The Good Library Blog

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June 30, 2006

Not just library closures

I have copied this entry from the "Love Libraries" website from a reader in Northamptonshire today:

"Alan Jones, June 30, 2006 04:52pm
Northamptonshire County Council has admitted that after cuts made in opening hours use of libraries will fall by 24 per cent, the time taken to order a book will be longer and the number of children taking part in out of school activities will fall "

Northamptonshire has not, yet, proposed any actual closures, but they are not short of money.

Posted by Perkins at 7:13 PM | Comments (0)

Love Libraries: A wine list

Libraries in crisis; book collections in ruin, buildings falling apart.

Now we have "The Love Libraries Wine List"

Will somebody please take all these people and drop them at the North Pole.

Posted by Perkins at 11:03 AM | Comments (3)

American invasion

We have to be careful to avoid an invasion by US ground and air forces. The news of library closures is being reported daily by the American Press.

NewsTrack- United Press
Small libraries targeted in BritainLONDON, June 29 (UPI) -- Small public libraries in Britain could be going the way of slow local trains.

The government said recently that more than 100 libraries could be closed, the Christian Science Monitor reports. That's a tiny fraction of the 3,500 library branches around the country, but it has people in some rural areas up in arms.

"This is not just a library, it's a community center," said Hugh Wood, a longtime user of the library in Virginia Water, a village not far from Windsor Castle.

Public libraries as a British institution grew by leaps and bounds for most of the 20th century. In the 1980s, users borrowed 650 million books a year, a figure that has dropped to about 270 million as the Internet and bookstores have drawn away customers.

Now, small libraries are inviting targets for public officials trying to save money. Library backers say they need to change, something that could be harder for small facilities.

Posted by Perkins at 9:37 AM | Comments (3)

June 29, 2006

Response from Devon County Council

Sincere thanks to Janet Kipling of the press office at Devon County Council.

Janet- if you read this you might like to have a look at the entry on market research which Mr Grimsdyke made a few days ago and pass it your colleagues. I think Mr Grimsdyke might have a few ideas about how to conduct the research in your review that you would find helpful.

In reply to Tim Coates' posting of June 1.

No such decision has been made to close 12 libraries. The Council is currently carrying out a full review of the service to establish what people use and want libraries for, and how we can best meet those needs. The initial analysis which was carried out to pinpoint the 12 libraries whose futures are specifically under consideration used the following criteria:

Community Need
The aim was to provide a reasonable assessment of the extent to which each library catchment area was “disadvantaged” using the following indicators:
*Social deprivation (Overall IMD 2000 Index of Multiple Deprivation) 2000 – as background see also http://www.odpm.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1128450 http://www.odpm.gov.uk/pub/453/MethodologyforanindexofmultipledeprivationreportforformalconsultationPDF251Kb_id1128453.pdf
*Geographical access to services
*Public transport index - based on availability of public transport to parishes within each library catchment area (from LTP – Local Transport Plan)
*Isolation index - based on the number of other libraries within 10km and 20 km of each library

Usage level
The usage level indicators were:
 Issues per opening hour
 Visits per opening hour
 Enquiries per opening hour

Based on library performance data from 1999 to 2002/03 (the last complete and validated year at the time of the evaluation), the % change in each of these indicators over the previous three years.

Final results

Other factors taken into account:
 The need to address forthcoming requirements in the future new communities eg Cranbrook in East Devon, affecting Clyst Vale
 Previous commitments already made to improving library buildings
 Alternative improved premises being sought in town centres ie Cullompton

I hope this clarifies the issue and would urge all goodlibraryguide readers living in Devon to take part in the consultation at http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/culturetourism/libraries/libraryconsultation2006.htm

From Devon County Council Press Office

Posted by Perkins at 9:38 PM | Comments (0)

June 28, 2006

Resistance to Change

It is a constant source of surprise how the library profession (SYRUP) has been resistant to change. People are still cataloguing books they catalogued and labelled many years ago.

Bloggington is now so far advanced that it has become the cause of fierce jealousy which has lead to outbreaks of sporadic invasion from Barsetshire which lies over the hill.

To resist the incursion Mayor Tomato has called up a heavily armed Air Craft Carrier of the Italian navy to lie in Bloggington Bay. "Throw meringues at us if you like, Mr and Mrs Dumpling, and see what you get in return," he was heard shouting down his mobile phone.

Mr Elgar Atkins has brought his tin helmet down from the attic. Mr Grimsdyke has polished his telescope. Perkins, the library cat, is asleep in the military history section of the Carnegie Library on the dockside between "Napoleon" and "Nuclear bunkers"

Posted by Perkins at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)

News of UK Library Closures arrives in America

The Christian Science Monitor reports from Boston

In Shakespeare's stomping grounds, libraries face cuts

More than 100 libraries in England face closure as local councils tighten budgets.
By Mark Rice-Oxley | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

VIRGINIA WATER, ENGLAND – For 30 years, Hugh Wood has quietly enjoyed his local library, browsing the shelves, scanning the newspapers, ordering books, using the computers. But now Mr. Wood is furious.
The regional authority is looking for budgetary savings, and Virginia Water Library, the hub of this village in southern England, has been earmarked as a possibility. Residents are up in arms.

"This is not just a library, it's a community center," fumes Wood over coffee and cookies amid the towering stacks of the reference section. "We pay substantial [local taxes] and this is one of the few things we want our money spent on."

First, local grocery stores were squeezed out of rural English communities. Then post offices and small banks were shuttered. Now public libraries, some of them more than 100 years old, face closure, as local authorities across the country look for "soft targets" in an attempt to make budget savings.

More than 100 libraries are currently threatened with closure, the national government has admitted. Earlier this month, Culture Minister David Lammy played down the development, noting that there are more than 3,500 outlets in the country.

But opponents say it is a barbaric assault on cultural heritage, a cavalier negligence that will have a deep impact in a country where 1 in 6 adults have trouble reading.

"As well as being key points in the community, libraries are part of our cultural transmission, and we have got to do more to defend them," fulminates Michael Fallon, a member of Parliament who led a recent parliamentary debate on the issue. "You can get information from lots of sources nowadays, but the habit of browsing, reading each line of the shelf - this is access to the story of human knowledge and we have to be doing better than this."

Landmarks of British society

Public libraries mushroomed in Britain in the last century - not only in number, but in significance as well.They became one of the most familiar urban landmarks, a point around which to orient oneself, a reference for giving directions. They survived the technological advances in the postwar era: radio, television, and competition from myriad new leisure pursuits of the affluent society.

"They blossomed to nearly 4,000 buildings," notes Tim Coates, a consultant on public libraries and a former managing director of Waterstones, the United Kingdom's largest retail bookseller. "McDonald's will never get close to 4,000 buildings."

Figures show that even in the 1980s, 650 million books were loaned out each year. That figure has fallen to 270 million.The Internet competes as a reference source; and bookstores have now become more like libraries, with the opportunity to sit and drink coffee while you browse. Some libraries, meanwhile, have a distinctly outdated feel, with tired shelves packed with piles of well-thumbed pulp fiction.

"The problem lies in the quality of the service," says Mr.Coates. "If you had a clothes shop and all it sold was second-hand tat that was dirty, then people would go off it too."

So now, some of the less popular outlets are presenting an easy target for county councils keen to make cutbacks. An official at Surrey County Council, Matt Burrows, says rather than spend money on all those tiny outlets, it might make more sense to channel the money into mobile libraries or larger regional venues.

That argument doesn't resound with Virginia Water residents. One local, Alan Thorogood, even suggested that residents might resort to civil disobedience if the library is shut. Another, Diana Seaman, adds: "We need to encourage people to read generally, so what on earth are we doing closing libraries? People's habits may be changing but they still need their library."

They also question how much authorities will save by closing library doors. Estimates suggest it costs perhaps £20,000 ($36,500) a year to run the library. Both Mr.Fallon and Coates say that councils would save more by cutting bloated back-office bureaucracy that oversees libraries, rather than the frontline libraries.

Innovation provides a ray of hope

But the future might not be entirely bleak for Britain's libraries. Miranda McKearney, director of the Reading Agency charity, says that libraries that reinvent themselves can thrive. A new campaign, "lovelibraries," aims to show that a redesign and some creative thinking about stock, presentation, author events, reading chains, online catalogues and tie-ups with other libraries can help revive interest.

Libraries that are innovating - bringing in banks of computers, CD and DVD rentals, self-checkout, even audiobooks for MP3 players - are finding the interest is still there. Edinburgh's Central Library pulls in half a million visitors a year - more than the combined spectators who watch the city's top two football clubs for an entire season.

In England, the lovelibraries campaign is overhauling three venues at Richmond, Coldharbour, and Newquay, all in the south. Launches next week should indicate whether the modernization will entice new and old visitors to the library network.

"Libraries still offer something unique that bookshops can't," Ms. McKearney says. "Because it's free to borrow, you can take a risk, a new author, a cultural experiment, something you haven't thought of before." Besides, she says, not everyone can afford to buy all the books they want, and "kids should get through far more books than any family can afford to buy.

"The case for libraries is as strong as ever. Libraries just need to get smarter in articulating it better."

British bookworms
• There are 3,600 static and 460 mobile libraries in England.

• Around 60 percent of people in England have a library card.

• Over 285 million visits were paid to libraries to England in 2003-04 (more than to the movies or to soccer games).

• Public libraries in England lent over 310 million items in 2004-05, averaging more than six items for every person in the country.

Source: UK Department for Culture, Society, and Sport

Posted by Perkins at 7:24 AM | Comments (0)

June 27, 2006

Welcome to Bloggington on Sea

This blog is not just a campaign site for people who want to save and care about their local public libraries. It is also a set of ideas about how good libraries could and should be run for the benefit of their local communities.

