Editorial

In what has been one of the most memorable weekends in UK public libraries in a period full of notable events, the annual general meeting of the library professional association CILIP voted through two key motions and a march of up to 400 walked through Lincoln to protest against the cuts there. Let’s go through these one by one.

By far the most important motion of the two (to everyone but a few) was the one passing a vote of no confidence in the current minister for libraries, Ed Vaizey.  This man has made non-intervention an art form over the last couple of years of the deepest cuts to public libraries in peacetime history, despite a history in opposition stridently advocating the opposite of what he is doing now.  It is therefore no surprise that 669 voted for the following motion with less than a third of that figure (200) against.  The full motion was:

“”n view of his failures to enforce the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act, this Annual General Meeting of CILIP has no confidence in Ed Vaizey, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries, and instructs Council to work with all other interested parties to protect library, information and knowledge services”

The other motion, from the CILIP leadership, to change the name of the organisation to that of Information and Library Professionals UK, was lost by a margin of 356 in favour and 644 against.  This margin is made even larger being that two-thirds needed to vote for it in order for it to proceed.  This vote effectively ends the, in the eyes of many observers, distracting renaming debate in CILIP (although it does not end other parts of the rebranding process, as the official press release made clear).  Let us now hope a veil is drawn across the whole renaming affair and, as the membership made clear in the other motion, energies are now spent on campaigning.  An example of what is meant by this is the open letter by the Scottish part of CILIP against the cuts in Moray: to my knowledge, there has been no such letter by CILIP itself against particular cuts in particular authorities. Perhaps now that will change.

In another example of the new militancy associated with libraries, quite separately, up to 400 people marched through Lincoln demanding an end to the cuts in the county.  The photographs are quite astonishing. The message from this weekend has been clear: the library profession and library users have had enough.  Push us so far and don’t be surprised if we push back.  In a familiar phrase (well, at least to me): you know the situation is  bad if the librarians are protesting.

Changes

East Ayrshire – Some libraries may be under threat – employees face redundancy months after moving into East Ayrshire Trust from council.  

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Editorial

Sheffield are making it clear that over half of their libraries will close if people don’t stop protesting and start working with them, unpaid, to keep them open. This is part of a common strategy amongst councils which shifts the onus of responsibility away from themselves and onto local communities.  If a local area doesn’t staff it’s own library then it is its own fault if it closes.  Cuts from central government mean that everyone has to work harder and it’s the library user’s turn.  The questionnaires and surveys, necessary for such cuts to go legally unchallenged, are sometimes weighted towards an expectation that the reader will volunteer.  Groups which protest against the closures are thus not helping, but rather hindering, their library service. and, in the end, assist the Council in reducing their budget by, literally, doing their work for them. A lady on Twitter I was in conversation with called this strategy “volunteer grooming” and notes that her eighty year old father in law felt compelled to volunteer after such a questionnaire. People who love their library service then become split between those who want to protest and those who see the closure as inevitable unless they work unpaid to keep it open.  Such splits can become quite acrimonious, 

To be fair, councils are facing the same problems everywhere and there are only so many solutions to the problem of the deepest cuts to local council budgets in peacetime history.  No-one wants to be the one to close a library and so other options are found … and once the volunteer library idea takes hold, it’s hard to stop as it so neatly solves several problems at once.  It shifts the blame and it co-opts those most likely to protest and it keeps the libraries open, at least in the short term.  OK, it’s not entirely what a purist would call 100% voluntary and it’s bad news for the paid library staff (and presumably any other paid council staff where volunteers are seen as an option) but the library keeps open.  But councillors may be tempted to say get real, for this is Local Government Budget Hell so expect a devil’s bargain.  Those who believe in an adequately funded and staffed library service may be tempted to say other things.

Changes

• Derbyshire – Five libraries to have increased opening hours (an extra 4 to 9) due to health funding.
• Devon – Exeter redevelopment to include wifi, cafe, council information, outside seating, cultural events. Opening hours to be extended. Topsham library may be taken over by volunteers. 
• Sheffield – 16 libraries under threat (Woodhouse, Broomhill, Totley, Tinsley, Newfield Green, Greenhill, Burngreave, Stannington, Southey, Upperthorpe, Ecclesfield, Gleadless, Park, Jordanthorpe, Walkley and Frecheville).
• Telford and Wrekin – Dawley Library moves into co-location with new Academy.

