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Editorial

It was the shock of the image that did it.  A picture of a poster from a Birmingham library asking for donations as “we are no longer purchasing any new books or newspapers”.  After all, this is Birmingham, the home of the massive new Library opened by Malala Yousafzai in 2013 at a notional expense of £188m but, in reality, an awful lot more due to it being paid for over a period of years.  The whole city’s bookfund (around £1m – already reduced from £1.3m in 2011) is not five percent of the annual running costs of the behemoth that is the LoB. Now, add on the fact that the council greatly reduced the hours of its figurehead earlier this year and it all seems a bit of a bad deal.

It’s worth mentioning at this point that the poster was apparently done by someone in a branch – it wasn’t an officially centrally produced document – and that, in fact some items are still being purchased.  These would appear, though, just to be standing orders and selected recommendations from the public.  More to the point, I understand that the bookfund freeze may just be a “pause” until the Autumn in which case what you’ve got here is something that suddenly does not seem so gigantic.  Stopping buying books for a month or three is, after all, a hardly unknown practice in many authorities. Still, you’d think that the public relations department would have realised the massive embarrassment that such a decision would cause but. no, apparently it came as surprise.

Which is extra embarrassing as the thing is here that it isn’t just any authority.  This is Birmingham which deliberately linked the library to its whole image. That is actually a laudable move and has been shown to work in other places but, oh, so much not this time. Why? Well, the decision to build the whopping great big new library was made just before the coalition came in – so it was based on some basic assumptions like, ooh I don’t know, that budgets wouldn’t be cut by two fifths (or more) with no effective intervention under any circumstances by the libraries minister.  It was also based on the rather optimistic assumption that there’d be a lot of philanthropy which, in reality, just plain didn’t happen.  2015 has been a long list, so far, of things that can largely be explained by seeing a council that has realised what deep poo it is in and is flailing around frantically for any solution at all. Some of it (the British Library collaboration, even perhaps Google if it is done right) is promising but so much of it smacks of desperation and this not the least. And, by the way, Birmingham, the bookfund should be one of the last things to go. After all, books are still the main purpose of libraries even if we all pretend it’s computers and glossy stuff.  Their importance is declining, to be sure, but a public library without new books is still a sad and tragic thing to behold. And a £188m one – intended (quite rightly and laudably and in better times) as a magnet for the whole city – to have no new books in it is, well, something that should be covered in all the media and should be shocking.  If only Pour Encourager Les Autres.

And Ed? Debate Alan Gibbons on the issue yes? At a time (say a Saturday) when people can actually get to see it? Thank you.

“Due to public savings cuts we are no longer purchasing any new books or newspapers. Therefore we’re looking for any books published in the last 12 months to be donated to the library. All gratefully received” Notice appearing in some Birmingham libraries

“”Without new books, the people who rely on libraries won’t be able to get what they need. It will affect those who need to use libraries the most: people on a low wage, students, the elderly. “We need central government and councils to understand the value of libraries and what they provide. At the moment, they are seen as a soft target. The whole situation is just dire.” Elizabeth Ash

““We are continuing to look at how we secure the future of all our community libraries but whilst that work is underway we need to make tough choices to save money. “One of those choices is a pause on the book fund.” Cllr Penny Holbrook, Birmingham lead for libraries. “we are also reviewing the future operating model for the council as a whole it makes no sense to reorganise the libraries ahead of this. The reorganisation of the council – Future Council – will go out to consultation during the autumn.”

Changes

• Fife – Consultation on closing libraries extended to December due to legal advice.
• Kent – 17 apprenticeships in libraries/registration/archives
• Rotherham – Dolly Parton Imagination Library to be stopped (£400k p.a.)
• Sandwell – £400k bookfund (plus £80k for non-book materials) – this is an increase of £6k on previous year.
• Staffordshire – £625k bookfund stays the same this year.
• Walsall – £580k bookfund stays the same this year.
• Wolverhampton – £100k cut to bookfund (from £223k the year before). This is in addition to £500k cut (from £1.7m) planned for next five years.

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Editorial

Some good articles, all from abroad, on the importance of libraries, including one looking at heavy investment in the sector in Abu Dhabi.  Another is from the continuously inspiring Ferguson Library in the USA with a look at how things are going one year after the riots there. There’s also a good article by, wait for it, a librarian leaving the job in order to be a nun. Even if you’re not religious (and I’m not), this is a surprisingly relevant article which addresses the true fact that one works in libraries because of a belief in public service. In this country, depressingly, there’s the normal national stories about declines to library budgets and local stories about volunteers needing to take over the buildings, but there’s also two libraries moving into new buildings.  I’ve also revamped an old page that now lists 23 examples in the UK of public library services getting together to save money or improve the service and, ideally, both.

Finally, there’s a request from a researcher helping with the English Public Libraries Taskforce for information on what your library provides.  It’s worth completing even if you don’t know the answer to all the questions. The more information these pe

Changes

• Birmingham – Tourist Information Centre closed at the Library of Birmingham.
• Plymouth – Central Library planned to move to Armada Way
• Staffordshire – Stafford Library moving to new building in Staffordshire Place, expected to be open in September. Additions will include “digital touch tables”, innovation suite (including 3D printers and Raspberry Pi’s)

Ideas

• Self-publishing machine – provide printed books on demand almost covering costs.