Bloggington is a code name for a real town and many of the characters who appear in the various items are either real people or they represent points of view or positions that exist.

The library service in Bloggington is ideal, to my mind, and the lessons that Mr Grimsdyke teaches are the ones that are needed to be understood by those who operate libraries.

The Government departments and agencies that are lampooned are also real and I have tried to describe what they actually do rather than what they say they do. It is a privilege to be able to deride them because I do not depend on them. Many people are unable to do the same because they are employed or depend for contracts upon these people.

The blog is only part of a long and carefully planned attempt to overhaul the public library service and make it better. The strategy is to remove the influence of all these people and replace them with others who care for the genuine use of libraries rather than something that has been invented at a conference of librarians. We need to find those who are capable of giving the leadership to the service that it needs.

It is, I hope, a revolutionary site, conducted with words and analysis. I have several heroes: John Delane, the editor of The Times who brought the resignation of the cabinet of the British Government in 1855 by force of words and power of argument; Florence Nightingale, Sidney Godolphin Osborne, John Roebuck, William Howard, Thomas Chenery and Andrew Layard were among his accomplices. That was a forgotten revolution of which the British should be proud. Delane's astonishing and outrageous Leading Articles are the inspiration for this blog.

When my friends and I started this work some years ago we were told "there are no votes in libraries"- and that is no longer true; at the recent council elections in every council where campaigns have operated to save libraries, councillors lost their seats because of the public libraries. The other day someone said to me, ironically: "the Government will not fall because of public libraries". Don't you believe it.

Posted by Perkins at 10:06 PM | Comments (2)

Marketing Libraries

Mr Grimsdyke was laughing on the beach tonight, quietly sipping his milkshake as the sun moved into the evening quarter over Bloggington bay.

"I've just seen another report about marketing libraries," he said. "Focus groups report that people find libraries have disappointing collections of books, grumpy staff, aren't open when they are needed and the buildings are falling down."

"Don't talk to yourself," Mrs Sideloader had come to see what all the spluttering was about.

"These are the reasons people are using libraries less than they used to. Do you know what they report said they should do to put it right?" he asked her

"Mind that crab, you silly old fool," she answered him.

"Put up posters for the libraries in bus shelters," he said. "Mind," he added, "the whole thing was written in Welsh, so there's no risk of anyone doing anything."

"I don't know what you are talking about," said Mrs Sideloader. There was tender affection in the way she spoke to him. "Too much sunshine, today, then"

Posted by Perkins at 7:22 PM | Comments (3)

June 26, 2006

Regional Delay Centres

Despite my attempts to close them down I am told that "Delay", the Department of Libraries and Archives, are recruiting staff for 96 regional offices. Each will have a staff of 8,000. Applications to the Department of Common Sense (DCMS) are arriving by the lorry load. Quick, don't miss out. The nation is desperately short of administrators of libraries and archives.

Posted by Perkins at 7:55 PM | Comments (3)

Market research

There was an event last week hosted by the Minister, the DCMS, the MLA, and the LASER foundation at which they presented some market research about how people from age 16-34 feel about libraries. The conclusions were so mysteriously drawn as to be reminiscent of children making sandcastles in a downpour.

Some commentators to this blog have asked Mr Grimsdyke to explain how market research should be conducted in a normal professional manner. He shyly defers to others more expert, but his explanation is

"a. Qualitative research (focus groups) indicate what issues are at stake. No conclusion can be drawn at all from this kind of work - it is carried out in order to design-

b. Quantitative research which means asking appropriately large samples of carefully selected citizens non-leading questions.

c. If there you are trying to find out peoples' attitude to what you do (eg using libraries), there are at least four groups you can ask:

1. People who use the service- they will generally say they like it
2. People who work in the service- their perspective may be influenced by the small number of users who talk to them
3. People who don't use the service- they will generally say they don't need it
4. People who have recently used the service (in the last 2 years), but no longer do. These are called "lapsed users" and they will reveal everything that you do both right and wrong. They are the people, in the main, who hold the secrets of improvement.

So to be useful a survey needs to have been both qualitative and quantitative and the quantitative work needs to be properly portioned among the community, with emphasis particularly on lapsed users.

"PLUS" - The libraries', government sanctioned, "Public Library User Survey" is certainly not conducted in this way and I have never seen proper market research carried out, except rarely, in a local council.

No government could draw up a meaningful libraries policy without conducting this work, which needs as trained an eye for analysis as that of a horticulturalist. It is not for amateurs, like me. Mr Elgar Atkins of Bloggington on Sea is a pro in this field. I have learned to hang on his every word- which is why the library service in Bloggington on Sea is so good.

In my experience, if ever there was a subject in which it is essential to be in hands of a professional and to listen carefully to the reasons why the information can be misleading, market research is one. It can be useful, but only when used alongside concrete factual information and dollops of common sense".

Such resources are not available to the Ministry of Common Sense, Delay, the Department of Libraries and Archives and the Knitting Agency, who have neither information nor common sense and have never listened to anyone outside their own circle and consequently don't know what they are doing. I think "inter-breeding" is the word the Minister would use. It is an expression used of sheep.

Posted by Perkins at 7:27 PM | Comments (0)

June 25, 2006

Love Libraries, Eat cake

In the next 2 weeks David Lammy, the reading agency and various senior publishers will seek publicity for their campaign called "Love Libraries" They are using Saatchi Bros to promote the activity

There is nothing about this campaign which demonstrates an understanding or an acknowledgment of the serious problems of the library service. Not only are we faced with news of more closures every week, but books stocks and funds for book acquisitions continue to decline; opening hours of libraries have not increased materially in 8 years; and a huge amount of capital expenditure has brought no measured benefit whatsoever.

The fall in book lending for the year ending March 2006 has been greater than in any year ever (the Government has not yet released the figures)

This campaign is as if a Government of a country with slums and poverty and had taken one small child, bathed and dressed him and paraded in front of the press saying- "this is the way to solve the problem " It reminds one of being asked to eat cake.

The Government needs urgently to recognise the problems and- before the Autumn budget round begins in local councils- produce some realistic plan to solve them. Otherwise we face another two years of terminal decline from which it will be even harder to recover than now.

700 people attended a council meeting in the small Devon town of Colyton to argue with councillors who proposed to close their library. The councillors could not even produce the calculation that had been made that had persuaded them to take this action. This kind of public demonstration is going on all over the country.

Posted by Perkins at 1:03 PM | Comments (0)

Conservative and Labour

When I first got involved with the public library service the question I was asked was "from your experience as a book retailer can you offer any helpful advice to the library service?"

I did my best to do that and I and many others, much more experienced and wiser, with more understanding of public and private sector than I have, tried to do the same. The reponse to all we have offered has been characterised as "Libraries are not like book shops; leave us alone we are doing our best; to criticise us will defame the library service" I would say that none of the advice has been used even though it has been carefully articulated in many places at length over nearly six years.

The library service, of course, does not belong to the professional librarians, it belongs to the people of the country. These professionals have no business closing their ears.

In the early days I assumed that there would be somewhere some political leader or senior civil servant who would say. "This is helpful advice, let us listen to it and discuss how and if it can be used and make sure that any benefit taken." Much of the advice has been about the avoidance of wasting large amounts of public money, so investigation was important. Yet, apart from in some very special local councils, none has ever done that. As I have often explained on this blog, the professional librarians have been promoted, of course, into all those positions of influence within and around government to which a Minister would ever listen. So a succession of Ministers have been advised, long before I or any of these other sources of help could approach, that we are "trouble makers" - which means that we are a threat to the optimistic public relations presentation of the public library service. I have several emails from ministerial offices decribing me as a trouble maker. I was astonished initially but I have become quite used to it. That is why I make fun of them all. There is no point in attempting a grown up dialogue. I have never spoken to David Lammy and I have no route to him. My several notes have been returned or ignored.

On the other hand four months ago I was approached, unexpectedly, by the Conservative Party. They asked me and many others to explain my view of the state of the public library service. They listened, asked questions, watched presentations and absorbed ideas, from many different sources. For someone with no particular political allegiance it has been impressive and for someone who wants to be listened to, enormously gratifying.

When I was on the radio yesterday in a debate about modernising libraries, Mark Field, the MP and the shadow Minister to David Lammy, observed that many of the problems of keeping libraries up to date and relevant have been addressed and solved in a perfectly satisfactory way by others including book retailers. There are marketing, management, technical, financial and especially leadership problems all of which are perfectly readily solved. He knew exactly what he was talking about because it is his team of researchers and he himself who have listened so diligently to points of view on the subject and understood the matters in hand.

He said that it is not for a Minister to tell everybody what to do, but by his actions he has shown that what a Minister can do is make sure that the appropriate voices are listened to and that problems are not avoided even when they are difficult. Mark Field has demonstrated to me that he would be a much more effective Minister for the Arts than David Lammy is.

That is why, because the public library service is operated by local councils, I have advocated that Mark should lead a Conservative initiative to renew the service. He doesn't have to tell people what to do, and I'm sure he won't; but I anticipate he will quietly insist that the right people are listened to and that issues are faced rather than avoided. I am sure that we would make the progress that has failed to have been made over the past 7 years. The Labour party could always do the same- perhaps under Gordon Brown they will- but for the moment, there is one route forward that has not been available for a long time and it is with the Conservative Party.

Posted by Perkins at 9:01 AM | Comments (0)

June 24, 2006

The Mayor of Bloggington on Sea

British history has idiosyncracies: did you know that Berwick upon Tweed has been at war with Russia since 1854? Well, alone of Engish towns, Bloggington on Sea has a hereditary mayor from Naples. The Tomato family have been Mayors of Bloggington since the arrival of Julius Caesar in the town in 55 BC, watched over by Mr Grimsdyke's ancestor from Grimsdyke tower on Grimsdyke hill.

