What’s your library doing for National Libraries Day?
Dec 5th
National Libraries Day 8 February 2014
Authorities all across the country are gearing up for National Libraries Day. What is your library service doing? If you work in one, do let me know and, if you don’t, this is a great time to email them to ask – at the least, it’ll help concentrate their minds to get something going. I understand from the Society of Chief Librarians that every library authority has signed up for it last year and so they expect promotion all across the country. Please send me what you find out.
There’s also something else that you, personally, can do no matter who you are. We’re looking at getting a libraries video together for the “We Need Libraries” song and need 350 pictures of different people holding their library cards in order to do it. Please send your photograph to weneedlibraries@gmail.com. You’ll be joining celebrities like the comedian Robin Ince who has already said he’ll support it.
Changes
- Bristol – Confirmed that two storeys of Central Library will be rented out to Cathedral Primary School for £60k per year.
- Hertfordshire – £3m cut since 2011: 20% fewer visits in 2012 than 2011.
Ideas
- Half late fees if you bring a toy to donate throughout December – USA.
- Kickstarter campaign for art space – New Cross Learning.
Maria Miller would be proud: Lincolnshire and that Arts Council England grant
Dec 4th
Editorial
After a long and hard fight against the proposed cuts to Lincolnshire libraries, which have involved 23,000 names on petitions, marches and a much-criticised consultation, the council decision-makers have decided to go ahead and either close or pass to volunteers around 30 libraries. This, and the budget cut of £2m, makes the county’s library system one of the most substantial victims of the Austerity. Councillors see things differently, though. saying that due to volunteers coming forward, the county may end up with more libraries than it started with. Campaigners point out that such unpaid branches have questionable futures but to little avail. Indeed, Deepings Library campaigners now face the stark choice of volunteering (a position they strongly opposed) or seeing their branch close despite a 9,000 name petition to the contrary. Around 100 library staff will lose their jobs as part of all this and, no matter what side you stand on (and the councillors did not mention library staff once in their final debate), one’s heart must go out to them and to the dramas that they face.
I briefly mentioned the £100k Arts Council England grant for artists in North Yorkshire in my last post. I, along with other “campaigners”, find it hard to reconcile the priority of keeping a viable library system open in the country with the priority given to artists in residence shown by the move. This is, let me be clear, not a complaint against Arts Council England, whose remit is clearly to do exactly what they are doing, but with the Government that think that Libraries are all about culture and what looks like the increasingly out-of-fashion arty side of things. It seems to me and other observers that such projects, while laudable, are a more elegant offering for a more civilized age than the harsh barbaric one in which we live. It’s hard to see, after all, the sense of £100k in national money going to artists in one county while 30 libraries are effectively withdrawn in another. Indeed, North Yorkshire itself could presumably do with the money in other areas themselves: 2 libraries were outright closed last year with five more passed to volunteers. The year before that, ten mobile libraries ended and there was a £1.7m cut to the libraries budget. Do you see what I mean? £100k is lovely and I hope much enjoyment and good work will come from the project but, goodness me, talk about skewed priorities.
And there is the sadness and the clear sign that the philistines have won the debate. For the campaigners are all on the philistine side. In this harsh new world, we would much rather have the money for core priorities than for artists. We’d much rather have it for keeping libraries open for goodness sake (and for their cultural, social and economic benefit) than for nice extras that perhaps make life worth living in those that survive. Maria Miller, with her view that the only good Culture is a money-making Culture, would be proud.
Changes
- Bolton – £4.76m budget 2012/13 cut to £3.76m 2013/14. 172k less visitors 2011/12 to 2012/13.
- Bury – £3.46m budget 2009/10 down to £3.125m 2011/12 back up to £3.32m 2013/14. 53k less visitors since 2011/12.
- Lincolnshire – Approved: 30 libraries to be closed or passed to volunteers. 10 new libraries may be run by volunteers on top. £2m cut.
- Manchester – 1.4m less visitors since 2008/9.
- Salford – Visitors up from 800k 2008/9 to 1.39m 2012/13. Budget cut £511k 2008 to 2012.
