Comments on: The weirdly limited information world of public libraries https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2017/03/the-weirdly-limited-information-world-of-public-libraries.html What's happening to your library? Sun, 02 Apr 2017 19:54:14 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.3 By: librariesmatter https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2017/03/the-weirdly-limited-information-world-of-public-libraries.html#comment-8090 Fri, 31 Mar 2017 10:44:06 +0000 http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/?p=12254#comment-8090 I couldn’t believe the farce of the Libraries Taskforce published dataset which is just a list of libraries with no other information. I know it is a first release but it is obvious that the DCMS/LGA don’t want to release anything meaningful.

Over the last decade disclosure about English public library performance has collapsed. We’ve seen:
– The abolition of library standards and the reporting of performance against those standards.
– The abolition of National Indicators including the indicator on library use.
– Public summaries of the CIPFA annual public library data have dried up. The CIPFA data is always hopelessly late and the data is treated as private. The DCMS does nothing about it.
– The DCMS funded public library profiles have stopped.
– The DCMS’s annual statement on public libraries to Parliament avoids reporting anything about performance.
– The poor quality of DCMS answers to parliamentary questions about public libraries.

It is ironic is that data collection and public reporting has never been easier, but disclosure about public libraries has never been worse.

The democratic process isn’t working. There needs to be a public revolt over the inability of government to account for their stewardship of the public library service.

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