The current Mayor, Don Machine Gun Tomato is, of course, Mr Grimsdyke's boss, and keeps a watchful eye on the city finances. It is this long standing cultural Anglo Italian dynastic relationship that has always been so fruitful for the libraries of Bloggington. Nobody walks across the path of Machine Gun Tomato.

(Don Machine Gun Tomato, Mayor of Bloggington on Sea, is most certainly no relation of Lady Cheese and Tomato Sandwich, RAF, KGB,MLA,MFI who appears elsewhere in these memoires)

Posted by Perkins at 10:39 PM | Comments (2)

Boasting

Susan Hill and I were at the same cricket match in Scarborough in 1958 when an England team (called T N Pierce's Xl) played against the West Indies.

She has written an extraordinarily kind message about libraries on her own blog this morning. Watch out for the deckchair.

Here it is:

LIBRARIES

If it were not for Tim Coates and his Good Library Blog - which see - we would be as ignorant of local library closures as the councils intend us to be. The trick is that they underfund them, run the buildings down, do not buy books, close them for three days a week and then say no one is using them so we are justified in closing them down altogether. Hundreds of branch libraries up and down the country are earmarked for closure, but Chief Librarians and their pubic service minions remain in situ, de-stocking books and ordering new computers in their comfortable offices. Suddenly, though, people are waking up to what is going on and Middle England, when roused, is a force to be reckoned with. People are forming Save our Library committees and asking awkward questions of councils - they have paid their council taxes in part to have a library and they want to know what is being done with said money. They are also taking over libraries themselves and running them very succesfully, as volunteers.

But please be vigilant, as the note from school used to say when nits were back -( when did they ever go, whilst your children were Mixed Infants ?) Libraries, WITH BOOKS IN THEM, matter. To the young and to the old in particular. I do not say this because I need libraries to buy my books - they don`t buy any books much these days- or becase authors get money from library borrowings. We do but once you earn £6,000, that`s it, no matter how many million people borrow your book. The amount is capped.

Libraries were my education and my refuge as a child and young adult. Libraries alone did not educate me but they started me on a book-related life and career and love affair. hey have done the same for thousands. Keep beady eye on your local council. Not all are hell-bent on closing libraries; some are enthusiastic and supportive and there are some terrific, keen, dedicated librarians. But the same does not apply to all areas. As the nit-note said, PLEASE BE VIGILANT

That`s your lot.

Off to the deck chair.

Posted by Perkins at 2:06 PM | Comments (0)

Mr Grimsdyke

Peg Harker is a newcomer to the site and asks who are the characters.

The central character is Mr Percival Grimsdyke, the head of the public library service in Bloggington-on-Sea. This whole blog is his memoire.

There are many villains: Mr and Mrs Dumpling from Barsetshire who have removed all the books from their libraries and turned them into Recovery Centres; Mr Custard Cream and Mrs Thin Biscuit, who have recently publicly disgraced themselves by dancing a jig at the Conservative Party Conference; Mr Woolly Jumper the Minister and Miss Bo Peep OBE, of the Knitting Agency, who are often seen together. Mr Custard Cream is the head of procrastination at DLA (pronounced Delay) the Department of Libraries and Archives. The Minister is in charge of the Department of Commons Sense(DCMS), which is in a hole in the ground under Victoria Station. He has a degree in cross-stitch

The Countess of Lemon Curd and Lady Cheese and Tomato Sandwich RAF,KGB,MLA are new characters who will also play a role in the twists and tales of the life of Mr Grimsdyke. Look out also for the wise old Mr Elgar Atkins who has a degree in Karaoke and Perkins who is the library cat in the Dock Side Carnegie library in Bloggington.

We receive comments from many noteworthy people. Recently Miss Daisy in the Deckchair from Dewsbury has complained about my reference to Gambling.

Mr Grimsdyke is soon to reveal the Neapolitan history of Bloggington and its Mafia connections. Keep reading, Peg. Nice to hear from you- pass this round! I know about you. Being educated in a convent has done no harm.

It goes without saying that Mr Grimsdyke is the world's leading advocate for the idea that public libraries should have lots of books, be agreeable places to sit and be open as near to all the time as possible. He likes strawberry milkshakes.

Posted by Perkins at 1:12 PM | Comments (3)

Enter your favourite library in the wonderful "Good Library Guide"

This is a message from Karen Christensen, who at Berkshire Publishing, is the originator and host of this blog. The Good Library Guide is a most beautiful book. She wants to create a British Edition and a website to go with it.

"One of the first things I did after moving to England as a teenager was join the Frimley Green Library. Now I'm a publisher reading about U.K. libraries from my home in Massachusetts, and eager to support a transformation in how they are operated--and valued.

Setting up the Good Library Blog for Tim was a fantastic start, and now we want to begin work on what will eventually be a U.K. Good Library Guide in print.

Only 1% of British restaurants make it into the Good Food Guide, I've read. It'll be a small percentage of libraries that make it, too, but on the website we can include many more. They don't have to be perfect: in fact, we'd like to gather information about libraries that need attention. Tim and other friends of libraries stand ready to advise and help.

By sharing information online--about services needed, successful
programs underway, and ways you've found to solve problems without spending a lot of money--libraries themselves and citizens will be able more easily to work together to make their libraries lively, sustaining, and successful public places.

Here's what we'd like to know:

Name of library, address, contact information, website, head librarian
History and architecture
Please review and rate 1-5 (1=in need of much improvement, 5=wonderful)
* Book collections
* Periodicals
* Electronic and online publications
* Special collections
* Opening Times
* Services
* Suitability for private study
* Atmosphere
* Facilities
Your name and contact details (for verification only)
Other information you think we should have

A more sophisticated system will be available soon, but in the
meantime, we'll be happy to accept submissions. Please send them to
Rachel@berkshirepublishing.com. The editors and advisory board for the project will be announced soon, and if you would like to participate as an anonymous visitor to libraries in your area, do let us know. Our draft Good Library Manifesto is posted here on the site. Comments welcome: karen@berkshirepublishing.com."

Posted by Perkins at 12:50 PM | Comments (0)

June 23, 2006

Bollikins

A dramatic furore has broken out in the book world over library supply. Bollikins the bookseller who sell books to libraries have been accused by publishers of by-passing normal channels and writing their own books.

Normally publishers obtain their books for a few pence from authors and then sell them to Bollikins for a very large sum.

Bollikins noticed that public libraries main cncern is to be supplied with books that have a multitude of sticky coloured labels on the outside. By developing this multi-label, shelf ready product and putting a few words in to fool visitors to libraries, Bollikins have neatly side stepped the entire tradition of publishers everywhere. Publishers are the ones with bow ties.

The Monopolies Commission have said they anticipate their investigation will probably take several years.

Posted by Perkins at 5:55 PM | Comments (1)

The Countess of Lemon Curd

The Countess of Lemon Curd was spotted placing a few bets at the races yesterday. "Gambling is the thing for me. I need the money" she said. She was wearing a jam jar.

Posted by Perkins at 10:38 AM | Comments (1)

Where are the figures ?

With all the need to communicate and explain why libraries are closing- not just to the public but also to councillors- one would imagine that the library service would have a regular flow of performance figures. Perhaps quarterly updates (after all the service has an operating cost far larger than all but a handful of FTSE quoted public companies.)

Oh no! At the moment we have no data on performance later than March 2005 (15 months ago). So how do councillors decide whether their service is working properly? How do the public know what they they get for their money? Where are the figures for this public service?

Posted by Perkins at 8:40 AM | Comments (0)

June 22, 2006

The Minister cajoles

In several comments this week the Minister has argued that responsibility for the public library service lies with local authorities and they must be left alone to determine their own destiny.

I would be uncomfortable to be the Minister who presides over the end of our public library service or the decimation of its collection of books. Allowing local authorities to be responsible and accountable doesn't mean that a Minister can wash his hands of the need to influence and lead. He can use the authority of his position to oblige people to listen, to face problems, to make proper analysis and to seek improvement. Leadership in a democracy is not about giving prescriptive solutions: it is about clarity of vision, encouragement, energy and persistence- as it is in most things.

In the article below, it is a political gesture of the most unimaginative kind to recall Tory governments of the past; and while it is right to observe that the current problems of library services lie as much in Tory councils as in Labour ones, it is plainly the Minister's job to find ways to address those problems on behalf of the public. Otherwise why do we have a Minister? And why do we have Ministry and a Quango- if they are unable to influence the service for the better? Far from being a "Ministry that is not fit for purpose" this is a Ministry that has no purpose.

Come on Minister, I fear that even Perkins, the library cat, could do better. If my experience of working with local councils is anything to go by "cajoling" them, as he suggests, is the least productive route forwards and always has been. A little help would be more practical, but you can only do that if you know how.

22 June 2006
The Bookseller

Lammy strikes back at the Tories
Katherine Rushton

Minister for Culture David Lammy has hit back at the Tory party following calls by his Conservative shadow Hugo Swire MP for councils to seize control of the library service.

Speaking at a Laser Foundation conference this week, Lammy said: "I would remind the Tories that when they were in power, hundreds of libraries were closed and budgets were slashed." Many of the authorities currently looking at library closures are under Conservative control, he added.

His comments came after an attack by Swire at a Tory forum on libraries in the House of Commons last week, in which he accused the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Museums, Libraries and Archives council of a "lack of leadership". Swire called on Tory councils to form a new steering group: "We will be bringing together Conservative local authorities to develop a strategy for developing and improving the service that is delivered," he said.

The current set-up also came under fire at the Tory forum from Headline author and Conservative party "A-list" candidate Louise Bagshawe, who vehemently attacked the low percentage of library funds currently directed to books. "Nine per cent is a pretty bad figure," she said. "We are making a terrible mistake."

