Editorial

A good point has been made in Leon’s Library Blog about a trend which has been notable in recent years of public libraries effectively being farmed off to parish/town councils. This maintains the service but causes other problems. At the moment, though, as with volunteers, the mere fact that the library service survives is seen as reason enough to do it by many.  Expect to see this becoming a standard weapon in the armoury of cutting councils, if it is not already, from big rural authorities like North Yorkshire to smaller urban ones like Swindon.

Changes

• Bradford – Volunteer libraries open in Methodist churches in Lees, Oxenhope and Haworth to replace mobile library stops.
• East Renfrewshire – School library service to close.

Idea

• Don’t ask for marital status when joining a new library member – is irrelevant and avoids incorrect terminology e.g. with LGBT community.
• Hunt for a golden ticket – Find the bookmark, win a prize.  Could be a good compo for the Roald Dahl themed Summer Reading Challenge this year.

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Editorial

The campaign for public libraries hotted up still further with the Speak Up For Libraries lobbying for parliament. Some great speeches were made. Sadly, it looks like the only national news source to pay attention was the Guardian, although it has to be said that that newspaper has covered a lot of library stories recently.  However, it’s only when Conservative papers like the Telegraph start paying attention that one feels a breakthrough will have been made.

In other news, more details of the deep cuts announced in West Berkshire and some new information about cuts to Darlington.  Both authorities would, if cuts happen as proposed, be down to nearly one library each, like Swindon proposed last week.  This looks like the new lowest level in the “race to the bottom” that councils are willing to go to with cutting libraries.  After all, it’d be hard for even the current minister to keep a straight face about the statutory importance of libraries if a council proposed no libraries.  Although one feels that even that is only a matter of time. Deep library closures in rural areas may be less than expected, however, as it looks like the Government is reducing the level of cuts in the countryside at least in the next year or two.

News

• Darlington – Cockerton, Crown Street and mobile libraries may close. Replacement library at the Dolphin Centre.
• Warwickshire – Southam Library opens (part of £12.4m development project)
• West Berkshire – Confirmed that 7 out of 9 libraries under threat (Wash Common, Burghfield Common, Hungerford, Lambourn, Pangbourne, Theale and Mortimer).

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Editorial

Swindon are introducing some of the toughest cuts in the country to their library service, aiming to keep just one council-run out of 15 at the end of the review.  The council directly quotes recent DCMS guidance saying that this is allowed.

In other news, the SCL are inviting one senior librarian from each service to attend its annual two-day session in order to work out how to cope with the drastic budget reductions being introduced as a result of central government austerity and the removal of effective statutory protection. Not that the SCL phrases the invite like that but everyone attending will know full well why the conference is being called “Changing Horizons: challenges, trends and new ways of delivering“. It is the job of chief librarians, after all, to implement some really hard choices and they need to learn about how best to do it.

Conservative libraries minister Ed Vaizey, whose government is mostly responsible for these tough times, will be speaking (to be fair, the SCL would invite any relevant minister, regardless of their record – it’s just that they’re Conservative this decade and the Conservatives, lest we forget, are in power due to the electorate) at the meeting as will also be, I notice, a former RAF fighter pilot as well as one or two genuine library experts such as Professor David Lankes. Although costing up to £435, the two days were fully booked last year.  Many senior managers appreciate the chance to discuss issues in private, with the invitation letter saying “Times are hard, budgets are tight, and the planning team know how difficult it is to justify attendance at the Seminar, but we know how much you value the time to reflect and to talk about the development of our services”. In their position, I’d want to do the same thing.

Those wanting to know what’s going on at those meetings but who are not senior librarians will likely be disappointed. If previous years are anything to go by, a minimum of publicly available information will come out of these sessions.

Changes

• Brent – Abandons proposed move to libraries non-profit trust. £160k budget cut will therefore be made in another way.
• East Ayrshire – Kilmaurs Library closed, Dalmellington Library closed, Mauchline Library closed.
• Lincolnshire – Deepings Library reopens as volunteer-run with one paid member of staff.
• Northumberland – Leisure/Library Trust asks for £1m bailout: £3.5m cut to Trust over 2 years.
• Oxfordshire – Bicester to move into new £6.6m co-location on 11 April. Library to be “larger and have better facilities”.
• Pembrokeshire – Newport Library may close or become volunteer.
• Swindon – 14 out of 15 libraries to become volunteer/group run or close.

