Ian Anstice

Editorial

It’s a strange thing about Arts Council England. I’ve seen pretty much everyone else nationally and locally being criticised over the years for their stance on public libraries but almost nothing about ACE. The reason I suspect is they’re a bit out of context and also a bit like, well, Father Christmas, albeit one with an interest in culture rather than presents and carefully written bids rather than who’s been naughty and nice. They’re also somewhat limited in what they can fund. So we don’t hear much from them other than seeing the results in lots of shows and artworks going on in libraries such as the “Library Lion” below and also some of the projects that Time To Read runs (also below). It’s good therefore to hear from them and this week we have none other than the boss, Nicholas Serota, talking libraries to CILIP.

He comes across as an intelligent chap and he is to applauded for the post, with thoughtful comments, although it’s clear his expertise in other sectors. For example, he wonders why authors aren’t as involved in libraries as artists are in galleries. Well, the reason is that they’re qualitatively different – people read the books at home while art has to be seen in the gallery. However, there’s always more space for authors to be involved in libraries, especially as they’re just such supporting people and the e-book revolution hasn’t really taken place as many thought it would. It’s my pleasure in Time To Read to help this process and it’d be great to see more of it nationally as well. Bring on the authors.

National news

• Building The Literacy Library – Crowdfunder. 1 in 8 children don’t have a book at home. Over £50,000 raised for new library to help teachers and schools.
• Entries now open for the Libraries Change Lives Award – CILIP. “Applications are open for the 2018 CILIP Libraries Change Lives Award for innovative library and information projects and services that have a positive and demonstrable impact on their user community and reflect intelligent service design or best practice delivery. “
• Fake Non-Profits – lies, damned lies and Carillion’s non-profit companies – Ed Mayo’s Blog. “When we look at the accounts submitted to Companies House, the story becomes visible. Cultural Community Solutions made no profit because it looks as if it has paid all of its profit out to others including companies in the Carillion family. From year to year, gross profit is simply eaten up by the ‘administrative expenses’. In 2016, they were exactly the same figure.” … “As a non-profit, they could also do something that other commercial, or indeed in-house services, could not, which is to claim discretionary relief on business rates payable on library premises. As with the big fostercare companies financed by offshore venture capital, designed to escape taxation, the financial profits this non-profit passed through to Carillion were in every possible way a gift from the taxpayer.” … “Anyone can call themselves a non-profit, just as many can claim to be a social enterprise, but there is an underlying first principle that needs to be recognised, as in the International Statement of Co-operative Identity, which is that of independence.”
• Making sure there’s time to read – Libraries Taskforce / Time To Read. [This is a post by me in day job – Ed.] “Time To Read is a unique collaboration between the North West library authorities to promote reading for those aged 16+ via shared projects, promotion, news and best practice. Its origins can be traced back all the way to 1996. Membership of the partnership fluctuates but currently numbers 22 out of the 23 eligible services, each paying in an annual subscription which covers a part-time co-ordinator and such things as meetings and promotions.”
• A progressive professional body for a global sector – Research Information. Ayub Khan, president of CILIP: “four-year plan to 2020 is shaped around the central goal of putting ‘library and information skills at the heart of a democratic, equal and prosperous society’ … “anything else – so keeping libraries on the agenda will be a challenge. I will focus on libraries’ future potential, as well as their proud traditions.”

Dear Librarian

Just a quick note to remind you to nominate for the CWA Dagger in the Library 2018. It’s very easy to do: just go along to  http://daggerreads.co.uk/dagger-in-the-library/ and submit your nomination. Up to three staff members of each library can nominate. Please note this year we’re looking for a mainstay of crime writing; someone who has published more than 10 books and whose first book was published before 2008. In 2018 we want the Dagger in the Library to reward those authors (crime fiction and non-fiction) who have given most pleasure to library users over the years. The deadline is February 28, and we are pleased to have the support of The Reading Agency. Please pop to the site and nominate before the deadline – it takes about 2 minutes.

’d also like to remind you about the Margery Allingham Short Story Competition. That’s for a short story up to 3,500 words loosely around the Golden Age writer’s definition of what makes a mystery. That definition, and other details, are on the CWA website here. Entry fee is £12, and the prize is £500 plus books and two passes to CrimeFest 2019 – a fabulous mystery writers convention in Bristol not to be missed. You can download a poster on the Short Story page or here from DaggerReads.