The attention surrounding libraries has reached fever pitch in the past 10 days, as Lammy has been called to account over planned library closures in the UK. Desmond Clarke, head of libraries charity Libri and former Faber director, said: "I think the Conservatives are smelling blood."

Lammy said on Monday that he regrets the row: "I wish that these things weren't so political, because I think this is beyond political." He added that he would continue to "cajole" failing authorities to raise their standards.

Posted by Perkins at 10:49 PM | Comments (0)

Memoires of a Custard Cream

I confidently predict that on the radio on Saturday Mr Custard Cream will give a reading from volume 7 of his memoires which is entitled "A la recherche de la confiture" or "Jam Tomorrow" as it is often translated. The famous opening line " As I put my head on the pillow I realised that jam tomorrow has come today" will ring across the airwaves. This is of course a celebration of Mr Custard Cream's recent appointment as Head of Procrastination at the DLA, the Department of Libraries and Archives (De;Lay)

If you haven't heard it before listen out for the story of how Mr and Mrs Dumpling closed two libraries in Barchester and the one they opened in their place is a roaring success. This, of course, bears no relation to the true story of the libraries of Barchester which have both closed for two years and will re-open as one Recovery Centre, with a fine collection of chocolate sponge cakes where the books used to be. The new Recovery Centre is expected to cost the same as the Scottish Parliament Building. (in Scotland)

Posted by Perkins at 9:37 PM | Comments (1)

Thank you to Simon Fraser for a blogwoosh

Simon is a news editor on the BBC website. When I came home this evening the hit counter on this blog site, the blogometer, had gone off the top of the scale and blown a fuse. This (I'm sure) is because he described us as "inflential" in an excellent article he posted.

If anyone reads this the important message is this:

There is no need for any library to close; every library service in the country is perfectly well funded-- the problem is that the funds have been, over many years, diverted into what everyone else would call excessive management and administration when technology could have reduced these costs. These matters are not made clear to local councillors who admirably but foolishly defend their management instead of giving them proper challenge. If anyone want to know how to make the fair and sensible appraisal of their own local library service, with their councillors, calmly and dispassionately, so that the service can be improved, then I can help. There is a whole routine that is available to help councils renew and improve their services, but in order to use it, they have to ask. It's no good trying to tell them what to do. tim.coates@yahoo.com

Posted by Perkins at 7:45 PM | Comments (1)

Radio Broadcast

There are two radio programmes about libraries at 0900 and at 1700 on Saturday

Sky Digital 0127
Freeview 717
NTL 893
Digital Radio
www.oneword.co.uk

Apologies to anyone who picked up my mistaken entry suggesting the library programmes would be today. If you listen today you will hear a reading of Gormenghast. Much the same really, but different.

Posted by Perkins at 10:05 AM | Comments (0)

More closures in Yorkshire

The number of libraries to close in Calderdale looks set to rise from 5 to 10. As we found the other day people in Calderdale pay £4.5m pa for their library service which is about to be decimated, to save £30,000. It is hard to see from what the council are saying, exactly what it is all about. The question, as always, is "how many people in the library service work in offices, rather than at the library counter?"

The Bookseller reports
Five public libraries in West Yorkshire are set to close and another five are under review, bringing the total number of proposed closures up to 93 nationwide. Calderdale Council said it would replace five library branches with a combination of a mobile service and book stocks at local shops and pubs, with effect from September. The decision, which will save the council £30,000 a year, will be put forward for cabinet approval on Monday.

But councillor Amanda Byrne, who has responsibility for community services, was clear this was not a cost cutting measure: "The endgame is not to keep closing libraries. The endgame is to get the usage up," she said. "It is incumbent on councils to always make sure that they're getting the best value for money."

The council will target the five additional libraries under threat with new measures to boost visits but if they fail, they will also face closure."

It is indeed incumbent on councils to ensure they provide best value for money: but for the taxpayers, not the employees. The two ideas are not the same.

I'm sure somebody will tell me that in Yorkshire these days most taxpayers are employees of the government in some shape or form. Even so, it would be better for the librarians to sit in libraries that are open to the public than in offices which aren't.

Posted by Perkins at 8:21 AM | Comments (0)

June 21, 2006

Secret conversations

I was approached yesterday by Lady Cheese and Tomato Sandwich KGB, RAF, who said that if I even hinted what we had talked about, on this blog, she would never speak to me again. Shhhhhh.

Posted by Perkins at 7:28 PM | Comments (0)

Hertfordshire

People in Hertfordshire have set up a website to save their libraries. They also have a petition on the site. Do sign it. We need to help the councillors work out what is going on

Posted by Perkins at 1:21 PM | Comments (1)

Devon MP's get involved

It is curiously rare for an MP to get involved in a matter which is the business of the local council. That is why these comments from Devon (and other places) show how serious the matter has become.

Posted by Perkins at 11:44 AM | Comments (0)

The professional librarian

My correspondent continues to make observations that are so obviously true, but emphatically powerful for being said by an experienced professional

"Our remote management are well protected from the public. It is very difficult for Joe public to make a complaint to them unless he is a very forceful, persistent person or a crank (we've had those and they have had very comprehensive responses from the Chief). Most complaints stop at the front line where policy is quoted to quell their needs.

There is still the gulf between prof and non-prof staff in library services and although most of our staff in libraries are well educated people with lots of experience, the senior staff really aren't interested in what we have to say. There's a lot of talking done at meetings but no action plan at the end of it. I've been to user-group meetings about our library mgt system to discuss and improve the circulation system in the branches. Some important points are raised and verbally addressed but months later nothing has changed.

David Lammy's recommendations always include the involvement of the libraries in their local communities but the prof staff continue to assume remote roles. It occurs to me that as well as library staff some middle mgt are frustrated with the limitations of their remit and may respond to CILIP if approached by the Executive."

Posted by Perkins at 11:27 AM | Comments (0)

June 20, 2006

More from a professional librarian

"There are now about 1000 affiliated (non-professional library posts) members of CILIP. If the CILIP executive would be willing to listen to these members at the front line of library work, who can see at first hand the effect of management decisions on the service, then perhaps they could exert some influence on Chief Librarians to visit their libraries and listen to the branch library managers.

The government initiatives for libraries over the past few years have led to the creation of more professional high paid posts eating into the budgets further and diminishing the hope for more new books, and the core service is seriously affected."

Posted by Perkins at 11:07 PM | Comments (2)

CILIP

CILIP stands for Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. This body used to be called the Library Association (LA)

A decade and more ago a government of any colour wanting to provide the people of the country with a public library service turned to and depended upon CILIP to tell them how to do it and provide the management.

CILIP gives "accreditation" to its trained and paid up members so a council can turn to them and make an appointment of someone whom CILIP had endorsed.

Readers of this blog can see easily that the management of the library service is a total shambles. CILIP no longer has any credibility and its endorsements are obviously hopelessly wrong.

No council could or should depend on CILIP for advice or "accreditation". We desperately need a new regime of management training. CILIP is just one of those dreadful bodies that have endeavoured to wrap the government in influence for their own benefit and not for the public. It is not a body to which anyone (in public libraries) could belong with any sense of the pursuit of public service. Its members need to tell the management to go. If they are to provide collective good - then they need a new agenda.

Posted by Perkins at 8:11 AM | Comments (4)

June 19, 2006

Colyton in Devon

This just came from Devon. Readers will remember that up to now the council have lost the piece of paper which explains why some towns were selected to lose their libraries

Tim, have been meaning to let you know how our "consultation" with DCC went last Friday. I can't do much better than copy to you the report a colleague has put on the Colyton website, see attached file. (posted below)

It was as good as we could expect - 700 people - endless questioning of Sheila Hobden & Lyn Osborne - admission that the transport to Seaton is not as good as they thought - some interest in our vision of a new library to incorporate the History Soc & Local Records Office.

Re the latter I believe we need to progress this idea as DCC say they will not produce a final closure list for the Exec Committee until Sept/Oct.

Any suggestions re sponsorship/grants/foundations for libraries as of course funding any development from DCC is probably out of the question?

Regards Alan Davis
Alan- you can try the Big Lottery Fund. They are about to hand out money for the development of libraries in local communities. I see that Buckinghamshire villages are making applications. tim

THE DCC EXHIBITION OF 16th June 2006
A visitor head count was carefully and accurately kept.
At the end of the day the count was almost 700 people of all ages !

Friday the 16th June will certainly have proved to be a most memorable day for both the DCC Portfolio Holder for Culture, Sheila Hobden, and the head of Library Modernisation, Lynn Osborne, as much as it was for the community of Colyton.

The publicity machine and the efforts of the Colyton Library Action Group worked wonders in creating local awareness. Local press coverage has been most supportive for which we are grateful. It all converted into the most positive action giving as much substantial impact to the concept of 'Exhibition and Consultation' as we could manage.

No one can be left unaware of the huge feeling and determination to both retain and improve Colyton's library for present and future generations.

Three key issues emerged from the day's exchange of views:

The effect on the sustainability of our community

Transport and access difficulty to an alternative library

Interest in the wider development of Colyton library to incorporate other local interests (history and culture etc)

Our thanks go to the teams of ladies manning the tables outside the town hall and outside the library. They encouraged people to attend the exhibition and to complete our own questionnaire.

Our questionnaire was put together and issued in response to the grave disquiet at the style, manner and loading of the official county document. Our questionnaire contained a series of key questions which we believe must be addressed by Devon County Council.

There is considerable support for our position from many directions including local MP Hugo Swire and our District Councillor Barry Nicholson. Nationally David Lammy, Minister for Culture, has made statements deploring the closure of libraries whilst in the southwest the Community Council for Devon has registered its concerns about the proposals.

The Action Group will continue to lobby and develop the case for Colyton Library at every opportunity during the coming weeks. As always views, ideas or thoughts are welcome from any quarter.
Email to alan.davis@iee.org and/or cehaynes@btinternet.com

Don't forget if you haven't written or emailed a protest you should still take the time to do so - key people are listed at the end.