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Editorial

Well, I’ve been away for a week (camping in beautiful Essex) so there’s a lot of new to report on.  The big news stories for me are:

• The absence of definitive data on public library usage and numbers.  As you can imagine, I’ve noticed this for years as this my humble blog has been seized upon by national media, politicians and anyone interested to fill in some of the gaps in knowledge. The official data from CIPFA is inadequate for a number of reasons (variances in interpreting the data, the voluntary nature of its collection and the fact that you have to pay hundreds of pounds for it being just three) for years. However, having the government claim that there was an increase in public libraries (clearly not true) and a decrease in children’s usage (arguably not true) has put this woeful lack of information into the spotlight like never before. It is therefore opportune that on to this stage strolls Becky Cole who has come up with the dangerously innovative idea of seeing how much decision making is actually based on evidence.  Help her if you can.
• The decision in the Lincolnshire court case in favour of the council.  This has been a hard-fought campaign and for the council – who lost, let us remember, the initial case – to argue that it wasted money is for them to simply not understand the need for adequate oversight and, even more basically, in some aspects the rule of law itself.  Things now bode ill for libraries in the county but one doubts that anyone but the councillors involved would argue with a straight face that the money lost in court would have been spent on libraries. The decision also shows the limits of the courts in these matters: they can see if something is legally alright only.  What makes sense for the people and library users of a borough depends, quite rightly, on the politicians and so when those same politicians need correcting it is only another higher up politico that can intervene – and the minister in charge of libraries has made sure he won’t intervene in any circumstances.
• Perhaps it took a week to show it but, my goodness, what a lot of new libraries there is out there. Of course, this depends largely on co-locations and the willingness of developers to stump up cash, which may well cause inequalities nationwide – it’s easy to find a developer in London, less so in Liverpool – but it’s something positive and for that let us be truly grateful.
• Herefordshire – they tried to close all but one library there a few years ago and, my goodness, they’re trying again this year. Whoopee doo. The aim is for there to be Hereford Central and everything else to be volunteers. Expect to see more protest there … unless that is the repeated attempts to cut the service is wearing down opposition there.

Changes

• Cambridgeshire – Milton Road Library may move into new development.
• Camden – West Hampstead Library may move into new development to save it from closure.
• Croydon – 2.5 FTE staff to be lost.
• East Sussex – Official opening of Newhaven Library (opened in March).
• Herefordshire – All libraries except Hereford (Central) to be passed to volunteers or closed. Bromyard, Kington and Ledbury to have fully self service libraries. (at least 3 under threat)
• Liverpool – 5 libraries to be taken out from council control: Breck Road and Dovecot libraries to be managed by Alt Valley Community Trust (AVCT); Fazakerley Library is to be managed by Fazakerley Federation; Kensington Library will be taken on by Kensington Fields Community Association and others; Walton Library to be run by Mersey Care. 2 others (Sefton Park and West Derby) fate to be decided.
• Merton – Donald Hope Library £1.2m upgrade, paid for by development. Temporary library for site for  2 years while work takes place.
• Stockton – £2.7m Billingham Library (co-located) officially opened.
• Swansea – Central Library may change location.

Ideas

• Storymob – Like a flashmob but story-related, including dressing like the characters.
• Use Tor as library browser – Improve Tor speeds and improve privacy of library users.

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Editorial

Mr Vaizey has formally launched the Wifi in libraries scheme which will see an initial 100 libraries wifi’d up through the aid of two private companies, with the promise of at least the possibility of more to come. Barclays and BT will also offer on-site help to users. More locally, Cornwall has delayed passing off its libraries to someone else (presumably not Barclays and BT) for a short while and the judicial review hearing over Lincolnshire has included some gems like the council lawyer saying that the case is moot because many library staff have already received their redundancy notices.  This was said, presumably, to suggest that “de facto” beats “de jure”. We’ll see what the judge says about that soon.

Finally, Wirral Council have made the memorable suggestion that due to the libraries with severely cut opening times issuing more books per surviving open hour, they are “more efficient”, despite seeing large drops in actual issue numbers.  Nice one Wirral. That sort of sophistry would never have stood in the old days when there was a possibility of intervention but it’s now safe, and indeed probably resulted in pats on the back in the public relations office. After all, the Minister responsible (and who forcefully argued while in opposition for intervention in the Wirral) is now distracted by more important things. Like getting private companies to offer something that he should have made sure was universal in public libraries years ago.

Ideas

• Book packs in neonatal hospital wards

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Editorial

There’s a couple of legal stories today – Lincolnshire will be in High Court again next week over their plans to cut the library budget and Vale of Glamorgan is facing a judicial review hearing in September or October over their plans (or, rather, lack of them) for Rhoose Library. The thing here is that, even in these days of ever tighter legal restrictions it’s still possible for campaigners to claim legal aid … and I know of two law firms (Public Interest Lawyers and Watkins & Gunn) with previous (and often successful) experience in public libraries keen to take on new cases.  That’s the good news for campaigners.  The good news for councils is that this is all avoidable. Please consult in good conscience, plan to take into account equal opportunities legislation and take things seriously, even about the supposed paper tiger that is the Public Libraries and Museums Act. Just deciding on cuts and aiming to ride roughshod over opposition is likely to get a council into some quite expensive and entirely avoidable legal problems.  Do it right and things are faster and cheaper in the long term.  And shouldn’t we be aiming to do it right anyway?

Changes

• Derby – Deep cuts to all services, statutory or otherwise – consultation to include cuts to libraries.
• Vale of Glamorgan – Judicial review court case to be heard in September or October over Rhoose Library.
• Wolverhampton – £500k cut per year (from previous £1.7m spend). May be opening hour cuts (inc. Central Library), some closures, volunteers.

Ideas

• Humorous signs on library vans – such as “Dr Jekyll’s Pharmacy” (Thanks to Stephen Heywood for this link – do email ianlibrarian@live.co.uk if you spot other good ideas that need publicising).

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