Editorial

Congratulations to LIz Jolly who becomes the chief librarian at the British Library shortly. I don’t often mention the BL, which to some extent is a worrying sign, either for me for missing it or for the BL for not doing enough. Having said that, the BL has definitely upped its game with public libraries noticeably over the last few years. Once upon a time only known in public library circles for its harsh and bossy attitude when it came to inter-lending books, the national library is now branching out into business outlets in various libraries and has recently put its toe in the water with screenings of readings in a a limited number of libraries. It’s unclear why they’re limited – the joy of digital technology is that the same thing is freely replicable an infinite number of times – but it’s better than the nothing we had before and hopefully one day they’ll cease the artificial limit, which is on offer to only a few chosen (it’s not clear how) library services. The recent Harry Potter tour is also to be welcomed as is an increasing involvement in discussions on public libraries at national level. However, to too many of us, the British Library remains a distant establishment. It’s still more a London Library With Good Intentions than something which, hand on heart, feels national to those of us in the majority who do not live in the capital. I hope Liz, who I have respect for, and others there continue and expand on the good work begun. And, perhaps, the days of prohibitive high late charges and bossy inter-lending notes will be forgotten, as will the attitude that we (mistakenly or not) assumed came with it.

Changes by local authority

• Bath and North East Somerset – Saltford volunteer library to include post office.
• East Lothian – Opening hours changes in line with usage / cuts + increases in various branches.
• Hampshire – £362k refurbishment of Totton Library.
• Newcastle – Social landlord “Your Homes Newcastle” withdrawing from partnership in Fenham Library. Gym and café to be opened in library instead.
• Staffordshire – Local rotary club takes over Brereton Library.
• Trafford – Timperley Library sold to developer, replacement planned.
• Warrington – New Bewsey and Dallam Community Hub including library still being considered, although without Livewire funding.
• West Lothian – No libraries to close, after campaign.

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Editorial

The Society of Chief Librarians has been subcontracted by French company Sopra Steria to provide assistance for visa applicants from October 2018. The SCL press release says its for 56 library services, although other news reports, including Sopra Steria, say 56 libraries, which is quite a difference. The process seems quite involved, with the need to submit “biometric information including photos, fingerprints, and signatures and their supporting evidence at a single appointment”. My twitter feed, naturally full of library campaigners, is raising lots of questions about neutrality, training, confidentiality, work time and if library staff would be obliged to report anyone who it turned out was in the country illegally. I’m sure all of this has been thought out and so I have emailed the new Chief Exec Isobel Hunter to ask these questions and look forward to an answer. For the SCL, the reasons for taking on the contract are fairly clear – raising profile, and income, from amongst the government.  I just hope, though,  no-one from the government has looked at the SCL website recently, which is still leading on news from 2016 and promotes five (not six) Universal Offers. I hope the website will be overhauled soon with the forthcoming name change for the organisation.

Changes

• Kent – Bockhanger Library building to be demolished, service to be probably replaced by mobile.
• Leicestershire – 14 libraries confirmed to have staffless technology installed.
• Stoke on Trent – Tunstall Library will move from Victoria Institute to Town Hall

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Editorial

Two volunteer libraries in two weeks have announced they can’t go on due to lack of finance. This is in addition to the three in Lincolnshire that folded due to the charity that ran them closing down, and which have now temporarily been taken over by GLL. While still only small numbers, this is as many volunteer branches getting into trouble in a month as I can recall in the last five years. Indeed, the resilience of these branches has been most impressive up to now. However, as councils provide less and less support to community groups, and indeed sometimes none at all, we can expect these five no to be the last, and possibly a harbinger of things to come. After all, something for nothing is rarely a viable business strategy,

The Telegraph has written a piece critical of staffless libraries and an Observer journalist has tweeted what a “sham” they are. The conversion of UK libraries to “open” technology is picking up pace and now rivals the adoption rate of any country in the world. It remains to be seen as to if such a negative response is indicative of a genuine problem for councils or it’s similar to the initial criticism of self-service machines, now generally adopted in the country. I suspect, like self-service, it depends on why it has been adopted. If it’s to blatantly replace paid staff and to give a paper provision that is deeply inferior in practice, then may will feel the rotten eggs deserve to be thrown. If it is genuinely an extension of the service then the adoption is to be welcomes. Sadly, in many library authorities, it is too often the former.

Finally, it’s great to see some academic research come out on the impact of cuts to library services. Few studies have been done on this subject and some that have been are too obviously biased. So it is to be welcomed and, I hope, used.

Changes

• East Sussex –  Polegate, Pevensey Bay, Willingdon, Ringmer, Mayfield and Ore libraries plus mobile library closed.
• Leicestershire – Wigston volunteer library may close after community group who ran it for two years pulls out.
• Monmouthshire – Abergavenny co-location (library, council, careers, learning) has cost £100k planning, may cost £2m in total.
• Shropshire – Police station co-locates with Shrewsbury Library.
• Western Isles – Mobile library replacement delayed.

The Write Time, Write Place programme of creative writing workshops for beginners in Libraries 

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Editorial

Two things that spark my interest today. The first is the continuing, and little publicised outside of the county, move by Cornwall to transfer numerous branches to town and parish councils. The media suggests Bude-Stratton, Redruth, Camelford, Falmouth, Launceston, St Ives, Bodmin, Camborne, St Austell and Penryn are all being transferred this way. This makes sense as lower-tier councils are not capped in the same way as top-tier ones and of course there’s co-locations happening in a few of these. Cornwall are clearly going for it big time with this option, as are a handful of others such as Swindon. I’d also expect others are quietly exploring this route.

The second is a couple of mentions of staffless/open libraries. Leicestershire are installing a lot of this in their libraries and, interestingly, one branch which is not having it is described as “missing out” in the local press. Such a description would not one suspect be shared by the Irish “Staff Our Libraries” which has uncovered evidence of widespread and repeated examples of people using the libraries without library cards. including children. It’s worth noting that there appears to be little actual problem or serious incident with this, yet, but the worry has to be that something really bad will happen in one of these branches and the council will then have to prove due care and attention was given. Something to weigh up when doing the risk assessment at least, including in Bristol where a few libraries will be going down this “extended access” route shortly.

Changes

• Cornwall – St Ives Library to be transferred to town council.
• Coventry – Earlsdon volunteer library may close, blaming lack of council support.
• North Somerset – Widespread reduction in opening hours.

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Changes

• Angus – 2 new mobile libraries (£270k investment)
• Sefton – Maghull Library halved in size due to co-location with gym.

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