Be sure to obtain our own questionnaire from the hardware store and other local shops, pleas complete and return it by 30th June.

If you have not yet completed the official DCC questionnaire please do so by the end of July and returning to the library. Feel free to ignore any question you are not happy with but comments or observations can be written against any of them

Watch this space for more information during the coming weeks.

Email addresses for your protests:

sheila.hobden@devon.gov.uk (The Councillor responsible for leading these proposals)
barry.nicholson@devon.gov.uk (County Councillor)
phil.norrey@devon.gov.uk (Chief Executive)
brian.greenslade@devon.gov.uk (Chairman)
Lynn.Osborne@devon.gov.uk (Head of library modernisation)

DCC statements, statistics and policy documents have been produced at:
www.devon.gov.uk/index/culturetourism/libraries/libraryconsultation2006.htm

Posted by Perkins at 9:58 PM | Comments (3)

Micklefield fights to save its library

In Buckinghamshire there are now several articulate and energetic campaigns intended to keep their libraries open. But they are receiving no help from Sir David Shakespeare, the leader of the Council, and his players on the County Council.

Posted by Perkins at 7:51 PM | Comments (1)

Closing libraries in Yorkshire

Susan Hill and I are both from Yorkshire. I dare say she will be as stirred as I am to hear that the closure disease has arrived in God's own country. It is like hearing of bird flu coming to your village.

This now makes the 107 possible closures into 112. Here is the article.

The official figures tell me that the people of Calderdale pay £4.5m pa for their 22 libraries. This article says that closing 5 of them will save a total of £30,000 each year. Am I mad- or does somebody need to borrow Mr Grimsdyke's old slide rule? It doesn't make sense.

Calderdale is the local council name for Bronte country. It is most beautiful. If anyone sees this please could they make contact either by a comment or by email to tim.coates@yahoo.com. Susan is offering her support.

Posted by Perkins at 6:28 PM | Comments (1)

June 18, 2006

The Truth

I received this from a very experienced professional librarian. I have altered it slightly so that the author can not be identified.

"I've read "Who's in Charge" and some of your articles/comments about the library services and I wholeheartedly agree with your criticisms about the running of library services. The current management structures belong in the days of manual cataloguing, classification and paper based research requirements. Even then there weren't so many layers of professionally qualified, relatively well-paid posts (consuming the majority of the budget) in situations remote from libraries.

The private sector perspective is so relevant to the survival of the community library. It has been known for libraries to close for a day or more because staff are sick/on holiday while the professional staff, who consume the majority of the budget, are not required to face the public at the issue desk even to keep the library open. In a private business the owner/manager would undoubtedly step in and face the customers.

Recent library-related literature points to the library being the heart of the community. I'm sure this could be done if professional staff were employed creating partnerships at community level with every aspect, retail and social, of the community. I and my colleagues who work in the libraries see the potential at the front line but we usually say nothing to protect our jobs, or we simply aren't asked!"

If there are any other librarians, library, government officials or council staff who want to add things on this blog, please do. I will protect your identity. You can write as a comment or, if you prefer, send me an email to tim.coates@yahoo.com

Posted by Perkins at 5:25 PM | Comments (2)

Blockbuster

At a "breakfast on the beach" publicity launch this morning, Mr Grimsdyke announced he has received a "six figure sum" to write his memoires.

The provisional title is "Grimsdyke Diaries: The libraries of Bloggington-on-sea"

"My mother called me Percival" he revealed, but everyone has always called me Mr Grimsdyke". Fascinating.

The book will be available in special large print editions only. Price to be announced. I understand Bollikins the Bookseller have already placed a "staggeringly" large order.

Mr Grimsdyke's publisher is looking for a (free) illustrator.

Translation rights are available- even into American.

Posted by Perkins at 11:46 AM | Comments (1)

Turning points

It may well turn out that the number of libraries that close this year is less than the 107 mentioned in last week's Observer, but that will be no thanks to David Lammy, Chris Batt, John Dolan, Mark Wood, Paul Kirkman, Andrew Stevens etc, the people who have responsibility for ensuring we have a comprehensive and efficient library service. It will be because people across the country have protested and argued in hundreds of different ways with their local councils and forced them to think again. In the case of Cumbria, it will be because the council itself has made noble efforts.

The Observer's highlighting of the ineffectual approach of the Minister was followed during the week by articles in The Telegraph, The Evening Standard and in a host of local papers and the professional book press.

What they all demonstrated was not just a lack of leadership to which people are entitled (as Helen Dunmore, the author, so eloquently said, before David Lammy abused her publicly); but that those in positions of leadership simply don't understand what it means. Apparently they have never seen it at work and never learned how it is conducted.

Next week will bring more attention. A (rather good) report of a set of focus groups among people up to the age of 35 will show that for them, by and large, the public library service is irrelevant. Throughout their own childhood, years of study and their lives to date, what has been on offer in public libraries has been so awful that they don't care about the service at all. It has no value. In fifteen years time the affection which currently surrounds the service and from which the pleas for survival mostly come, will no longer be there. That is why it will be closed down. That means that the generation of senior managers of the service, now in place, have ruined it. It also means that the job of restoration is now so formidable, one is feared to undertake it. For certain we cannot go on allowing these same managers to carry on their agenda in the way that they have. It is time to change the management.

In the following weeks we will get more "Love Libraries" propaganda. These will be photo opportunities for Mr Lammy with beaming children and hard working library staff in libraries that have been cleaned up. No attempt has been made to address any of the underlying management issues or the questions of management development or straightforward performance measurement that are so desperately needed as a foundation. It is, as the Bookseller has already perceptively observed, sticking plaster on a gaping wound. And, after the 14 months he has been in office, it will represent a small improvement in 3 libraries out of more than 3,000 for which he has (but denies) responsibility.

I hope that the public and national outburst of frustration that all this brings means we are coming to a turning point. All these problems are readily solvable- but not unless someone asks for help and that person should have been David Lammy, the Minister.

Posted by Perkins at 9:34 AM | Comments (4)

June 17, 2006

BVPI 220 and CPA

If any council wishes to be certain to score 4 out of 4 for BVPI 220, and top marks for libraries in the CPA, Mr Grimsdyke is offering to assist them. Depending on current performance he will achieve top scores within one or two years; he would expect to do this with no extra funding for the council library service.

Contact Mr Grimsdyke via a comment to this site. He will generally only work with councillors who hold the library portfolio and council directors.

He will also, on here, explain, how he took his council from a fairly low score to top marks with no extra funds; in fact Bloggington libraries now operate on a smaller budget than three years ago.

Posted by Perkins at 3:07 PM | Comments (0)

Who is in charge?

I wrote a report 2 years ago, to which a very good friend gave the clever title "Who's in Charge? Responsibility for the public library service."

The Minister has given a clear answer at last: he says "No one is in charge"

Well it's no wonder that nothing works- but why do so many people get paid so much for not being in charge? What are the ministry and the MLA for if the minister believes he is not accountable and they have no responsibility?

This is a matter upon which the Parliamentary Culture Select Committee dwelt at length last year. They called upon the Minister to resolve exactly these questions and the Ministry to "raise its game". The committee and parliament have been ignored- to which they should take exception.

Miss Daisy from her hot and sunny deckchair in Nether Botherington observes:

"Now why am I not surprised they were ignored ?"

Wither democracy, I say.

Posted by Perkins at 11:42 AM | Comments (1)

June 16, 2006

Common Sense in Dorset

It looks like Common Sense is breaking out in Dorset.

There is an inspiring article in the local paper

If anybody down there see this- the key is to ask the council to indicate in detail where the staff costs are incurred. They will find that relatively little is in the actual libraries. I would be delighted to help if asked

I have mentioned the poor financial analysis provided to the councillors and people of Dorset before.

It is possible to reduce the administrative cost of a library service by 90% these days.

There's another article this morning in the Dorset Echo. And another piece this evening. Not only are the people of Dorset doing a marvellous job, but so are their local newspapers.

Posted by Perkins at 5:29 PM | Comments (0)

The Royal Society of Literature

I cannot satirise this, it means too much. A year ago David Hughes, the most excellent author, who had encouraged my writing and my work on old official papers, called and asked about articles I had written in the Guardian on the subject of public libraries. We met and talked and, as he was on the council of the Royal Society of Literature, he insisted that I should enlist their support and explain to them the problems that I was uncovering. While the arrangements for my presentation to them were being made, he died.

In response to my discussion with them the Royal Society, of which Maggie Gee is the president, immediately offered their authority and support and they invited the new Minister responsible for libraries to come and address and discuss the matter of public libraries with them. There could be no more articulate debating society nor one with greater commitment to and understanding of the role of public libraries. A new, young minister could have gone nowhere for wiser council.

The event took place last Tuesday and it was as embarrasing as it was sad. I have already posted the Bookseller account of it and here is today's entry in the Evening Standard.

""ES London's Diary 16 June

Lame Lammy waffles on
Culture Minister David Lammy angered a gathering of The Royal Society of Literature in Somerset House by referring to readers as "punters and consumers". When novelist Helen Dunmore took him to task for being crass, Lammy snapped back that she was being pedantic.

Lammy was invited to talk about closures, dwindling book stocks and opening hours in public libraries but succeeded only in aggravating his learned audience with a long speech patronising them as "the finest minds in the country". He waffled and filibustered, they said

Whenever questions got tough, Lammy said "local democracy" meant he could not intervene, although he lauded the "national standards" he had set. Most oddly, he said he had tried to urge upon publishers that the end-papers of all books should include a form which readers could post to their local councils, saying they want them to buy such books as the one thereby mutilated.

His speech was recorded by the British Library, but anybody who has the spare time to ask his permission to listen to it. Don't all rush at once."