I’ll be writing to you soon about National Crime Reading Month in May.  Meanwhile, please do send in those Dagger in the Library nominations! There are so many authors who have given pleasure to library users for years, and this is a great chance to say thanks on the readers’ behalf.

Yours

Dea Parkin – Secretary of the CWA

• Some thoughts on ‘Library Lion’ – Untied Artists. “I started to wonder if it would be possible to create a site specific performance of the book that drew on my experiences as a parent at storytime, captured and shared the magic of the book, and was somehow able to comment on the fact that libraries are nothing less than essential to a thriving, caring, enlightened community.” … “after quite a lengthy process of grant bids and negotiations with libraries, schools, publishers and venues, I’m really pleased with the results, and we’ve been able to bring the show to some quite ‘low engagement’ areas. This week, before performing to a small group of SEN students in Gornal Library, I had a quick chat with the wonderful librarian there. Note librarian in the singular.” see also Library Lion – Untied Artists. “Dudley Libraries, Untied Artists and Birmingham Rep bring this beautiful children’s book to life in celebration of an endangered species – the local library.”

Well, that can’t be safe – the Library Lion in action. Credit: Graeme Braidwood

• Special agent for library development – CILIP. “The Arts Council England is the development agency for public libraries and Sir Nicholas Serota, its chair, believes the sector could use the experience of other cultural organisations as it builds a public library service fit for the 21st century.” … “The extent of his influence not only depends on the priority and resources that ACE directs towards libraries, but also on the extent to which the sector and local authorities are prepared to listen.” … “I think the core of the library activity remains freeing imaginations through access to literature, knowledge in its broadest sense. But I think we’re really talking about reinventing what that dog is rather than adding something to” … “Libraries are places that are trusted, they are places that are regarded as safe. That’s often not true of some arts ­organisations, which can be regarded as being elitist and separate” .. “Becoming entrepreneurial is not a comfortable process” … “Writers have probably been less engaged in the development of libraries than they might be”

“I think libraries and ­librarians have a responsibility to try and build a service that is ­inspirational as well as simply offering cover for basic needs. And that’s probably where the Arts Council has a part to play.”” Sir Nicholas Serota

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Editorial

Ealing and Harrow have both responded to the collapse of Carillion by temporarily continuing library services in-house. Reading behind the lines, and despite having had their fingers burnt, it looks to me that both councils – who have been sold on outsourcing once – are likely to go that way again. Who this is (hello GLL?) remains to be seen and precumably tendering would need to be done.

Elsewhere, more details have come to light about deep cuts to Shropshire and Somerset. In the former, only 6 libraries are going to be run by the council in six years, with the rest being euphemistically called “cost-neutral”. This apparently means that someone else has to pay for them, be it lower-tier councils or volunteers: so there will be a deep drive to cut costs (i.e. paid staff) and increase income (e.g. parish taxes, grants, fundraising). The timescale for this was originally wildly unrealistic and a brush with consultation has meant that the council has extended the time limit a bit longer, possibly even long enough in some cases., if Shropshire library users are lucky, for another national government to come in and reverse the deep austerity that necessitates such damage in the first place.

I am sorry to see Somerset is once more up against it, with 15 out of 34 libraries due to close or pass to volunteers. The county was one of the first to face deep cuts when I first started PLN and it was only a court case that got them to stop closing libraries that time. Five years later and it looks unlikely that such a court case would happen again, given the generally lower levels of service now expected in council services and the lessons learnt from what went wrong last time. This time, the hope must be that the consultation is taken seriously by the public (I am sure it will be by the council – one bitten twice shy and all that) and the reaction helps persuade the council to lessen the cuts. Again reading between the lines, it seems unlikely that the new revolving-door libraries minister will intervene in either case.

