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May 10, 2006
Llareggub
Llareggub is the name of the Village in Wales about which Dylan Thomas tells tales in "Under Milk Wood". That the name is intended to be read backwards is not intended to imply that the people are the same. The library service of Wales however appears to have been going backwards for some time.
Today the Welsh Assembly are to debate their library service, but I doubt if many of its members will have been properly informed about what is going on. They need a debate and they need to take some firm initiatives (and I hope they are not waiting for the MLA to suggest what those might be!)
The decline in book lending in the past five years is horrific. for a brief period there was an increase in "use" of libraries in some areas when computers were installed for free use. But that, too, has now faded away.
These figures show, for each council the decline in book lending in the past five years. Over the whole country the fall in that time has been 26%. Figures I quoted earlier in this blog about the English local elections show that falling book loans are common- but by no means universal. Wales, however, have got it bad:
(figures from CIPFA, Jan 2006)
Blaenau Gwent, a fall of 23%
Bridgend, a fall of 21%
Caerphilly, a fall of 31%
Cardiff, a fall of 23%
Carmarthenshire, a fall of 34%
Ceredigion, a fall of 14%
Conwy, a fall of 22%
Denbighshire, a fall of 32%
Flintshire, a fall of 32%
Gwynedd,a fall of 20%
Anglesey,a fall of 31%
Merthyr Tydfil, a fall of 26%
Monmouthshire, a fall of 28%
Neath, Port Talbot, a fall of 17%
Newport, a fall of 24%
Pembrokeshire, a fall of 20%
Powys- provide no figures
Rhondda Cynon Taff, a fall of 35%
Swansea, a fall of 26%
Torfaen, a fall of 25%
Vale of Glamorgan, a fall of 40%
Wrexham, a fall of 29%
My friends in Wales tell me that CYMAL (the Welsh MLA) have been keeping these figures a secret. In no way is that surprising!
Posted by Perkins at May 10, 2006 9:02 AM
Comments
The fall in borrowing could be a result of a more affluent society, ebooks on the Internet, television or a number of other factors.
Your statement 'The decline in book lending in the past five years is horrific' leads to assumptions not conclusions. At a seminar we were asked our opinion a graph that ascended from bottom left upwards to top right. We all agreed that it indicated improvement. We were not necessarily wrong but definitely not right. What if it depicted road accident fatalities ? We didn't have sufficient information.
Posted by: Mike O'Carroll at March 29, 2009 6:47 PM
Mike
Thank you for commenting on what must have been a search of the site. I agree with you that my observation is an assertion, even an assumption. But I do believe that those responsible for providing the service should have taken pains to find out what are and what have been the causes of the decline in use. I'm sure, too, that there will have been a number of major contributors, but attempts to remedy those should have been based on a quantified understanding of the causes of the decline. It has been someone's responsbility, as you say, to obtain the information that was needed to manage the service properly, and they have not done so. So the actions and investments made were done without knowing whether or not they would be a waste of money.
Posted by: Perkins at March 29, 2009 10:20 PM