« Bank holidays and libraries | Main | Shush : you might wake up a librarian »
April 28, 2006
Lost £4.7m per annum in Buckinghamshire libraries
Those of you who are in "Friends of libraries" groups will know how hard it is to get a local council to listen respectfully and sensibly to what one says and to take reasonable actions, if they can.
The saga of Buckinghamshire libraries that I described on 26 April is an awful example of the way local people and indeed local councillors are misinformed and rendered unable to participate in the activities of their council.
The truth in Buckinghamshire is that the people of the county pay £8.6m each year for the library service and the libraries cost £3.9m to operate. In no document anywhere does the council explain what happens to the missing £4.7m . Perhaps they really don't know.
Since writing on 26th I have called publicly for the officer responsible to be replaced and the council to reverse its decision to close its libraries. I argue that if councillors were not aware that there is £4.7m expenditure to examine, they may well have found the meagre £200,000 budget saving in another way than closing 8 libraries. It was difficult to lodge these suggestions because the officer responsible immediately went on holiday.
I shall however persist, but I need the ladies and gentlemen of the press to help me.
Posted by Tim Coates at April 28, 2006 9:25 PM
Comments
Hi, Tim! I drifted over via petrona-maxine.blogspot.com.
I'm sure the problem has a great deal to do with lack of books, inconvenient hours and unwelcoming buildings, but are they the only problems that, once rectified, will solve the decline in book borrowing or library use?
In New York the small towns of East Hampton, Amagansett and Montauk on the end of Long Island have beautiful libraries, their hours are reasonable and their selection of books excellent. Still, they seem to have to be more than "just a traditional library" these days in order to remain viable. (I hate that word, but you know what I mean.) Sure, there are people amid the stacks and people of all ages borrowing books, as well as the usual folks who drift in to read a free morning newspaper or to park Grandpa for the afternoon, but being just a library in the old-fashioned sense of the word isn't enough. If it were, why would the libraries be attempting to become community centers, showing films and inviting guest lecturers, for example? It seems the libraries feel they need to be "multipurpose" to remain relevant and important to the entire town--students and nonstudents, readers and nonreaders, alike.
Posted by: Lynne W. Scanlon at April 30, 2006 1:28 AM