Changes

• Ealing – Considering options for libraries after Carillion liquidation inc. transfer to other provide or taking back in-house.
• Harrow – Considering options for libraries after Carillion liquidation: emphasises possibility of transferring to other provider.
• Hertfordshire – Hoddesdon Post Office may move into library.
• Inverclyde – £189k cut to Central opening hours and staffing at HQ, £55k cut meaning Inverkip and Kilmacolm libraries will pass to volunteers or close.
• Lancashire – Barrowford Library reopens.
• Renfrewshire – New Paisley Library postponed.
• St Helens – Central Library may close due to building problems – to be relocated, probably to World of Glass.
• Shropshire –  Libraries divided into three tiers (1) standard / fully-funded (Bridgnorth, Ludlow, Market Drayton, Oswestry, Shrewsbury and Whitchurch). (2) need to be completely unfunded by five years time (Church Stretton, Pontesbury, and Shrewsbury’s Library at the Lantern, as well as libraries that are already run by community groups – with support from Shropshire Council – such as Albrighton, Bishop’s Castle, Cleobury Mortimer and Ellesmere) (3) need to be completely funded in 3 years time (Bayston Hill, Broseley, Craven Arms, Gobowen, Highley, Much Wenlock, Shifnal and Wem) (sources – 1, 2)
• Somerset – 15 out of 34 libraries to turn volunteer or close, a further 7 to seek volunteers. £300k to £520k cut depending on option taken.

National news

• Arts Council England announces new director of museums – Arts Council England. “Sue Williamson joins ACE as director of libraries and Birmingham from St Helens Library Service, where she most recently delivered its award-winning Cultural Hubs Arts in Libraries programme and oversaw the successful application to the Arts Council’s National Portfolio. Williamson also represented public libraries as part of a DCMS in a recent discussion on the future of digital technologies in arts and culture. “I am thrilled to be joining Arts Council England as Director: Libraries and Birmingham and to have the opportunity to support and champion the role of Libraries in delivering the wider cultural offer to the communities they serve. With the recent announcements of Coventry as the next UK City Of Culture and Birmingham as host for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, this is a time of great challenge and opportunity for the whole of the cultural sector in this area.””

“Three library services [out of 151] in England – Croydon, Ealing and Harrow – are managed for these local authorities by Carillion through its subsidiary, Cultural Community Solutions Ltd (CCS Ltd).  We [Libraries Taskforce and DCMS, through the Taskforce’s Chief Executive Kathy Settle] have made contact with the library services. We are available to assist and discuss with the library services if needed, however they have confirmed that contingency plans are in place and that they are proceeding with next steps. The library services are in contact with PWC, which has been appointed as special managers for the insolvency of Carillion, and discussions are underway about plans for the future. The Councils have been working with library staff and managers and the services have been opening and operating as normal. ” Libraries Taskforce

• CILIP’s new president on his key challenges – BookSeller. Ayub Khan: “It’s an exciting time to be president of CILIP, the Library and Information Association, as the organisation implements changes in response to the challenges ahead. To my mind, challenges are often opportunities in disguise. So in this piece I’m going to focus on some of the key challenges for public libraries – through the lens of opportunity. We’ve heard a lot of doom and gloom about closures and reductions over recent years and a lot of good news has been lost along the way. We can’t ignore the problems but we also need to highlight opportunities for the sector – and deliver a more positive narrative. As Carnegie UK c.e.o. Martyn Evans pointed out at the end of last year, libraries are the most visited cultural service, most trusted civic space, most used by young people, offering the most innovative public service in the most extraordinary buildings.”
• Library groups call for inquiry after Carillion collapse – BookSeller. “CILIP chief executive Nick Poole believes the Carillion collapse exposes flawed government thinking that private outsourcing provides the best quality services and highest efficiency. He called for a public inquiry into whether local and national government continued to knowingly to issue contracts for the delivery of vital public services to a failing company. “The current policies of austerity and privatisation are putting statutory services like public libraries at risk,” said Poole. “This is why CILIP is actively lobbying for a fair financial settlement for local authorities which enables them to meet the current and future needs of local communities and for standards which ensure that people receive the quality of service they have paid for.””. Also includes views from myself, Laura Swaffield of the Library Campaign and Tim Coates.

