visits will also reduce from three-weekly to four-weekly, with the borrowing period of items adjusted to reflect this.” … “The reduction in the Mobile Library Service will save £23,500 annually, or the equivalent of one full-time post according to the local authority. Regular users and town and parish councils affected by this will be informed of the planned changes and asked for their views. Feedback on the plans will close on 30 September.” … “The Library Service is also working with AgeUK Isle of Wight to have its Home Library Service clients taken on by the AgeUK Isle of Wight ‘Good Neighbour’ volunteers. The intention is to have enough of these clients transferred over in 2017 to allow the mobile library schedule to return to three-weekly by the end of the year.”
- Islington – Islington libraries are now offering Pokémon Go supplies – Islington Gazette. “Players can certainly expect a safe environment, after three teenagers were robbed at gunpoint while playing the game in Whittington Park last month. And it appears Islington Council is trying to expose more young people to the variety of services and activities on offer in its libraries.”
- Lancashire – 2,450 sign Morecambe Library petition – Visitor. Against reduction in opening hours.
- Lewisham – Library campaigners take fight to Lewisham council – Socialist Worker. “Around 80 campaigners protested in Lewisham, south east London, last Saturday against the Labour council’s cuts to the library service. Library worker Caroline told the rally that experienced workers had been made redundant or had their hours drastically cut in the past few weeks. She said, “We’re going to be left with just three libraries for the whole borough.””
- Norfolk – Council library staff trained to help people file police reports – Local.gov. “Library staff at Norfolk County Council will be helping people access police services as part of a six month pilot scheme. The trial will see library staff help residents to complete online self-reporting forms, such as enquiring about lost and found items.” … “Members of the public using the library for a police related matter will be asked to complete a satisfaction survey. The results of the project will be presented the council and chief officers after the six month trail to assess if the new partnership has been a success.”
- Norfolk – Police station counter services to move to libraries in pilot scheme in Norfolk – ITV. “A library isn’t the obvious place to report a crime but people will be able to from September at Thetford in Norfolk following the closure of the front desk at the town’s police station”
- Rhondda Cynon Taff – These are the leisure centres, libraries, theatres and day centres in Rhondda Cynon Taff set to get WiFi – Wales Online. “In total, 40 buildings – ranging from council offices to leisure centres, libraries, theatres and day centre – will soon allow users to access public WiFi through the Sky Cloud.”
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about 8 years ago
It has been suggested in a comment on The Bookseller that the scope of Chi Onwurah’s inquiries may have required the submission of FoI Requests to every single local authority in the country, or something similar. It would indeed be a great shame (putting it mildly) if the valuable data apparently elicited and her work on it continues to gather dust, hidden from the public who are left in ignorance.
I trust that she will not hesitate to release it – for the greater good of society. This should override party leadership shenanagins and questions of personal advancement.
about 8 years ago
You write that “the minister for libraries, Chi Onwurah, wanted to do something about it – indeed, did do a fair bit of research on it – but confusion as to who was doing what messed up the whole deal.” She said it was “It was impossible to launch a Labour opposition campaign to protect libraries when no one knew if they were part of my brief or not. All that work went to waste.”
I would like to point out that the following statement has been on Chi Onwurah’s website since May 2016: “It’s my job to scrutinise the Government on its disastrous broadband policies and to speak up for libraries and the importance of the digital economy to the UK.” http://chionwurahmp.com/my-record/
Sadly it appears that her statement that she doesn’t know whether or not she is minister for libraries is part of the ongoing coup against Jeremy Corbyn.
Corbyn has made clear statements in support of public libraries and against closures. There is absolutely nothing to prevent Chi Onwurah from launching a campaign to protect libraries except her own reluctance to act.
Onwurah states that “I had undertaken a hugely labour-intensive Freedom of Information request on library opening hours, correlating the results to demonstrate how they had fallen exponentially under the Tories.”
If this work is done, why not simply publish it?
The dominant right wing of the parliamentary Labour Party and their acolytes in councils like Lambeth and Lewisham are starting to pay lip service to public libraries, as they are belatedly waking up to the fact that it is an electoral issue. But many of them still quietly adhere to this arrogant, ignorant and snobbish nonsense from failed librarian and right wing Labour policy adviser to a succession of losers, John McTernan- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/8838633/Liberal-whingers-are-wrong-we-should-shut-our-libraries.html