Posted by Perkins at 1:14 PM | Comments (1)

Rumours

Normally Ministers are accompanied by Civil servants from their ministry. I have noticed that Mr Woolly Jumper travels either with Miss Bo Peep (OBE) of the Knitting Agency or Mr Custard Cream from Delay (the Department of Libraries and Archives). Perhaps Mr Woolly Jumper is already no longer the Minister and this is all make believe.

Also Mr Jumper has started accusing the country of wishing to nationalise libraries. I can only ever recall Mr Batt of the DLA calling for a national agency to run libraries. (Mr Grimsdyke, who likes cricket, says he handles everything like a Dead Batt)

Perhaps Mr Jumper and Mr Batt have already fallen on their knitting needles; so to say. But that would be just a rumour or two.

Posted by Perkins at 8:02 AM | Comments (0)

June 15, 2006

Conservative Party Policy Statement

Conservative Party
Press Release
Tel: (Press): 020 7984 8121
Tel: (Broadcast Desk): 020 7984 8100
Fax: 020 7984 8272
www.conservatives.com
CONSERVATIVES

15th June 2006
Ref: 1250/06

Swire: Conservatives pledge action to end library decline

Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, Hugo Swire, is committed to end the terminal decline in the library service, pledging to put the written word at the heart of a revival of our libraries.

Speaking at a Conservative Library Forum, Mr Swire said:

“We have seen the number of books issued between 2000 and 2005 fall by nearly 25%. If current trends of closures, falling book stock and falling lending rates continue at their present rate, the public library book lending service would be no more within 15 years. We can either sit back, or we can tackle the problem and deliver a service that can see us through the 21st century.”

Mr Swire pledged to bring together Conservative Councils to develop a deliverable vision for libraries.

“We want to foster an environment where the library service is seen as an important priority that needs to be constantly developed and improved. We want to discover ways to make libraries more efficient, to encourage them to work together and to maximise the resources they have available to them. It must embrace the exciting opportunities offered by new technology, but it must not do so at the expense of the written word.”

Notes to editors:

The forum was attended by over 100 stakeholders involved in the library sector, including authors, publishers and librarians.

ENDS

The challenge for us it get Mr and Mrs Dumpling to come out of the Recovery Centre, collect their books from the park benches and put them back on the shelves of the libraries. It won't be easy. Nevertheless, Mr Grimsdyke is so pleased to read this press release tonight, he has put a little extra ice cream in his strawberry milkshake while he watches the sunset over Bloggington harbour. Ends.

Posted by Perkins at 9:26 PM | Comments (1)

Mr Custard Cream and Mrs Thin Biscuit

Mr Custard Cream, chief policy adviser at the Department of Libraries and Archives ("Delay") berated the audience at the House of Commons today for not agreeing with him when he said anything. Nobody was spared.

He was ably supported by Mrs Thin Biscuit who didn't need a microphone to tell all the people in the whole country how wrong they are about everything.

I thought they had a particularly innovative point of view to express when they gave a moving rendition of the duet "Journalists: they know nothing and are completely stupid". It seemed a good way to draw attention to their work.

The two then danced a merry jig and turned into a syrup pancake. This blog will follow their careers with interest.

Even Mrs Dumpling, who was in the front row of the audience next to Mr Elgar Atkins, looked surprised before she quickly buried her head in another packet of cream buns.

Mr Elgar Atkins revealed to me his understanding of these matters in that he has a doctor's degree from the same University as Mr Woolly Jumper, the Minister. Mr Atkins obtained a distinction in Karaoke. Mr Woolly Jumper's thesis is in cross-stitch (very cross-stitch, I believe).

Posted by Perkins at 7:32 PM | Comments (2)

The Bookseller today - 1

The Bookseller has this evening posted three really important articles.

This is the first

15 June 2006

Authors lay into David Lammy over libraries
Katherine Rushton

Minister for Culture David Lammy has come under fire from authors and librarians, who accuse him of failing to engage with the current state of crisis in the library service.

At a Royal Society of Literature libraries debate this week, Lammy acknowledged that up to 107 libraries may close across the country, but said that the actual number of closures is unknown. "When we talk about proposed closures, we have to remember the 100 or so libraries that are new or are being refurbished. And we ought to also remember that when I wrote to every council and reminded them of their statutory duty, that actually many councils stopped, shelved or revised the plans."

He also backed away from the threat he made in January, to use his "draconian powers" under the 1964 Museums & Libraries Act to step in and sieze control of failing services. "While I continue to look at [the closures] we must believe, in the end, that people really believe in the value of the service," he said.

But author and illustrator Shirley Hughes said she was shocked at his apparent ignorance of the cutbacks being made. "Local council are making cuts at a local level, but we look to national government to have an overview of what's happening," she said.

Bob McKee, c.e.o. of the Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals, urged Lammy to take action. "He's really passionate about libraries, but . . . what we need is a politician, not an enthusiast," he said. "You hear all this positive stuff, yet you get so much frustration. How does that compute?"

Meanwhile, RSL chair Maggie Gee questioned Lammy's concern to maintain "relevant stocks" to lure visitors into libraries. "We want to know what libraries are going to do to preserve the diversity of stock. And we would like him to start using his draconian powers to keep libraries open."

But Lammy accused his "carping" critics of wanting to micro-manage the service. "Libraries are quintessentially local [but] I wonder if some parties are making the case for nationalisation," he said.

He also hit out at Society of Authors chair Helen Dunmore, who questioned references to library users as "punters" and "consumers" as opposed to readers. "I am sorry you feel the need to be so pedantic," he said.

Library closures: status report

Cumbria Twenty proposed closures scaled back to six, which are still under review. Decision expected this September.

Devon Twelve under review with decision to be implemented in the autumn.

Lancashire Eight of the nine libraries under review closed in April to make up £160,000 budget shortfall.

Surrey Two libraries still under review.

Dorset Thirteen libraries still under review. Proposal to extend public consultation period to summer 2007, and make up budget shortfall from book fund.

Northumberland Fourteen libraries earmarked for closure. Review ongoing until autumn.

Hertfordshire Four libraries still under review. A decision on two of the libraries is expected in July, and on the other two in November. Operational development manager Derek Knight said: "It's part of an overall package of improvement in the service."

Buckinghamshire Eight libraries earmarked for closure. Council mooted possibility of passing responsibility to local residents.

Cheshire All four libraries facing closure now to remain open.

Gloucestershire Two libraries under review.

Dumfries & Galloway All five libraries facing closure now to remain open.

Cambridgeshire Ten libraries have now closed.

Leicester City Council Three libraries closed. Another is still under review, with a decision expected at the end of the month.

Posted by Perkins at 5:58 PM | Comments (0)

The Bookseller today- 2

Here is the second

15 June 2006

David Lammy, the minister responsible for libraries, must match his fine words with action
When David Lammy arrived in office last year, the libraries community was buzzing with expectation that--at last--the service may be about to turn the corner. The new Minister for Culture spoke with passion about the sector, wheeling out tales of his own upbringing in a house without books, and the key role libraries have played in his success. Privately he acknowledged that libraries were the part of his sprawling portfolio he was most excited by, fuelling hopes he would do something significant for libraries.

But 14 months on, his impassioned speeches have become an almost comical refrain. Out of a total spend on libraries of £1.06bn in 2003/04, the latest year available, only £95m was spent on books, down markedly from £118m a decade earlier. But while Lammy bangs on about his belief in reading, book stocks continue to fall; funds continue to be cut; and more than 100 libraries are facing closure. Libraries are in crisis.

And all the while, Lammy is grinning and patting himself on the back for doing such a good job. On Tuesday he told the Royal Society of Literature, incredibly, that no minister had ever done more for libraries. He has written to councils to stress their importance, he said, and at one point threatened use of his "draconian powers" to seize control of failing services under the 1964 Museums & Libraries Act. It sounds impressive, but in truth his efforts have amounted to very little indeed. The number of councils proposing closures has more than doubled since he wrote; and he has stepped firmly away from the idea of "draconian powers", in the belief that councils already "understand the value" of the service.

Meanwhile, the Love Libraries campaign to celebrate successes in the sector feels like a plaster on a gaping wound. Lammy points to the 150 libraries that have been refurbished in the past three years. But with nearly 4,000 branches in the country, it would take 80 years to bring the service up to date at that rate.

Lammy talks the talk on libraries, but he has not walked the walk. On Tuesday, he assured the RSL that he will continue to campaign for libraries when he is out of office--a meaningless pledge given his failure in office. If Lammy is to live up to his early promise, he must act, and he must act quickly. No one is asking him to micro-manage individual branches, but he must ringfence book funds to prevent further cuts in the wrong places, he must make councils account for closures, and he must step in where necessary. Otherwise, this Labour government, committed to education, knowledge and the public sector, risks presiding over a decade of entropy and decay in one of the jewels of our culture.

Posted by Perkins at 5:56 PM | Comments (0)

The Bookseller today -3

This is the third

15 June 2006

Tories urge councils to seize library control

Shadow Minister for Culture Hugo Swire has called on Conservative councils to sidestep the "lack of leadership" from central government and take the library crisis into their own hands. Speaking at a forum on libraries organised by the Tory party at the House of Commons this afternoon, he said: "We will be bringing together Conservative local authorities to develop a strategy for developing and improving the service that is delivered."

He criticised the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS), and government agency the Museums, Libraries and Archives council (MLA) for an apparent lack of leadership. "If we don't have a vision, how can we ever achieve it?" he said.

Library campaigner and former Waterstone's m.d. Tim Coates, who also spoke at the forum, added that the Tories had a "tremendous opportunity". "Libraries are run by local councils. There is no need for the collective of Conservative Councils to take notice any longer of the dismal DCMS or the hapless MLA," he said. "I am proposing UDI [Unilateral Declaration of Independence]".