Ideas

• Digital hubs – An all-inclusive maker space including 3D printer, web/graphic design, videogame design, VHS converter.
• Micro sites for projects – e.g. Summer Reading Challenge in Suffolk.

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Editorial

It’s impressive to see Miami deciding to spend its reserves rather than closing libraries.  They have a year to get things sorted there. Over on this side of the pond, Moray have decided to hang the delay and, as we learnt yesterday, to close many of its libraries as soon as possible, despite legal advice to the contrary.  This looks likely to result in legal action – going publicly against legal advice sometimes does that – and has resulted in even the Brent councillor responsible for the closures in that London borough (which was mitigated to some extent by spending elsewhere, unlike in Moray) calling it “foolhardy”.  Mind you, in Scotland, they may actually have a Government that actually cares about libraries.  It’s the first real test of how different things are north of the border.

Changes

• Northern Ireland – New Draperstown Library opened,, double the size of the old one, at cost of £155k.
• Wiltshire – £100k given by Arts Council England for collaboration with museums, theatre and “community memory” projects.

Reasons for libraries spotted

• 4% of children do not own a book
• Numbers of children who have a book read to them at bedtime has gone down from 75% to 13% in one generation
• Reading for pleasure puts children ahead in classroom
• Adult literacy rates affects children’s reading levels.

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Editorial

The CILIP rebranding exercise will soon be over. Gripped by the greatest crisis and changes in libraries in their peacetime history, the professional organisation has decided that what really matters is to change its name and logo.  The reasons for this appear to be that the old name is not ideal (true enough) and that Change Is Good. The first attempt at this, which included an amateurish survey and names such as the abysmal The Knowledge People and no mention of the word “library” (other than the “L” in CILIP) only narrowly scraped through a member’s revolt in July.  Stung by this, CILIP then came up with a new name “Information and Library Professionals UK” that, while at least accepting the word  “library” is not much more inspiring. When it was pointed out that the inevitable acronym for the organisation would be the open-to-ridicule ILPUK, the response of the organisation was that acronyms would not be allowed and then, when the unreality of this position became clear, it announced that an appropriate hashtag was being worked on.  We have not yet heard what that may be, although it is notable that ILPUK has already begun to be widely used in professional conversations and by the Guardian as well

The suggested name may well be insufficiently different to the old one to be worth the change and, in addition, is decisively inferior to it due to the inevitable shortening it will incur.  More importantly, the way that CILIP has pushed through the rebranding so far (notably the biased coverage in Update where there was a whole article in favour of the rebranding and only three paragraphs in the news section covering objections to it) is also seen by many as unedifying and may reveal a deeper problem with the organisation.  For the truth is, that although it has indeed improved over recent years and does get involved in advocacy nowadays, it can barely be said to be well-loved by the profession.  The fact that it costs around £200 per year for almost all employed members (twice the subscription of the far more effective US ALA) does not help either.  So something needs to change.  A vote against the rebranding may, therefore be counter-intuitively good for the organisation. It would show that it cannot bulldoze through changes and that it needs to listen more.

In the unlikely event that you are both interested in public libraries news and are a CILIP member (many public librarians are either being made redundant or are stopping their membership due to either its cost or disillusionment as to its efficacy) it is therefore essential that you vote.   If you can’t attend the AGM where the vote will take place, use your proxy vote.  Email me and I’ll let you know of someone if you don’t know of anyone yourself.  And, while you’re at it, it is also worth considering voting in favour of a no confidence motion in the libraries minister, Ed Vaizey.  There’s a man whose level of competence pretty much all librarians agree on.

Changes

• Birmingham – Library of Birmingham will cost £590m (three times building cost) due to PFI over fifty years.
• Devon – At least 15% cut to library service expected in 2015/16.

Ideas noted

• Specific voting instructions for library campaigners (New York).
• Using Minecraft to encourage usage and library skills (USA)
• Publicly show real time visitor figures. (Birmingham)

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 First broadcast  11am Wednesday 4th September 2013

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