Ian Anstice

The barring of payday loan sites, websites perfectly legal in the UK, has gone ahead in Cheshire East.  It is the first council in England to do so and the third in the UK (Dundee did the same last December).  While there are probably not multitudes who love such websites, it does raise the question of what may get barred next.  Such sites are, of course, perfectly legal in the UK.  Of course, UK libraries already bar porn sites (unlike their US counterparts) so the precedent has already been there fo quite a while … but it will be interesting to see what next, if anything, gets barred and for what reason.

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Miranda McKearney OBE, Chief Executive, the Reading Agency

One of the positive constants over the last few years has been the work of The Reading Agency (TRA).  The charity is behind the imminent Summer Reading Challenge, the ongoing Six Book Challenge (SRC) and the new Reading Well Books on Prescription schemes as well as a host of other stuff.  To my mind, the TRA is the closest thing that English public libraries have to a national marketing and publicity agency, something which is desperately needed for the atomised and increasingly underfunded service.

At the forefront of the TRA during this time has been Miranda McKearney, who was one of those who set up the body (she says that the idea was created at a kitchen table with friends) and is its Chief Executive.  One suspects that she knows more about what is really happening to libraries nationally, and the factors and personalities affecting them, than pretty much anyone else in the country.  I am therefore delighted that she agreed to answer a few of my questions, which I share with you below.

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Editorial

Lincolnshire have announced that 32 out of 45 libraries, plus an indeterminate number of mobiles, will either close or be passed on to volunteers.  This is part of a major review that cuts a full third  of the budget (£2m from a total of £6m) and will result in a reduction of 170 posts (55 full time equivalent) and, significantly at this time of online everything, 177 less public access computers.  So far, so awful but also so sadly familiar.  But there are two worrying two aspects about these cuts. The first is that they’re not being touted as due to cuts but rather because the current system is “inefficient”. The second is that the council has carefully looked at the recent DCMS decisions not to intervene in other authorities and tailored their cuts appropriately.  So, for instance, the minister made clear that she did not consider computers to be part of the statutory provision and so the loss of so many machines can be contemplated, even at the time when those without online access may have difficulty claiming benefit or looking for a job.  This is the first  authority I can recall whose cuts have been so clearly tailored to reach the minimum statutory provision.  It is also the most clear in stating that, in the brave new e-book and online world, and regardless of finances, there is no longer any need for libraries in smaller towns and villages and, if those communities stubbornly insist that there is, then they can jolly well staff them themselves.

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I had the opportunity to meet with French librarians last week and have a look both at the city of Lyon and its main public library.  The first thing to note is that austerity has not hit France.  Libraries there are facing small-scale cuts, sure, but more akin to the normal background level of cut that librarians and users have been familiar with in the UK for decades.  This does not mean that it’s all perfect over there: they’re notably scared for one thing about what is happening in austerity/crisis countries, of which the UK (as well as Italy, Portugal and Greece – In Portugal, by the way, it sounds like they haven’t had new books for years and are charging room hirers in books rather than in cash) are included. They are also in awe of the public support that libraries have over here – the French librarians could not see such protests happening in their country and they feel more vulnerable as a result.  This, they partly ascribe to the longer tradition of public libraries here, stretching back to the nineteenth century rather than the twentieth in continental Europe and the fact that we also appear to have had, at least until recently, a higher percentage of library usage.

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Editorial

The part-time specialist advisor on libraries to the DCMS, Yinnon Ezra, has written a blog posting giving his views on the job so far.  It looks like it involves a lot of networking with different organisations and library authorities.  Yinnon sees tieing in with local and national agendas and making savings by sharing services as important, with the whole picture being described by him as “variable”.  This is not going to shock anyone but at least there is now some evidence that he is doing his job.

Meanwhile his departmental boss, Secretary of State Maria Miller, who has not said a single public word on public libraries to my knowledge during her tenancy has again stressed that Culture needs to pay for itself in apparently strict and short-term monetary terms. In terms of her contribution to libraries, Maria is failing on her own parameters but it appears that libraries are beneath her notice.  Presumably because they are unlikely, due to their shockingly unprofitable business model, to tie in with her very focused views on what Culture is about.  Which is a shame as illiteracy costs the country £81 billion per year but, it appears, not in the short term or simple easy to understand ways that she cares about.

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