Earlier this week, Minister for Culture David Lammy came under fire at a debate hosted by the Royal Society of Literature. Authors accused him of failing to engage with the current library crisis.
katherine.rushton@bookseller.co.uk

Posted by Perkins at 5:52 PM | Comments (0)

Speech to the Conservative Party Forum on Libraries

This is a copy of the speech I am making today to the Conservative Party Forum on public libraries

Renewing libraries

Tim Coates, to the Conservative Party Forum on Public Libraries : June 15 2006

It is timely for the Conservative Party to articulate a Vision for public libraries for two reasons.

The first is the extent of grave crisis which currently faces the library service. This could not have been better explained than in two pieces in the Daily Telegraph yesterday which said, in a leading article

“It has been by a breach of trust that in the past 30 years, books have been jettisoned from public libraries to make room for facilities that parallel those of a cyber café. Youngsters cannot learn habits of self reliant inquiry by playing on the internet unless they also have the opportunity to explore the world of books and weigh up their worth. The number of books has fallen from 105m a decade ago to near just 80m now. To close library buildings is to surrender to a new Dark Age. Under a government that has presided over a rising generation of functional illiterates the outlook for body and mind is poor”

In an article which described the ineffectual leadership of the service from the minister and his department and quango, the MLA, Catriona Davies quoted my view, which she has repeatedly written about confirmed by her own research “They are closing services because councils are preferring to cut services to the public than to seek efficiency in their own operation. Once libraries are closed we will have lost them forever.”

The second reason is that in the recent local council elections The Conservative Party earned political control of the majority of library authorities: those councils who run the public library service. This change offers a responsibility and an opportunity which I wish to describe.

If we have learned anything about politics in the past nine years it must be to beware of the politicians’ vision statements. In the near constant flow of press comment this week, Rachel Cooke in last Sunday’s Observer questioned the ability of The Tory Party to achieve any ambition it might set out for itself today. Plainly put what she meant was, it is no use Mark Field and Hugo Swire expressing a noble vision, if the Conservative Local Councils pursue their own agenda which is in conflict.

David Lammy has the same problem; even if the vision of libraries expressed by New Labour in 1998 and enshrined eventually in a document called “Framework for the Future” had been a practical one created out of some realistic management programme, which it wasn’t, even if it had been: David Lammy and his predecessors and his ministry had to find a way to have purposeful dialogue with local councils in order to achieve it. That they have failed to do this is not only embarrassingly obvious in every statement he makes but is essentially one of the major causes of the crisis we now face. The public library standards have self evidently been a mechanism incapable of producing improvement or management training. That vision statement and the absence of practical planning that needed to accompany it was fatally flawed. Eight years on there in a service with 4000 libraries there is barely a lick of improvement and much which is worse. Framework for the Future says many interesting things, but leadership needs more than documents with interesting ideas; it needs practical simple straightforward clear direction, especially when the problem being addressed was already quite grave on a wide scale and becoming worse. Moreover as public services are large and owned by the public, the documents have to be grounded in public opinion, written in language that ordinary people can understand and contain intended achievements that everyone can recognise. Framework for the Future has none of these: a new Conservative Party Vision must not fall into the same traps.

I am not a Conservative and it is not for me to write that vision but I believe it must contain the aspiration that public libraries work closely with and are able to be individual and responsive to their local communities; they must be safe accessible welcoming buildings that house collections of books and other sources of understanding, both for learning and for pleasure for lending and for reference; new books and old books; they must be places in which individuals can enjoy private dignified study and reading, with access to computers and the information sources to which they connect; they must be open most of the time; they must address the particular needs of children; they must also go out of their way to cater for any disability; I am particularly concerned and have been all my career, about people who have eyesight difficulties, but of course there are other similar issues. For me, libraries are essentially passive: they are there for people to use and to help people find what they need, not for librarians to tell people what to read; they are not educational institutions, although of course they are often attached to them.

In making such a list I am following the example of last year’s admirable select committee report which said that unless we identified the core of the service we would never be able to manage the funds available with clear priorities. This is absolutely correct; unless people who work in the service are quite clear what the priorities are for their resources, they have no clear plan of what their job is. They will feel entitled to ask for funds to undertake projects which they enjoy or genuinely feel are worthwhile, when such projects, to be undertaken properly, require resources outside the value of the public library service. I saw a document produced by the MLA last year which said that “libraries should be all things to all people”. I am afraid that in terms of leadership and direction no sentiment could be more foolish. It is a signal to managers that any expenditure is legitimate and any burden on the tax payer is reasonable. It is a form of political blackmail. That is simply not fair or practical. It is bad public administration and it is why the service has lost the reputation for the quality of its core operation.

The Conservative party has a tremendous opportunity to take the lead in this matter immediately. Libraries are run by local councils there is no need for the collective of Conservative Councils to take notice any longer of the dismal DCMS or the hapless MLA. I suggest to you that together you could address some of the very difficult issues which I see have befallen the service and I would be delighted to help you do that. I am proposing UDI and these are the matters I think you could address.

I n order to illustrate how we could make strides of progress, as an example may I talk for a moment about the London Boroughs?

London is a student centre of the world. From all parts young people come to spend time here and they use the city as a centre of learning. They take courses from the law to medicine, music to languages to hairdressing and horticulture. The city is full of bedsits with students. They add enormously to the colour, richness and vitality of the capital. The public library service could play a really helpful role in their lives- whether they be from Cumbria or Cambodia but at the moment it fails to do that. Collections are poor, buildings are drab, websites are outdated, opening hours are not designed to match the needs of a 24 hour city

There are 330 libraries across the 33 boroughs, but aside from a project called WILL which helps find books, there is no effective cooperative service across the boroughs. The service in London costs £220m per annum. It should have one website, one library card, one network of all night libraries, one method of reservation, one efficient programme for library renovation and maintenance and one marketing programme which proclaims the contribution that the libraries of London make. One instance of huge possible saving would be the use of one set of standard design elements for library buildings the existence of could save tens of millions of pounds each year in the place of Architects fees and design costs which are currently incurred almost each time a library building is renovated. This is only what Andrew Carnegie did in his time and libraries have forgotten the skill (but I have not). There is no need for London councillors in any way to lose their local influence over the service, but at the same time there is no need for 33 separate management structures each of which brings an extravagant burden of overhead cost

For as long as I can remember the officers of the MLA and the London Libraries Development Agency have been on the point of trying to resolve the political and technical questions that would make such progress possible. I say enough- forget about them; they have had their chance. If three political leaders from Conservative Boroughs working with Mark Field, sat round a table we could establish the political will that would in turn resolve the technical issues. We could begin the programme of eliminating the annual £30-£40m in total of wasted replicated management effort that occurs in the library service of the London Boroughs and produce results within a year. We could commit to this today. At the moment almost every borough has bibliographic services, systems departments, selection departments, reader development teams, operations managements; each of which replicates the work of 32 other boroughs. This structure may suit the library profession but it wastes so much of the money which the public pay. By working in detail to remove these inefficiencies we could be absolutely certain that not only would we please the public, but that we could obtain top CPA scores of whatever kind the Audit Commission should set. In a short time the libraries of London could have one wonderful universally accessible collection of books supported by shelf ready supplier selection individual to each library with one vast database. One operational management can report on a daily updated performance website to each ward councillor (or opposition candidate) in each borough about the performance of the library service for each postcode if they wished to look at it. There will be much improved democracy. The money saved can be used to double expenditure on books and improve buildings and hours. But the resolve to take this step has to come from political leaders of councils and not from the level of chief librarian. Chief librarians in consort are simply not able, as has been sadly shown, to hold the leverage to take action; they are too concerned to preserve their own budgets and their own pride. From three councils we would have a model that could be used across London and further afield. There is no reason why boroughs of other political colour could not join- it is just that the Tories hold a key now, this minute, to the door of transformation

There is in truth in these areas of activity which I have just begun to describe about £200-300m each year of misdirected expenditure in the library service across the whole country, and it is only by this detailed work in a small number of councils that we will start to unlock that. . While we dither about taking these steps, there cannot be a reasonable case for asking for more money for libraries from the Treasury or councils or anywhere else. They know now, because they have listened to me that the service does not have credible leadership and without that the public could not support extra funding. We cannot give more public money to management who will not direct it for the public benefit

If the Conservative Party is to have the practical, electorally useful vision for public libraries that the people of the country are crying out for, it has to be one which will produce real improvement to a service that people can easily see is in complete disarray. That improvement has to take place within the next 4 years and it will not happen by itself or with the current regime. I am telling you how it can be done because I know how it can be achieved. I would be delighted to make it come true. It is also my ambition.

Thank you

Posted by Perkins at 10:00 AM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2006

The Daily Telegraph

Buy the Daily Telegraph this morning (Wednesday 14 June). Catriona Davies who has followed the library story for two and half years has a very good piece and there is also an excellent leading article.

They make the point that there is no need to close libraries or reduce book stocks or opening hours if councils manage their administrative costs in a proper and efficient manner.

They also imply therefore that neither the councils concerned nor Mr Lammy the Minister have been adequately diligent in avoiding potential library closures.

That is true, but it is also true that they don't know how to manage in a way that controls these costs. This is the work that I have been doing in some councils that Mr Grimsdyke describes on this blog. Mr Grimsdyke is not a forlorn ancient relic of the heights of Bloggington on Sea. He is the saviour of our public library service. His private email address is available here on application, for a fee.

Posted by Perkins at 7:33 AM | Comments (0)

June 13, 2006

Free strawberry milkshakes

There were 1242 hits on the blog yesterday.

Mr Grimsdyke has promised to buy Elgar Atkins and Mrs Sideloader a strawberry milkshake (each).