With the main question being “how do you define a library”? With thanks to Mike Bedford

• London libraries assess impact of Carillion collapse – Guardian. “Croydon council has reacted to the service provider’s liquidation by taking the service in-house again, while Ealing and Harrow are laying contingency plans” … “On Tuesday, Croydon council announced it would immediately terminate its eight-year contract with Carillion, which was set to run the borough’s 13 libraries until 2020, and take on the responsibility itself, rather than outsourcing to another firm. All 73 staff positions were guaranteed, it said.” … “Councillor Timothy Godfrey, cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport, said that the council had been considering parting ways with Carillion for years, and claimed that the firm had failed to provide a satisfactory library service” … “The cost to the council to take on the borough’s library service would be slightly higher than paying Carillion, because Croydon council was a living wage employer, admitted Godfrey”. … “Harrow council is set to consider its future plans for its six library branches at a cabinet meeting on Thursday night, but a council spokesman said that it was business as usual, and maintaining consistency for residents and staff was its priority. Under Carillion’s care, no problems in the library service had been reported to the council, he continued, and while the current contract was working, it expected to need a new provider after Carillion’s liquidation.” see also Public sector looks for ways to plug gap left by Carillion – Public Finance.

““They hadn’t fixed the issues flagged when Hounslow left. They hadn’t been paying paper suppliers and photocopier engineers. Their annual library plan was always behind schedule. It’s been really unfair on the staff on the front line because they were the poor souls holding the service together, and they had no managerial support. There were staff paying out-of-pocket for things like for craft materials for activities with kids.””

• Michael Ellis confirmed as new libraries minister – BookSeller. “Michael Ellis has been confirmed as the new libraries minister at the department of digital, culture, media and sport (DCMS), following Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet reshuffle last week. Ellis was formerly the deputy leader of the House of Commons. He is now parliamentary under secretary of state for the arts, heritage and tourism with responsibility for libraries”
• On borrowed time? – BookSeller. “Meanwhile at Westminster, we have the third new libraries minister in 18 months: Northampton North’s Michael Ellis—an MP whose chief claim to fame thus far is persuading the government to put more money into pothole repairs. With the constantly rotating door of ministerial posts, will he stay in the role long enough even to master the brief? Waterstones m.d. James Daunt decried the “disgrace” of library cuts in an interview this week, saying the decline of the service will damage the future of British society; a view widely shared in this industry. If between them Khan and Ellis can push the case for libraries up national and local agendas, that assistance is badly needed; but the chronic threats to the service must be acknowledged, and whatever the digital opportunities for the library service, books and reading must stay absolutely at its core.”
• Want to tackle loneliness? Stop closing libraries – Politics. “The knitting group changed all that. It arranges trips to garden centres and market towns. They get together for meals out. My mum now not only regularly visits the library but she also volunteers there. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it changed her life. But all that could soon come to an end. Northamptonshire county council recently opened a consultation on its library services. Three options were put forward. The first would require local groups to run many of the county’s libraries to keep them open. The second would see 21 out of 36 libraries closed. The third would see 28 out of them closed. Option two and three would see my mum’s library close its doors. Even the mobile library would be axed. This isn’t an isolated case”

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Editorial

This post is even later than usual being I’ve been in pantomime over the last couple of weeks. It was a fun amateur production, and being a librarian I felt really at home as Baron Hard-Up, but it did not half reduce my blogging time.

That’s me on the right. Oh yes I am.

While I was away, the Libraries Taskforce, in their most recent Libraries Deliver newsletter, has added up some useful council survey replies and come to the conclusion that more than twice as many libraries opened or moved since 2010 than were closed. At first blush, this will come as a shock to anyone who has even a passing relationship with the reality of the situation but, to be fair, the same article makes clear that this is only a reasonable claim if you discount the 500 or so volunteer libraries (really) and also if you count libraries possibly co-located with ten other services or in a corner somewhere as the equal to a stand-alone building. But it’s a claim you can expect the new libraries ministerial team, when they work out where their office is, will be using repeatedly, without any such qualifications any day now.

Statistics are wonderful things

In other news, it’s interesting timing that Harrow and Ealing are recommending staying with Carillion running their libraries while at the same time it’s in all the newspapers that Carillion will go bankrupt without hefty government intervention. The reason, though, is clear: both authorities agreed to massive fines (£485k and £693k respectively) if they decided to leave the private company before ten years was out. They must now be privately regretting that, especially as the evidence suggests Carillion are far better at negotiating hard-nosed handcuffing contracts than, well, actually running a successful business.