- Stockport – £4.86m budget 2012/13 cut to £4.67m 2013/14.
- Tameside – Cut of £917k since 2008/9: cut in bookfund from £324k then to £212k now. Visitors fall from 1.19m 2008/9 to 902k 2012/13.
Ideas
- Film competition to boost libraries – New Hampshire.
£100k to North Yorkshire for Arts projects
Dec 2nd
Changes
The Library is the space where creativity happens, magic is what the library needs to do
Dec 1st
Changes
- Nottingham – Bakersfield Library under threat.
Ideas
- Pinterest Board – Sefton. Devon also has one.
The future of libraries: what the Guardian online debate found
Nov 28th
Future of libraries: keeping the service alive – Guardian.
The Guardian held one of its online debates on libraries today. The discussion between several library experts (managers, campaigners, councillors) and anyone contributing online. Around 200 comments were made so it’s a little condfusing: I’ve endeavoured to summarise below, although doubtless I have missed some things which some would consider important. Main threads and arguments.
- Are libraries declining due to technological change? Libraries are still needed, in some ways more than ever: internet/online access essential and libraries provide the access and skills to those without either or both. Seven million have never used the internet. Wikipedia etc don’t cover all information and are prone to deletion, accidental or otherwise and is also not entirely trustworthy anyway. Libraries provide quiet study spaces. Children need the books and everyone needs serendipity that bookshelves allow. Bookstock is declining due to budget cuts. It’s not black and white – books and e-books will co-exist. Books are still in demand with 244 million loans in England 2011/12,
- Joined up thinking required between school and public libraries (But … safeguarding issues) sharing resources e.g. Tri-borough, co-locations. Essex sharing buildings with parish and district councils. Children’s services a natural to co-locate with. But … need to be sensitive to needs of library to avoid them being sidelined in co-located buildings.
- Governance e.g. industrial and provident societies, private companies, social enterprise solutions? Conflict of interest over profit in private companies, but some social enterprises have been successful and/or hopeful.
- Volunteers: they need start up grants and council support , Fresh Horizons in Huddersfield and Alt Valley Community Trust doing well, adding value (if additional/complementary) But … questions over sustainability, is it a destructive trend? Need to have at least one professional/paid member of staff with skills. Australia doesn’t have money volunteers because of worries of public liability insurance. Exploitation of the volunteer also a worry
- Libraries are more than books: Idea stores (issues up 20% over ten years, staff appointed for enthusiasm for books), Edinburgh’s digital strategy lauded. Provide welcoming space/social centres, play sessions, reading groups, job-seeking, music, films, local and family history, coffee (but make it good), e-books (should be done nationally and not by authorities), online catalogues (should be better), self-service (but not liked) and for using technology/online, wifi, Need 24/7 access. iPad access in Brent. Public health via the Reading Agency.
- Improve what we already have: don’t reinvent.
- Campaigning: strength of local campaigns suggest a national one would not be lacking in support. Need to stress the economic benefits of libraries.
- No national steer or strategy for libraries unlike NZ or Eire. But … deliberate to run it down?
- Prioritising big libraries (esp. Birmingham) over smaller ones. Great library But … at the cost of running down smaller branches where people cannot afford to get to Central. Less small libraries, improve the surviving? But … being local is a strength. Need to improve the small ones.
- Austerity/cuts. Hollowing out of services. Councils see libraries as easy target and see it as retreating not reinventing But … ideological and no real reason to cut.
- Outreach e.g. Brent with 130 locations being served inc. cafes and hospitals.
Changes
Free e-magazine service for all Wales … but not a good day for mobiles
Nov 27th
Changes
- Bradford – Silsden Library reopens in town hall with 2,000 books and self-service (soon to include after hours) replacing Wesley Place Library sold by council to pay for town hall refurbishment.
- Cambridgeshire – £376k cut over two years, “small number of library closures” possible. Library service wins award for work with volunteers.
- Ceredigion – Two libraries under threat (New Quay and Tregaron).
