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Eye-watering vs. eye-catching
Aug 26th
I’ve been on holiday for a few days so a bumper posting today. Tim Coates/Bilbary is a big thing in the general news, with the plan to share UK Bilbary e-book profits with Kensal Rise campaigners (edit: if purchased via the Kensal Rise website) being especially eye-catching. The cuts in South Tyneside with one-third (17 out of 54) staff being made voluntarily redundant is more eye-watering than eye-catching. The Council predictably wants to take up the resultant gaping hole in its staffing with volunteers. Using developers in order to pay for new buildings is also something of a theme.
Volunteer libraries: Third Sector article sets cat amongst pigeons once more
Aug 21st
There is an in-depth look at volunteer-run libraries on the Third Sector website (Analysis: the libraries that have been taken over by volunteers). The article acknowledges their successes but also the opposition against them. It’s also very interesting to note that the Third Sector Research Centre itself thinks that core council services (by implication including libraries) may well be unsuitable for volunteers. The article looks at three examples:
What the Dickens…
Aug 20th
News
- Brief history of American bookmobiles … in pictures – BookRiot (USA). From the first (1910) mobile – a carriage with books in it pulled by a horse – to the latest PC-laden mobile conferencing articulated lorry, the history of US mobile libraries.
- Children’s literature needs our libraries – Guardian. Schools and libraries, higher education and libraries need to work closely together. Joint public and university libraries like the Hive and children’s story museums go some way to help this … “At a time when reading skills are more important than ever to determining a child’s future options in life, we are lucky that children’s books, picture books, poetry and nursery rhymes are available in wonderful variety to our children. Libraries keep that variety alive.”
“Dead again”
Aug 19th
News
- City urging residents to beat heat in community centres, libraries – Kirkland Patch (USA). “With forecasts for temperatures in the mid-90s Thursday and Friday, Kirkland is urging residents to visit air-conditioned facilities and check on family and neighbors who might need assistance. “
10 volunteer branches on cards as Surrey scrutiny over-ruled, outsourced Hounslow consultation
Aug 17th
For a look at the ConservativeHome article arguing that Labour closes more branches than the Conservatives do, please see this post below. In other news, Surrey has voted to go ahead with volunteers taking over ten libraries, despite this apparently not saving any money. There’s also news of a consultation from Hounslow, the only library authority currently run by a private company.
Discuss: “The Labour Party are responsible for more closures than the Conservatives”
Aug 17th
One of the most influential and famous Conservative websites, called Conservative Home, has produced an article based on the Public Libraries News lists of closed libraries to argue that “Library closures are overwhelmingly taking place under Labour councils“. It suggests that the headline figure of closures used by Dan Jarvis uses – which includes those libraries now run by unpaid local users – is misleading because “Often when the community takes over a library from the council it not just saves money but does a better job. There is more innovation and the number of users rises.” The article points out the that Public Libraries News tally shows that more closures are occurring in Labour areas than Conservative ones.
So what should we make of this? Well, on one level it shows the joy of political football and how statistics can be used to show anything one wants to if one tries hard enough. On another it serves a useful purpose, not least in its comments section, in showing the arguments used in favour and against volunteer-run libraries. In fact, the (as I type) 33 comments after this piece so neatly show the political views and arguments on both sides that I feel the need to list them here:
“The next six years will decide whether we have a public library service at all”
Aug 15th
News
- Alan Gibbons: Libraries and volunteers – BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire (from 2:24:47 to 2:28:45). Six months in from volunteers taking over libraries. Some positive comments from Harbury Library users but reduced bookstock. Alan Gibbons comments that every library should have paid librarians, “absolute disgrace” that cuts have forced this. We should be improving it, not “cutting it to shreds”. Worry about how they will survive. More >
£70,000 for a library is cheap
Aug 13th
The Save Kensal Rise group have launched a fundraising appeal to help them buy “their” library. It’s for £70,000, which sounds a lot, but an estate agents (kudos to Daniel’s Real Estate Agents) have already offered £10,000. The money is returnable if the bid fails. Let’s hope it doesn’t.
Elsewhere, Sheffield has launched a consultation on how it is going to meet (unspecified) cuts to its libraries budget. Job losses and closures are not ruled out.
Public Libraries 2017: what 120 library workers think.
Aug 12th
A survey of 120 UK public library staff called A snapshot of priorities and objectives by OCLC has shed some light on what library workers think about the future. The key results are analysed below:
“… the principle of free access to public library services becoming a thing of the past”
Aug 10th
‘Without any changes to the 1964 Act we could find the principle of free access to public library services becoming a thing of the past’. Ebook Acquisition and Lending Briefing: Public, Academic and Research Libraries – CILIP
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