Editorial

Some good articles, all from abroad, on the importance of libraries, including one looking at heavy investment in the sector in Abu Dhabi.  Another is from the continuously inspiring Ferguson Library in the USA with a look at how things are going one year after the riots there. There’s also a good article by, wait for it, a librarian leaving the job in order to be a nun. Even if you’re not religious (and I’m not), this is a surprisingly relevant article which addresses the true fact that one works in libraries because of a belief in public service. In this country, depressingly, there’s the normal national stories about declines to library budgets and local stories about volunteers needing to take over the buildings, but there’s also two libraries moving into new buildings.  I’ve also revamped an old page that now lists 23 examples in the UK of public library services getting together to save money or improve the service and, ideally, both.

Finally, there’s a request from a researcher helping with the English Public Libraries Taskforce for information on what your library provides.  It’s worth completing even if you don’t know the answer to all the questions. The more information these pe

Changes

• Birmingham – Tourist Information Centre closed at the Library of Birmingham.
• Plymouth – Central Library planned to move to Armada Way
• Staffordshire – Stafford Library moving to new building in Staffordshire Place, expected to be open in September. Additions will include “digital touch tables”, innovation suite (including 3D printers and Raspberry Pi’s)

Ideas

• Self-publishing machine – provide printed books on demand almost covering costs.

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Editorial

Well, I’ve been away for a week (camping in beautiful Essex) so there’s a lot of new to report on.  The big news stories for me are:

• The absence of definitive data on public library usage and numbers.  As you can imagine, I’ve noticed this for years as this my humble blog has been seized upon by national media, politicians and anyone interested to fill in some of the gaps in knowledge. The official data from CIPFA is inadequate for a number of reasons (variances in interpreting the data, the voluntary nature of its collection and the fact that you have to pay hundreds of pounds for it being just three) for years. However, having the government claim that there was an increase in public libraries (clearly not true) and a decrease in children’s usage (arguably not true) has put this woeful lack of information into the spotlight like never before. It is therefore opportune that on to this stage strolls Becky Cole who has come up with the dangerously innovative idea of seeing how much decision making is actually based on evidence.  Help her if you can.
• The decision in the Lincolnshire court case in favour of the council.  This has been a hard-fought campaign and for the council – who lost, let us remember, the initial case – to argue that it wasted money is for them to simply not understand the need for adequate oversight and, even more basically, in some aspects the rule of law itself.  Things now bode ill for libraries in the county but one doubts that anyone but the councillors involved would argue with a straight face that the money lost in court would have been spent on libraries. The decision also shows the limits of the courts in these matters: they can see if something is legally alright only.  What makes sense for the people and library users of a borough depends, quite rightly, on the politicians and so when those same politicians need correcting it is only another higher up politico that can intervene – and the minister in charge of libraries has made sure he won’t intervene in any circumstances.
• Perhaps it took a week to show it but, my goodness, what a lot of new libraries there is out there. Of course, this depends largely on co-locations and the willingness of developers to stump up cash, which may well cause inequalities nationwide – it’s easy to find a developer in London, less so in Liverpool – but it’s something positive and for that let us be truly grateful.
• Herefordshire – they tried to close all but one library there a few years ago and, my goodness, they’re trying again this year. Whoopee doo. The aim is for there to be Hereford Central and everything else to be volunteers. Expect to see more protest there … unless that is the repeated attempts to cut the service is wearing down opposition there.

Changes

• Cambridgeshire – Milton Road Library may move into new development.
• Camden – West Hampstead Library may move into new development to save it from closure.
• Croydon – 2.5 FTE staff to be lost.
• East Sussex – Official opening of Newhaven Library (opened in March).
• Herefordshire – All libraries except Hereford (Central) to be passed to volunteers or closed. Bromyard, Kington and Ledbury to have fully self service libraries. (at least 3 under threat)
• Liverpool – 5 libraries to be taken out from council control: Breck Road and Dovecot libraries to be managed by Alt Valley Community Trust (AVCT); Fazakerley Library is to be managed by Fazakerley Federation; Kensington Library will be taken on by Kensington Fields Community Association and others; Walton Library to be run by Mersey Care. 2 others (Sefton Park and West Derby) fate to be decided.
• Merton – Donald Hope Library £1.2m upgrade, paid for by development. Temporary library for site for  2 years while work takes place.
• Stockton – £2.7m Billingham Library (co-located) officially opened.
• Swansea – Central Library may change location.