- Derbyshire – Up to ten mobile libraries under threat (the whole fleet) in proposed cuts. Consultation.
- Pembrokeshire – Up to three mobile libraries under threat £101k cut.
Nottinghamshire thinks like Buckinghamshire: CILIP council results
Nov 26th
Editorial
More details are gradually being revealed about possible budget cuts to Nottinghamshire libraries. Around 28 libraries are being considered for transferring to volunteers or other outsourcing, making it one of the most wide-ranging cuts so far seen. Interestingly, the council is explicitly pointing to the claimed success of Buckinghamshire’s volunteer libraries as the reason for their move, which will fuel the fears of many paid librarians that volunteers beget more volunteers. On the other hand, one comment on the article acidly notes that just because both counties end in “hamshire” they may not be quite the same.
Votes for the CILIP council elections have been counted and it looks like those associated with the campaign against the organisation’s renaming and in favour of more strident campaigning against the library cuts have benefitted the most. On the other hand, Karen McFarlane (a senior GCHQ manager who is contractually not allowed to speak against the government) has also been elected. Oh to be a fly on the wall at some of the meetings soon to be held in CILIP HQ …
Changes
- Nottinghamshire – Burton Joyce Library had eight to ten volunteers along paid staff: was cut from 31 hours per week to 15.5 in April 2011, partially restored to 24 hours a week due to volunteers. 28 libraries under threat (Annesley Woodhouse, Balmoral, Bilsthorpe, Blidworth, Burton Joyce, Carlton Hill, Carlton-in-Lindrick, Clipstone, Collingham, Edgewood, Farnsfield, Gedling, Gotham, Huthwaite, Inham-Nook, Jacksdale, Ladybrook, Langold, Lowdham, Misterton, Rainworth, Selston, Skegby, Sutton Bonington, Sutton-on-Trent, Toton, Tuxford and Woodthorpe.).
Liverpool Central Library beats the Shard to the prize
Nov 25th
Editorial
Well done to Liverpool, whose newly revamped central library has just beaten the Shard, no less, to win the National Building Excellence Award. I’ve been there and I think the judges made the right decision. The library shows what can be achieved with vision and sufficient funding.
Right, good news over, now let’s get on to a truly terrifying quote …
“He thought it would be alright because others were doing it”
This remark, apparently from a chief librarian, is taken from a report in Sheffield of a meeting and is about the legality of volunteer libraries lending books. There are in fact some serious concerns about this issues, as shown by this from the Society of Authors, but the reason I highlight the quote is not to embarrass the person in question – that gets us nowhere and I sympathise with their predicament – but to point out the ad hoc nature of library change at the moment. Things are happening so fast that best practice is barely even available, let alone formally grounded legal advice. This will eventually all settle down (and ACE and SCL are doing their best, perhaps, given their narrow remits and dire budgets) but it’s no way to run a national public library service. But then, of course, the Government has decided that there is no such thing as a national public library service. It has decided to let the individual authorities go their own way, with minimal supervision, to do what they will in a time of dire cuts. Yinnon Ezra and the few others left on the DCMS team are thus left with the task of herding cats, with the all the success that that phrase normally implies.
Changes
Lessons learnt from Speak Up For Libraries event
Nov 24th
Speak Up for Libraries
All of the main (non-political) national leaders of public libraries were together for the Speak Up For Libraries conference on Saturday. The main messages I took away from the conference (and from a busy last week where I was in a meeting with the SCL and another one with the APPG as well) were:
- Things are going to get worse for libraries funding next year. The funding for local authorities is being cut more and most of the easy (and many not so easy) cuts have already been made. If the austerity programme stays as it, this could be a permanent state of affairs until there is very very little left of local government outside of the “hard” statutory provision (and libraries are “soft” statutory the conference heard yesterday, from Yinnon Ezra of the DCMS).
- The main national bodies are working as well as they can together, within the limits of their own roles. The SCL is moving forward with national offers and training, Arts Council England is funding as much as it can, CILIP is recovering from its rebranding failure and moving on. They all have less money than before and are trying their best … which normally means sharing what they have, in terms of expertise and funding … it’s best practice and working together.