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Editorial

There was a pretty much unprecedented response, in terms of blog reads and comments,  to the President of the Society of Chief Librarians’ post on the previous edition of Public Libraries News.  Some, not all, of the responses can best be characterised as extremely opposed, although I personally understood the SCL position a bit better at the end of it, even if I wish they’d start putting their head at least a little above the parapet. I don’t want to enter the fray too much again here, perhaps I have done too much to stoke the fires as it is, but would recommend you read the comments on the previous post if you want to understand it all. For me, I can at least take comfort that all sides genuinely and deeply care for the service and with the fervent hope that numerous chief librarians and library staff will jolly well get on the board with the #MyLibraryByRight campaign anyway. And also that everyone involved will sign the petition for goodness sake, and get people you know to sign it as well.

Changes

• Berkshire Education Library Service – To close from March 2017.
• West Berkshire – 3 week consultation includes cuts to libraries.
• Wokingham – Consultation: focus on “on accessing library services, library stock, visiting and using library buildings, technology, income generation and supporting the wider council vision.”

Ideas

• Apply to YA Shot for author visits
• Community skill sharing – workshops and courses provided by community members. In the village of Red Hook these recently included languages, bee-keeping, brewing and maple tree tapping.
• Memory Lab – a project funded by the Library of Congress raising awareness of personal archiving and digitising. The Memory Lab will be a free DIY space where the public can transfer obsolete formats such as VHS and audio cassettes to digital files
• Patron request system – automatically buy one copy of any book or DVD the first cardholder in the service asks for.
• “Senior Services” – “a relaxed, comfortable area with armchairs, newspapers, book and dedicated programming, giving senior citizens a homelier library space. “

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Editorial

My twitter feed was full of people being angry about the new scheme where two thousand Halifax Bank employees will help with IT training in public libraries. The scheme, brokered by the Society of Chief Librarians is supposed to greatly increase the amount of training sessions available.   The anger was not over that but the commercialisation of libraries it implies. When many of us were trained, perhaps too many years ago now, one of the key things we were taught was not to show bias towards a particular company.  When I do talks to people one of the key things I say is that we provide a place, alone in the town centre, free of commercial adverts and people wanting your money.  Halifax argue that nothing has changed and the training is done entirely impartially.  However, even taking into account their benevolence, there is an obvious clash of values here that is nowhere acknowledged in the official coverage.  Perhaps in these days of frequent cuts (South Gloucestershire gets it in the neck today) neutrality is something we cannot afford and we take what help we can. Or perhaps in these times it is more important than ever (like having quiet study spaces) and we forget about it at our peril.

Keeping with the SCL, it is regrettable, but not surprising, that they have failed directly to support the #MyLibraryByRight CILIP campaign.  The SCL has always seen itself as an apolitical organisation which cannot, as a collection of council employees, make any overt stand on the big issues of the day. Rather, the body works – as well as what amounts to a largely voluntary organisation of hundreds of equal members can – to provide some sort of national training, initiatives and co-ordination.  At the end of the day, if ever a history of this dark chapter in libraries is written, the SCL are unlikely therefore to be seen as the heroes of the story. But they would argue, as the old CILIP used to, that they work better behind the scenes and do more that way than by waving placards. CILIP have realised that that simply does not work, for them, in the current climate. But SCL are in a different situation (or at least think they are) and see things differently. On other hand, the Society of Authors and the Reading Agency (neither of which are run by librarians) have no such scruples and have come out in support of the campaign. Well done to them.

Changes

• Bradford – Idle Library now volunteer run.
• Shropshire – Shrewsbury Library to be taken over by town council: council will move into library.
• South Gloucestershire – £1 million cut. Chipping Sodbury Library to close or pass to volunteers, Opening hours cut borough wide (£500k), home library service to end. Another option is to close 14 of the 19 (£600k).

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