Ideas

• Storymob – Like a flashmob but story-related, including dressing like the characters.
• Use Tor as library browser – Improve Tor speeds and improve privacy of library users.

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Editorial

Mr Vaizey has formally launched the Wifi in libraries scheme which will see an initial 100 libraries wifi’d up through the aid of two private companies, with the promise of at least the possibility of more to come. Barclays and BT will also offer on-site help to users. More locally, Cornwall has delayed passing off its libraries to someone else (presumably not Barclays and BT) for a short while and the judicial review hearing over Lincolnshire has included some gems like the council lawyer saying that the case is moot because many library staff have already received their redundancy notices.  This was said, presumably, to suggest that “de facto” beats “de jure”. We’ll see what the judge says about that soon.

Finally, Wirral Council have made the memorable suggestion that due to the libraries with severely cut opening times issuing more books per surviving open hour, they are “more efficient”, despite seeing large drops in actual issue numbers.  Nice one Wirral. That sort of sophistry would never have stood in the old days when there was a possibility of intervention but it’s now safe, and indeed probably resulted in pats on the back in the public relations office. After all, the Minister responsible (and who forcefully argued while in opposition for intervention in the Wirral) is now distracted by more important things. Like getting private companies to offer something that he should have made sure was universal in public libraries years ago.

Ideas

• Book packs in neonatal hospital wards

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Editorial

There’s a couple of legal stories today – Lincolnshire will be in High Court again next week over their plans to cut the library budget and Vale of Glamorgan is facing a judicial review hearing in September or October over their plans (or, rather, lack of them) for Rhoose Library. The thing here is that, even in these days of ever tighter legal restrictions it’s still possible for campaigners to claim legal aid … and I know of two law firms (Public Interest Lawyers and Watkins & Gunn) with previous (and often successful) experience in public libraries keen to take on new cases.  That’s the good news for campaigners.  The good news for councils is that this is all avoidable. Please consult in good conscience, plan to take into account equal opportunities legislation and take things seriously, even about the supposed paper tiger that is the Public Libraries and Museums Act. Just deciding on cuts and aiming to ride roughshod over opposition is likely to get a council into some quite expensive and entirely avoidable legal problems.  Do it right and things are faster and cheaper in the long term.  And shouldn’t we be aiming to do it right anyway?

Changes

• Derby – Deep cuts to all services, statutory or otherwise – consultation to include cuts to libraries.
• Vale of Glamorgan – Judicial review court case to be heard in September or October over Rhoose Library.
• Wolverhampton – £500k cut per year (from previous £1.7m spend). May be opening hour cuts (inc. Central Library), some closures, volunteers.

Ideas

• Humorous signs on library vans – such as “Dr Jekyll’s Pharmacy” (Thanks to Stephen Heywood for this link – do email ianlibrarian@live.co.uk if you spot other good ideas that need publicising).

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Editorial

Ed Vaizey has declined to count the number of volunteer libraries in the UK, saying he’s not responsible for them and it’s not his (paid) job to do so. Many others, though, would argue that Mr Vaizey is precisely the most responsible man in the country for the phenomenon. However, if he really doesn’t want to do it himself, he could always use the PLN page that links to every one reported in the media. I count 343 as the absolute minimum this way, with each one linked and described, with 328 of those being in England. To make things even easier for him, please let me know of any additions or errors in the list – please email with this (and any other news and views to ianlibrarian@live.co.uk). Thank you.

In keeping with my (hopefully entirely safe and benign) obsession with lists, I’ve also created a page listing all of the “Ideas” I’ve spotted over the past couple of years.  There’s over 175 of them and I’ve categorised and listed them for your viewing convenience on this page.  Enjoy.

Changes

• Cardiff – Roath Library may not be sold off if volunteers pay £255k in repairs.
• Dumfries and Galloway – Kirkcudbright Library to move to cheaper site.
• Poole – £50k per year cut expected due to loss of mobile library. NB. This was also considered in 2014.
• Reading – £600k cut expected from June 2016. Closures expected. More co-location and volunteers. Consultation October-November then second one January-March when specific proposals will be made.
• West Lothian – £260k cut p.a. (£175k cut in bookfund) from 2015/16 with further £46k cut p.a. 2016/17. Opening hours reduced from total of 656 to 526 per week. 4 full-time-equivalent staff to be lost.

Idea

• Specific LGBT services section
• Using raffles and contests to gain customer feedback
• See also the new page Ideas and innovations in public libraries which lists all the ideas included in this section.

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