- Even Yinnon Ezra has said he is working. Having said that, the DCMS is laughably non-interventionist: Yinnon said they don’t even “bother much” with consultations. Chats and sharing best practice is as bad as it gets with the deep library cutters. Sometimes this works and sometimes it fails.
- That the strong feeling from ACE, SCL, DCMS and CILIP is that campaigning can work – and is sometimes the only hope – but that positive campaigning (on what a great impact libraries have) is better than negative (such as questioning the competence of the council).
- It’s all about the money … but if you market and place yourself well enough in an organisation then the money can come to you.
- Alan Gibbons and Phil Bradley have now been joined as library heroes by Steve Davies.
The relevant links are:
- Video of opening speech by Steve Davies.
- Text of opening speech by Steve Davies (via Alan Gibbons).
- Workshop notes (from the one I attended – Ed.)
- Panel discussion (afternoon session).
- Closing speech by Alan Gibbons.
- Loads of photographs of the event (by Trevor Craig).
- Reflections on the conference by Trevor Craig.
Changes
- Cornwall – £1.3m cut: libraries being reviewed. More co-locations and cuts in hours expected. Some closures possible. Camelford Library to be reopen as joint library/one stop shop from 3rd December.
- Havering – Refurbishment at Collier Row Library.
- Herefordshire – All libraries but Hereford Central may become volunteer-run or outsourced over three years or close [No change to figure under threat yet as only broad figures known]: £700k cut 2014/15, £70k grant won Lottery to commemorate First World War in libraries.
- Lincolnshire 1.78m (A cut of £250k less than originally proposed from £6.086m budget) – Horncastle and Woodhall Spa would be retained by council; Wragby Library may be run by volunteers; Coningsby/Tattershall library to be replaced by a mobile. Council extends deadline for volunteers to express an interest in running libraries until end of January 2014. cut of c. 102 posts (35.5 full-time equivalent),
Ideas
- Putting a secret puzzle into the fabric of the building – Liverpool
- Over 50 days with services from all over the are in the library – Torbay.
Carillion to cut jobs: Wakefield new £1m library: Birmingham spends £1m just on website
Nov 21st
Editorial
In the first public move since taking over Laing’s library interests last month, Carillion have announced that there will be widespread redundancies in their libraries. I understand that over 100 staff have been told that they are “at risk” and around one full time equivalent per branch will go (perhaps 30 in total). Carillion explain that the move is down to utilising new technology and streamlining back room functions while keeping disturbance to the public to a minimum. Others suspect that the move may be more because the new owners of the outsourced library services (with Croydon only passing its libraries to JLIS just three weeks before Carillion took over JLIS) are looking to make as much profit as possible. The actual answer may of course be a combination of the two,
That will be of little comfort to those who lose their jobs. Even less comfort will be got from the fact that this gaining from economies of scale (and, remember, Carillion has now merged four library authorities (Hounslow, Ealing, Croydon and Harrow – more even than the Tri-Borough) and cutting of the backroom services are exactly the agenda that national politicians, senior librarians and campaigners are following as well. When faced with a crisis in funding of this level and the need to keep branches open, backroom staff may find themselves truly friendless.
Changes
- Birmingham – Library of Birmingham website cost is £1.2m with £190k per year running cost: contract awarded to Capita without competitive tender.
- Hounslow, Ealing, Croydon and Harrow – Staff “at risk” of redundancy under Carillion. Reduced back office,: no more than one full time post per library” to be cut.
- Vale of Glamorgan – £165k budget cut. Consultation until December 15th.
- Wakefield – £1.4m combined library/museum to open in December.
- Warwickshire – 2 out of 5 mobile libraries closed. £2m cut in libraries budget since 2011. Further £95k cut by March 2014.
Advertise here and reach those interested in public libraries direct. Email ianlibrarian@live.co.uk for details.
Please note that this website is produced entirely independently of any employer or other organisation. Any views expressed within are wholly mine.
Public Libraries News by Ian Anstice is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.
Recent Comments