It’s tough being a Minister having to put as good as possible spin on things when there’s a crisis.  The basic first step, of course. is to deny there is a crisis at all.  This is what Ed Vaizey the Minister for Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries did when he spoke at the Local Government Association Conference on 7th March.  He admitted that authorities face difficult choices, caused by a crippling budget deficit and that this meant that everyone had to “cut their cloth” accordingly but then put the best possible of glosses onto the effect of this.  This is not to say that the speech falsifies real or important improvements in the sector: Mr Vaizey was quite right that there are some and that they are very real, notably the pilot introducing library cards to all schoolchildren and the work being done partnering libraries with businesses. Rather, the speech resolutely avoided all mention of anything else and then claimed that, therefore, nothing bad was happening. The first half of the speech took this line about the Arts and then the second – more relevant to the purposes of this website – took the same line about libraries.  This must have been especially difficult for Mr Vaizey, and his audience, considering the LGA have just a few months ago said that libraries could become “almost unsustainable” due to cuts and with rises in other costs.

Let’s look at Ed’s point in detail, in the order he mentions them,  I have added in links and put in my comments in italics.

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World Book Day is here and I’ll be reading stories in schools on the day.  Today (Wednesday) I did a school assembly and four class visits. On Saturday, my library will be the only place in town where children can exchange their £1 book vouchers.  The Day is a brilliant boost for the most important skill that a person can have – reading.  Such activity in libraries goes on everywhere and there will be multitudes visiting or hearing about libraries and the joy of reading on the day nationally and in one hundred more countries worldwide. That’s the plus side, now read Lucy Mangan’s article for the down side. 

More downside, too, in council decisions up and down the country.  There have been more cuts in Newport (including two libraries becoming unstaffed and the closure of its Bibliographic Services Unit) and the loss of a mobile in Nottingham.  All is not dark, though, as at the same time, a refurbished library has reopened in Nottinghamshire.  Another council starting with N – Newcastle – is deciding its budget as I write, Twitter reports on the session say it has been extended and is descending into personal insults, with at least one councillor in tears and commentators comparing the scenes to a “primary school playground”.  Unlike children, though, these councillors are deciding on closing libraries.  Liverpool have also agreed to today in Council to consult on closing ten libraries.  Library closures are becoming, these days, rather common, World Book Day or no.

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Some news from Holland surprised me today: a private company is taking over four branches for half of the current cost.  It is not known what the service level agreement is but that kind of puts the current deals in the UK in perspective.  By the way, there is no statutory provision for libraries in Holland so there have been some very heavy cuts of up to 100% (yes, 100%) in some authorities.  However, I understand, that although 80% of library services are facing cuts 2010-14, most are facing a maximum 10% cut.  So, the overall situation is four times better (yes, libraries in the UK are facing up to a 40% cut) than in the UK but individual authorities have more carte blanche to make their public libraries a lot worse, or even non-existent, than here.

Mind you, just before we think “it could be worse”, it was pointed out to me today that the standard maximum distance to a city library has being going up quickly over the last couple of years:

• Library standards to 2008 – 95% within 1 mile; 100% within 2 miles
• Welsh standards (and Bolton Council 2011) – 95% within 1.5 miles
• Manchester (2013) – “most within 2 miles”

The brings home the fact, of course, that there really is nothing really “standard” any more, at least in England.  With no clear, let alone enforceable, guidelines in the UK and a government (and an opposition too) that is highly unlikely to intervene, each authority effectively has carte blanche to push the boundaries as far as they like.  Expect the first proud boast of “most perople are still within 3 miles” at any time.

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John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS) have caused confusion in Croydon by, apparently, changing their offer – on staff pensions – at the last moment. This means the contract has to go back out to tender.  Regardless of how one feels about private companies running libraries, this is hardly looking to be a textbook advert for outsourcing library services.  The whole point of the process is supposed to be to save money, not spend more and more with nothing to show from it.  Tendering has already cost Croydon at least £94,000 with no end in sight.  Even when a bidder is finally chosen, it is the stated desire of Labour councillors to return libraries to public control if they become the party in power again – which, with nightmares like this, seems more likely by the day.  In a time when every penny is sacred for councils, getting the tendering out of services wrong is starting to look like a dangerous and expensive distraction.

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Councils have, over the last couple of years, got a lot cleverer at keeping branches open while cutting costs.  The different ways they’re doing this can be seen in the articles below. A few libraries (one in Kent and one in Worcestershire) will be transferred from county council control to that of the parish, with volunteers to some extent taking on the workload.  In another alternative to straight closure, a library building in Kirklees looks likely to be sold off, with the books and staff being co-located in the town hall. Meanwhile, a Somerset Library will move a children’s centre and extend its hours with self-service machines and volunteers. Finally, in a welcome reversal of trend, Hampshire have announced a refurbishment and, with the help of self-service machines, an extension of opening hours at Hythe despite an expected 20% cut in budget over four years.

There’s many other approaches being tried too, although one that notably hasn’t as far as I am aware is that argued for by Tim Coates – he of ex-Waterstones and now Bilbary fame – who has renewed his call for the standardisation of book processing and for a radical reduction in back-room costs.  Desmond Clarke agrees, pointing out that mergers of library services saves money but recent history has seen a fragmentation instead.  The strangeness of this division can be seen in Hull where a library is being closed partly because 12% of its users come from another authority and so don’t seem to count.  They’re just the wrong kind of users. An ending to this kind of divisive thinking would indeed be an acorn of hope.

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