Editorial

Another couple of thoughts from the revelation of a book found in a public library that had not been out since 1997 is the change in stock management brought about by the introduction of self-service machines.  Back in the old days, weeding shelves were a simple matter for the librarian – one simply sat down and opened every book in turn, counting the number and frequency of date stamps on the date label. There were a load of other factors of course but the key one of how much the book was used was really easy to work out.  However, self-service changes that because, quite simply, there’s no date stamps any more.  The alternative is instead to use printouts based on whatever criteria one wishes (e.g. books that have not been out in six months in the thrillers).  This sounds simple but there’s two problems: the first is that it is surprisingly time consuming looking individually for every book and the second is that these printouts use proprietary technology that the library management system companies charge a hefty sum for.  So, if one does not pay or cannot afford to pay, one may have to use other ways (the state of the book, local knowledge, the Force) to weed instead.  Not ideal.

Another related matter to this is from a letter listed in this post about issuing films in a self-service library.  Now, ideally, the whole process should be done by the public (hence the term “self-service”) but in reality in many areas, this is not (literally) the case … and the reason is, simply, box security is not sufficient.  It’s easy to vandalise a DVD or game case and steal the item from it.  So, libraries have to go back to putting high value titles in locked drawers again, meaning that the member of the public has to both go to the machine and a member of staff. Oh dear, that’ll make the process twice as long then.  If they’re really unlucky, some self-service machines will then (completely unnecessarily in my view and that several authorities I know about it) demand their library card number and PIN number when they return it. This is not to say that I am against self-service: I’m not and I think that, realistically, there’s going to be a whole lot more of it as budgets decline. But we should not pretend that it does not come with its own problems because if we ignore them, they simply will not go away. After all, when technology makes things worse, it’s probably because we’re doing it wrong and the first step to correcting it is to admit there’s a problem in the first place.

For more on self service, see this page.

Please send any comments or news to me at ianlibrarian@live.co.uk or via the comments option.  Thank you for reading.

Changes

• Lancashire – Consultation.  Cost-neutral changes in opening hours proposed e.g. less evening opening, more daylight opening.

Ideas

• Fun runs to raise funds for libraries.
• STEAM events – same as STEM (Science Technology Engineering Maths) but also includes Arts.

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Editorial

You’ll notice a new advertising banner if you visit PLN for the next couple of months: I’m advertising the Save Lincolnshire Libraries campaign bid to raise funds for their judicial review.  I don’t live anywhere near Lincolnshire but I’m supporting this as one of the grounds they are challenging on is that the reduced service will not meet the provisions of the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act.  If they win on that point then there may be national implications for other councils.  It may also stop all those media reports who call libraries “non-statutory”.

Meanwhile, a Canadian union campaign against part-time paid workers caught my eye.  Yes, over in the UK unions are concerned about paid staff losing their jobs entirely and/or being replaced by volunteers while over in Canada, the situation is so different they’re concerned about workers not working full-time.  I have difficulty in seeing how a standard public library can survive without casuals and part-time staff myself but I envy the Canadians their funding.

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Editorial

3D printers look to be the same as buses: you wait for one for ages then two come at once.  Dundee have let me know that they had their machine set up last Tuesday while Exeter, tardy things, only opened theirs up to the public on Thursday.  The Scottish library service is using theirs in quite a novel way too: to print out characters which are then used in story-telling sessions for those with additional needs. It will also be used for printing items for reminiscence packs. Genius.

Changes

• Oxfordshire – Parish council funds Bampton Library with money from Downton Abbey filming.

Ideas

• 3D printer used to help readers with additional needs, produce items for reminiscence packs, etc.
• 1st October is “International Follow a Library Day” on Twitter.
• Panini sticker swap.

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Editorial

A report on Radio Four “You and Yours” about giving library cards to babies is worth a listen.  It’s part of a number of pilots funded by Arts Council England on encouraging library membership.  The results are good but Brian Ashley, the ACE libraries boss, points out just passing over a library card “doesn’t hack it” and the service needs to constantly engage with the user in order to join a library card owner into a library card user.  Laura Swaffield from the Library Campaign interviewed in the same programme points out that young families are more seriously affected by cuts than others as those prams make long journeys to a surviving library more difficult.

Then there is more today on the reopening of Exeter Central Libray’s after its refurbishment.  Some more pictures show a definite retro look that gives it, in my mind, a different look which is to be welcomed.  After from that stylist difference, the presence of a Fab Lab (the first in a public library in the UK I think – although St Botolphs has had one for a while) needs a mention as is the fact that the refurbishment came with significantly more books rather than the cuts in bookstock one often sees in such cases. Money came for all this, at least in part, from the sale of Exeter Airport.

Changes

• Cornwall – Camborne library building may be sold, with new library being further away from town centre.
• Suffolk – Plans to move Diss Library withdrawn.
• Vale of Glamorgan – 4 libraries (Sully, Dinas Powys, St Athan and Wenvoe) to be volunteer-run.

Ideas

• Spine labels of books on stair cases – Seriously, why aren’t more libraries doing this?

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Editorial

That thing about public libraries being a statutory service is well-known and most librarians can quote the “comprehensive and efficient” bit but those three words are not the whole sentence.  No, the whole sentence is:

“It shall be the duty of every library authority to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons desiring to make use thereof” General duty of library authorities, 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act.

Now that’s important because it says for all persons: not just those with transport to get to the big town library and not just those who have use of their legs.  It says “for all persons”.  It seems to me that this is vital because it goes a lot further than the woolly “comprehensive” and the even more indefinable “efficient”.  It is also clear from the drafter of the Act that it was always meant to be a stronger piece of legislation than some current council legal departments think it is.

What makes those words even more important is that almost all legal challenges to library cuts have not been on procedural grounds and not on the level of service.  It’s on Equalities Act stuff or on the consultation precisely because it’s hard to win a case on such woollyness as the 1964 Act has previously been famous for.  As it is, councils don’t have to worry about minimum provision: they can simply redo the offending thing if they get caught out and cut away.  In a country like England with no Library Standards then it’s even more crucial we have something.  What is needed is some sort of legal challenge, successful legal challenge, on minimum provision …. and those forgotten line “for all persons desiring to make use thereof” could be handy.  Frankly, it could save public library provision in smaller towns.  So let’s not forget those extra lines and let’s hope someone clever in the legal provision can do it. Because then councils will be scared of cutting libraries, will give them more protection and that will give public libraries some valuable breathing space.  And we all need to breathe.

Ideas

• Encourage leaving notes in books

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