Editorial

Protests Local news from all over the place, with the stand out for me being the strike and protests in Lambeth. The Carnegie UK Library Lab winners for this year are announced tomorrow so more information on them with the next post. Finally, due to the horrible events in Belgium, the release of BBC research into changes/cuts to public libraries, including a series of BBC radio (and some television) pieces, have been pushed back to next week.  I was involved in helping out in small ways with the research at various stages but not seen the final report as yet.

Changes

• Camden – New (replacement) library, combined with Cockpit Arts, as part of housing development.
• Northumberland – Guide Post library to close: library service to move into Cleaswell Hill Centre, along with school library service. Morpeth Library to be temporarily co-located. Co-locations also at Ashington, Bedlington, Blyth and Cramlington. Back office functions to be centralised at County Hall.

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Editorial

In the first time I can remember, the DCMS has told a council it cannot close libraries until it does things properly.  Normally, the DCMS barely notices but, this time, the radical decision by West Berkshire to close all but one of its libraries, with insufficient regard to its population, has prompted a different response. The ministry has said West Berkshire Council will need to produce a proper needs assessment before it is sure it can meet its requirements under equality legislation and, importantly, the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act.  As such, the council has had to find £425k of money (this is hardly generous – it was previously cut from the libraries budget after all, and seems to have some from a special pot)  to keep at least some of its libraries open until it can show it has done the technical legal minimum. It’s worth pointing out that the minister is unlikely to stop the drastic cut to just one library once it has done so, but at least the ministry is saying that the law needs to be followed first. That, for this government, which takes such a laissez faire approach to council cuts, is actually – sad to say – enough to make this the most significant intervention since 2010.

“Discussions with DCMS revealed the need for a detailed Needs Assessment to inform any changes to the way Libraries operate. Research will be commissioned to provide this before finalising the future structure and scope of the service … The Council will fail in its equality duty, and also its statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service under the Public Libraries and Museums Act, if it proceeds with a major reduction in its Libraries service without due process. I recommend the proposal be reconsidered so that libraries are retained pending the outcome and recommendations of an independent Needs Assessment”  Equality Impact Assessment Template – Stage Two – West Berkshire Council.

Ever had the nightmare of worrying what would happen if your library data went down the drain? Well, Barnet are living through it.  Here’s their council report on what caused the catastrophic loss of their library data and how it is, in particular, really messing up their Open+ branches, as well as losing them income.  Heaven knows what it is doing to their credibility as well. Now’s the time to check your systems and your back-ups, people.

Changes

• Barking and Dagenham – £1.7m budget (-52% since 2009/10)
• Blackpool – £1.9m budget (-11.9% since 2009/10)
• Buckinghamshire – £4.8m budget (-48.2% since 2009/10)
• Camden – £4.2m budget (-41.7% since 2009/10)
• Essex – £17.2m budget (-35.5% since 2009/10)
• Gateshead – £3.2m budget (-27.9% since 2009/10)
• Hammersmith and Fulham – £2.9m budget (-30.5% since 2009/10)
• Harrow – £2.4m budget (-54.9% since 2009/10)
• Herefordshire – £1.5m budget (-47.9% since 2009/10)
• Isle of Wight – £1.1m budget (-45% since 2009/10)
• Kirklees – The Sun pub in Lepton opens 600 book collection after closure of library.
• Leicestershire – £7.3m budget (-33% since 2009/10)
• Middlesbrough – £1.2m budget (-57.3% since 2009/10)
• Newcastle Upon Tyne – £8.8m budget (-22.7% since 2009/10)
• Orkney – Mobile library under threat.
• Peterborough – £800k budget (-69.2% since 2009/10)
• Plymouth – £3m budget (-47.7% since 2009/10)
• Redcar and Cleveland – £2.1m budget (-55.5% since 2009/10)
• Sunderland – £3.7m budget (30.4% since 2009/10)
• Wandsworth – £4.3m budget (-34.4% since 2009/10)
• Warwickshire – £4.1m budget (-52.9% since 2009/10)
• West Berkshire – Six libraries given temporary reprieve (cut reduced in first year by £475k): Theale and Wash Common not included in reprieve.
• Windsor and Maidenhead – £3m budget (-1.8% since 2009/10)

Ideas

• Arrange a conference for schools on well-being through reading
• Talks on how to raise chickens, with actual live chickens.

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Editorial

The Department for Work and Pensions has announced that job advisors will be placed in different settings including libraries.  It’s been interesting to see the negative response from some tweeters about the cost to the public library service in terms of damaged neutrality, making the service more linked, in the public mind at least, to the government. It may indeed turn off some people from coming into the library, being worried that the DWP officers will spot them doing something they shouldn’t. On the other hand, of course, supporters of the scheme would say that this will improve the service to the user – professionals being emplaced to help get people employed is not a bad thing after all.  Government will also likely place more value on libraries if they see them as somewhere they can reach the hard to reach. The scheme is therefore not entirely good and not entirely bad: like so many things, it lies somewhere in the continuum between the two.  We all need to be think through the implications to our own libraries.

And now for something a bit more, well, librarian, than most of the news normally contained here. My thanks to Graham Bell, the executive director of EDItEUR, to agreeing to explain something I simply had no idea about: the new subject classification theme called Thema. The piece is too long for being part of this post (so it gets its own page) but I recommend it to you if have you have an interest in saving money, being international, or, actually, simply in the ordering and finding of books, which is kind of important, still, for most public librarians.  See this page for the article.