Changes

• Aberdeenshire – To become some sort of trust in expected £1m cut.
• Birmingham – Sutton Coldfield Library to be partially converted into play café to help fund it.
• Buckinghamshire – £37k staff cut, £125 bookfund cut, £375k other cuts, £140k opening hours cut.
• Bolton – Dumers Lane Community Centre and Library to be volunteer in five-year lease.
• Darlington – DCMS investigating closure of Crown Street Library,
• Ealing – Recommended Carillion keeps library contract (£639k penalty if terminated early).
• East Riding of Yorkshire – Stamford Library refurbished.
• Essex – Volunteer libraries to be established after cut to mobile libraries.
• Hampshire – Gosport co-location: older persons, heritage and meeting rooms to be installed in addition to existing café and welfare/other services.
• Harrow – Kenton Library to be refurbished. Recommended Carillion retain contract for further five years (£485k penalty if terminated early).
• Hertfordshire – Further £500k cut by 2019/2020 expected after £2.5m cut 2016/19. Consultation on becoming a trust.
• Islington – £30k bookfund cut.
• Kent – Three month refurbishment for Tonbridge Library
• Lancashire – Oswaldtwistle Library will reopen. Freckleton Library reopens.
• Staffordshire – Consultation on further cuts (£1.3m, cut announced in November on top of previous £1.6m cut) to library service: more volunteers and card/pin-entry expected in surviving 20 libraries (23 others now volunteer-run).
• Warrington – Post office moves into Burtonwood Library.

Ideas

• Free sanitary products for those on low incomes.

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Editorial

Some more coverage on the dire recent CIPFA figures, which are analysed further (for yet more depression) and shown to be incomplete, meaning the real picture is (joy!) likely to be even worse than hitherto shown. The potential economic and political impacts oif this are explored (admittedly, partly by me) of this are explored in a New Statesman article. The public support for libraries was shown on Twitter by a double whammy from Dawn Finch – first the “tweet heard around the world” (see below) and then the #ThankALibraryWorker hashtag. Have a look at both if you can. Give yourself an early Christmas present.

Changes

• Manchester – Withington Library to be refurbished.
• Northumberland – Alnwick theatre will include co-located library.
• Thurrock – Aveley community centre co-location may include “self-serve library facility”
• Warwickshire – £100k cut, Sunday opening at Nuneaton, Rugby and Leamington again threatened.
• Wirral – £125k tender for shared reading for mental health

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Editorial

Total net expenditure on public libraries went down from £842k in 2015/16 to £771k in 2016/17, a decline of over 8% in just one year. Add in inflation and it’s more like 10% (or it would be if salaries weren’t semi-frozen). That would be awful enough if that was a one-off but it isn’t: there’s been real cuts to expenditure every single year since 2009/10 and there’s inflation in that period too (of 17%) to account for. So, that’s mega isn’t it? Brutal in fact. No surprise then that usage is falling. The surprise is that it’s not falling faster, After all, visits are down a mere 3% when the cut to funding was three times more.

So that’s one horror story. The other is, of course, how the figures themselves  are collected. Given by councils, CIPFA then collates them when the financial year finishes in April, presumably then does something else for a bit (because it’s now December), sends out a summary press release as a sales pitch and then charges an eye-watering charge for anyone wanting the full package. But, hang on, these are our statistics. Which we’re stopped from using unless we’re rich and don’t mind waiting, let’s think, more than seven whole months to see. And this is for the library profession, which should be fairly good on information. I’m glad to say that things are changing though. All of the organisations (well, apart from, presumably CIPFA but I don’t know) involved (SCL, Taskforce, CILIP etc) are keen on improving on the current mess. I hope they succeed. Then we’ll be able to tell for free and in real-time how fast budgets are declining. Hang on, that doesn’t sound fun. But at least it’s not downright embarrassing, unlike the current situation.

Changes

• East Sussex – £720k overspend on Hastings Library.
• Lancashire – Fulwood Library reopens. Bolton-Le-Sands Library reopens.
• Warrington – £1 million for repairs, maintenance and investment, one-off £150,000 extra book fund in 2018, new libraries partnership group.

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