Ed Vaizey has responded to three of the most branch-cutting authorities to say that he is not currently minded to intervene in any of them.  In other words, he sees the loss of 5 out of 15 branches in Bolton, 5 out of 12 in Lewisham and 5 out of 11 in the Isle of Wight as acceptable.

A lose of a third to nearly a half of total service points would normally be seen as quite major but the letter shows that this it is not sufficient to merit intervention.  The main reason put forward for this is that the five branches lost in each case were the smallest ones and so represent only small amounts of active borrowers, being 13% in Bolton and 18% in the Isle of Wight, with the real number being smaller due to some users visiting larger branches as well. Mr Vaizey does not tell us the percentage of active users affected in Lewisham but indirectly notes that 17% of visits and 23% of book issues were in the closed branches in 2009/10.

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News

• Libraries are the beating heart – Teen Librarian Toolbox (USA). A truly beautiful piece of writing that everyone involved in deciding on the future of libraries, especially the politicians, should read:

… “For 19 years I had the distinct honor of living in Ohio communities with thriving libraries that beat loudly as the heart of their communities.  And now I live in a community without one (I commute 45 minutes to work).  There is no magic in the air here, just commerce and industry and asphalt.  There is no smell of leather and paper.  Dreams and magic don’t waft in the air.  Children don’t sing and shake eggs as their parents sit together and participate in community.  Everywhere you turn it seems we are running out of money; but what happens when we stop our beating heart from beating?  What happens to our communities when we shut the doors on the past and put out the flames of the future?  What happens when we get rid of our librarians who teach our children to sing and dance and shake an egg and love a good story?  What happens when we forget to think and dream, to ask and to answer questions?”

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“As the policy states, SCL supports volunteering. In some cases local policy will mean that this can result in job substitution.” Tony Durcan of the Society of Chief Librarians on its volunteering policy.  See SCL on volunteers replacing staff – Question Everything

The above quotation, elaborating on the SCL policy on volunteers, clearly states (rather than skirting around the issue) for the first time that the SCL accepts direct substitution of paid members of staff by volunteers in certain circumstances.  Its doing so will shock very few people who have had an awareness of what has been happening in library authorities over the last couple of years.  I would recommend everyone in the profession who thinks they have job security (can there be anyone like that?) to read the complete article here. An explanation of why it is different to the recently adopted policy of CILIP, which is clearly against substitution, can be found in a comment on  this previous Public Libraries News blog post:

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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.

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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.”

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