Changes

• Wokingham – 3 libraries (Wokingham, Woodley and Lower Earley) to have unstaffed hours using Open+ to extend opening hours. (For more information on Open+ see this page)

Ideas

• Update book/e-book covers with creative commons non-commercial images

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Editorial

Big protests in Lancashire and Lambeth against library cuts have taken place, with the London one benefitting from the prevalence of celebrities that live in or near the capital. The situation in Lancashire is worsening, with several branches having temporary reduced hours due to shortages of staff.  Hollowing out what used to be one of the best library services in the country is clearly continuing apace. No less than 40 of its branches (one fifth of all libraries places under threat in the last year) will soon turn volunteer or close.

The DCMS reply to queries over the number of libraries being under threat was very interesting. Basically, because CIPFA only asks for the number of service points each library authority has open, the argument is that one cannot tell how many have closed.  So, if there are 4000 branches one year and 3900 the next, one can’t say definitively that 100 have closed.  It’s possible that one (or five or ten) new library has come online meaning the figure could be 101 (or 106 or 111) have closed, therefore one cannot – the argument seems to go – use the CIPFA figures. It’s an interesting argument and one that shows the weakness in the CIPFA figures and has, of course, nothing to do with a political desire to underplay what is happening.  A better way needs to be made to keep count.

Finally, a beautiful story from Orkney Libraries, whose award-winning Twitter account was responsible for JK Rowling travelling there to attend a reading group. Major credit to the Orkney Twitterer and also, of course, to the wonderful JK Rowling.  Watch out, incidentally, for the new book “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” – it’s slated as coming in as adult non-fiction, which is unlikely to be where users will look for it on the shelves.

Changes

• Lancashire – Staffing shortages mean temporary reduced hours at at least five libraries (Leyland, Upholland, Skelmersdale, Ormskirk and Parbold)
• South Ayrshire – 3 libraries (Coylton, Dailly and Dundonald) to close. 10 others (Alloway, Ballantrae, Carnegie, Forehill, Girvan, Maybole, Mossblown, Symington, Tarbolton and Troon) to reduce opening hours. Total cut: £150k per year.

Ideas

• Book Fair game – to get kids (and adults) thinking about books.
• Fitness bikes – some exercise bikes allow you to read at the same time as you pedal.
• Virtual reality in the library – various options examined.

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Editorial

So I have a page listing what august publications have linked to Public Libraries News or quoted it. One of the first I put on there, many years ago when I was impressed by such things, was the House of Commons Library which mentioned the total number of threatened libraries which I had pieced together.  It was therefore with some deja vu that I read their new report (I wonder if they do one every five years) and noticed me quoted again.  Not that my name is mentioned. No, apparently I’m an “online campaign group”, which is amusing. It then notes that while the blog covers the issue, “the DCMS has not made any assessment of the accuracy of the information” which I publish. That is also a bit funny as I know they use the website quite a lot. So how come the caution? Everything I count has the original source linked to. Just click on the links guys. Hmm, odd.

The same research paper notes that the DCMS estimate the number of library closures in England since 2010 as a mere 110. As anyone with half an interest in the subject knows, this is a laughably low figure and can only, charitably, have been reached if every library which has become staffed by volunteers is not counted as closed.  Which means the DCMS is counting them as statutory. Which goes directly against what the minister has said time and again.  They’re also not counting mobile libraries, naturally. The report also then mentions 77 new public libraries in the same period. Wow, sounds like a golden time. Of course, they don’t mention the majority of these are replacements or co-locations.  The DCMS also seems unaware of the official CIPFA figures when quoting the figure of 110. Which is strange, as Ed Vaizey has this very week very carefully quoted them to show an increase in libraries in Wiltshire (I assume they took some time looking down the list until they came to a service which reported an increase  – they must have been getting very frantic as they got all the way down to the Ws) and that Labour-controlled Wales had a decline in comparison. It almost looks like, and imagine my shock at this, that the government is selectively quoting figures to back up its case and carefully ignoring anything which may get in the way of their rose-tinted narrative. Shocked gasps all round.

Anyway, I spent Saturday in the glorious library at Oldham.  They were holding a TEDx there.  It was a sold out event and absolutely fascinating. The auditorium at Oldham can only fit around eighty so it’s possible to hold these at many other libraries too.  Think of the street cred for your library service if you do.  I also spent a good hour or two walking around the building.  I was seriously impressed by it and there were some good ideas there. All in all, I recommend a visit to you all.  Just don’t be put off by their naff website if you do plan a visit. Read my review of the place here.

Changes

• Aberdeen – Proposed cuts to libraries withdrawn.
• Manchester – Chorlton Library to be refurbished
• Nottingham – Bakersfield and Sneinton Libraries to close: to be replaced by library in refurbished police station.
• Staffordshire – Lichfield Library may move to St Mary’s
• Telford and Wrekin – Stirchley Library to move to parish council offices and be run by them.
• Walsall – Threatened libraries (Beechdale, Blakenhall, New Invention, Rushall, South Walsall, Walsall Wood and Pleck) to remain open. £211k proposed cut withdrawn. Aldridge, Bloxwich, Brownhills and Willenhall libraries to have extended opening hours via Open+

Ideas

• Drag Queen storytimes
• Lockers for visitors
• Robot librarian to take users to the book
• Food for fines – St Helen’s waives fines if donations are given to food bank.
• TEDx – Host a TEDx talk at your library, like Oldham did.

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