Posted by Perkins at 7:33 AM | Comments (1)

June 12, 2006

Mother Superior

The Observer Blog following Rachel Cooke's wonderful article yesterday has a host of brilliant entries: many people rising to the defence of their highly paid jobs; I particularly noticed the rather religious tone of this one,

"It was disappointing to see that the Love Libraries campaign that Penguin is supporting(along with 8 other major UK publishers) didn't get a mention in yesterday's article. This campaign is there to try and reach Rachel, and other book-loving library fans (who perhaps don't actually visit the library much these days)and show them how much libraries need her support. There is much fantastic work going on in libraries - and not just for kids - events, reading groups, girls' nights, crime evenings, film nights, many hugely imaginative reading and entertainment offers for all sections of the community. At the beginning of next month three libraries (in Kent, Newquay and Richmond)will reopen as showcases for all the great, collaborative work that has been happening between libraries and publishers. We want lapsed library users to come and see these transformations and then demand the same from their local authorities. The picture of despair, misery and ridicule you paint Rachel doesn't tally with the commitment, creativity and engagement we've encountered. I'm not sure that the hang-wringing approach is really going to get people into their local library and asking for the books they want or expect to find there.

Posted by JoPrior on June 12, 2006 07:26 PM."

Then I remembered that Ms Prior is, of course, the publicity director of Penguin Books (which are to be seen spread round the park benches of Barsetshire). 'Hand wringing' may not work, nor bell ringing -but a few books might.

"Girls' nights?"

Anyhow my spy tells me that after all the Love Libraries faff, Richmond libraries will still all remain firmly closed on Mondays. So much for caring for customers. Isn't the point that people should visit libraries because they are useful etc, rather than because some preacher lady says they ought to?

Posted by Perkins at 9:03 PM | Comments (0)

Good News in Scotland

Libraries book new collection

A COLLECTION of books and magazines in ethnic languages has been unveiled by library chiefs. The publications in Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and Punjabi aim to reflect the cultural and ethnic diversity of South Lanarkshire. Hamilton deputy provost Mary McNeil said: "This will be an important addition to the service. Its staff consulted the Lanarkshire Ethnic Minority Action Group on which books and periodicals should be included." The Community Languages Collection will be held at the Hamilton Town House Library but any card holder in the area can ask for items to be transferred to their local branch.

Many libraries around the country work in a similar way. I know that in Haringey they are expert in languages and publications and happy to share their expertise. In the report "Who's in Charge?" I said that the best way to achieve social inclusion is through the range of stock; this is the kind of work I was trying to describe.

This is another reason why the projects to improve library efficiency are so important: we need to increase the portion of funds available that are spent on stock, not to allow it to decrease.

Posted by Perkins at 8:39 PM | Comments (0)

The Dumplings of Barsetshire

In an earlier entry I explained how Mrs Dumpling the chief librarian of Barsetshire has removed all the books from the libraries and, having replaced them with cream cakes has now changed the name of the libraries to Recovery Centres

A news report last week showed photographs of the books that used to be in the libraries neatly laid out on park benches throughout the county. I had forgotten of course that while Mrs Dumpling is head of libraries and information, Mr Dumpling is head of parks and recreation.

This is a good idea while the sun shines, but what will happen when the rain comes?

Posted by Perkins at 8:22 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2006

Love libraries

Many thanks to Sue Lund for her kind comment on the Love Libraries website.

Mr Grimsdyke and I have thought a lot over our strawberry milkshakes what we would have done if we have been given the bags full of money that have gone to the Knitting Agency for the "Love Libraries" project. As Miss Bo Peep OBE and Mr Woolly Jumper, the Minister, come out next week for another round of smiles and cheery zing, we thought it best to sit the whole thing out on the beach at Bloggington

"What I would have done" said Mr Grimsdyke, "is to see what we can learn (and copy) from the people in Bradwell. If we put our money and experience genuinely alongside their commitment and energy, we could make our libraries even more fantastic. I think I would have handed the management to the local people in the communities of each library- and Mrs Sideloader and Perkins would have been part of their team. We need to talk to her and her crew and see what they say. She could loosen her stays with a spanner," he said, which is a naval expression, I'm sure.

Posted by Perkins at 9:20 AM | Comments (0)

June 10, 2006

The Observer

Buy the Observer today (Sunday 11 June). There are a number of public library news items coming up in the next week and Rachel Cooke of the Observer has been writing about them. Her article is on page 7 of the Review Section.
David Lammy, the Minister, when asked about 105 library closures said "Communities come and go"

Rachel asks "Where, precisely, is Little Chalfont going?"

John Dolan of the MLA told her that the MLA had achieved the opening of new libraries in Brighton and Bournemouth. Next Tuesday at the the Royal Society of Literature I'm sure Mr Dolan will be asked to stop saying that the new Brighton library is wonderful: it has no books in it. Perhaps he just wouldn't notice.

Rachel has a blog at the Observer which already has some interesting comments from readers.

Posted by Perkins at 11:03 AM | Comments (2)

Flattery

I received this very flattering message from one of the campaign groups trying to salvage their local library from a skip. They had recorded the interview that took place in Little Chalfont Library and are passing it round on their mobile phones! What a revolution this is turning out to be

" the clip has not only been seen on the web but there is also a 3G version which we have been distributing over the mobile phone network. We also show it to people in person on our 3G mobile phones. There is also an iPod version. As I have it with me all the time (it's on my phone) I can safely say that it triggers a "conversion experience" in those who see it for the first time, especially here when people realise that our Head of Libraries was partly responsible for the crisis at Little Chalfont.

This is probably one of the first uses of "takeaway TV" for a political campaign. At the very least, it should make politicians immediately aware that many of those who object to computers replacing books in libraries are, in fact, more in touch with new technology and with the strengths and weaknesses of the internet than they are.

I realise that this material is "naughty" but the issue was so important that if people did not see the original BBC clip that would simply not believe that things like this could be happening.

It is a disgrace that there has not been a follow-up to this story on the BBC. The BBC Action Network team did something about it but the over-bearing management of their website appears to discourage anyone from actually putting it to good use. Certainly Pippa Greensmith has not wasted any more time on it since last February (according to the BBC person in charge of production).

I can safely say that your clip has gone "viral" through the great grapevine which is cyberspace and the web stats show that the number of viewings is now in 4 figures. So far no one has blown the whistle on us but I cannot guarantee that it will be online for much longer. All we have been distributing is a link to the a protected streaming version of content rather than the actual content. Once we receive an official complaint we will have to remove the link immediately.

Perhaps you should do your own film on the subject so that which we could distribute openly and legitimately. You are extremely credible and you handle difficult questions without any attempt to sidestep the issues. That is the kind of response that the public want to see. Poison grins and dollops of spin don't seem to work on people anymore and that is a very Good Thing."

Posted by Perkins at 9:28 AM | Comments (1)

June 9, 2006

Libraries and the National Lottery

There is to be a gathering of the great and the good who handout the National Lottery money this month

They asked me to write an article about the £80m that is to be given to libraries. This is what I said:

Libraries and the National Lottery

In January one would have expected the announcement of £80m Big Lottery money for public libraries to be greeted with cries of delight. In fact it achieved the headline in The Times "£80m for libraries, but not a penny for books".

"How ungrateful! " was the cry from the Minister onwards.

I confess to being the person who raised the alert about the lack of books and drawing it to the attention of the newspapers. I am not at all ungrateful for the money, but I am concerned about how it will be used. For too long developments in libraries and attempts to modernise the library service have ignored the essential role that books and reading play and as a consequence the collections of books in libraries have become very poor. Indeed there is a lot of market research evidence that the poverty and consequent lack of usefulness of the books in libraries is the most serious contributor to the decline in reputation of the service.

There is an argument that in order to become attractive once more libraries should do something different: they should augment their traditional role in providing books and information and a place for private study. They should, in the words of the Big Lottery announcement "transform the space into something more interesting and useful. Yet market research does not support this approach and nor does reasoned logical analysis of the problem. Libraries are failing because they have poor offerings, they are dowdy and they are not open long enough hours. They are not failing because the space needs to be changed to be used for something else; or because people have gone off the idea of libraries. That is what market research and actual examples have for a long time made clear. Public libraries have always been useful in their local community for far more than their collections of books, they have always offered evening classes and events: but there is a core of the service which must be right. A railway station may have wonderful shops, but they are of no use if there are no trains.

In fact in order to renovate the core of the library service we need to inject £600m of expenditure on books, £600m of expenditure on restoration and redecoration of the buildings and probably a further £400m on management training. The headline in the paper was a cry for understanding of the whole problem, where the announcement of the funding appeared to be pursuit of the wrong solution to the anxieties of the service.

It was also a cry of shame to the people who advised the Big Lottery board for failing to address the problem properly - and even to the board itself for not exercising its own judgment about what libraries needed and allowing itself to be persuaded by an argument that is not supported by the public view. No one asked communities, nor did they seek and quote market research that would indicate what actual communities might say. Instead, local government officers and officials of national quangoes carried the day. That is not right. One cannot, regrettably, assume that employees of government, local or national, can speak for local communities and the Big Lottery Board should be aware of and understand the importance of that.

In fact, although it is not adequately methodical, one hears the voice of the community when councils propose to close local libraries as has been going on for the past few months. People say : "You starved our libraries of books and never opened them when we needed, and now you say you will close them for lack of use. This must be stopped" The message is consistent and has always been the same. Nobody wants their basic library to be used for Tai Chi classes (which is the example that has been used): they want their library space to be used as a good decent library.

Of course £80m does present a huge opportunity to step out on the right path. I have argued (as did last year's excellent Parliamentary Select Committee), that what are needed are some model authorities in which we thoroughly and completely resolve the management problems that lie in councils and in central quangoes; in which we renovate the buildings in an attractive and economic way; in which we restore the book and other collections to a high standard and in which we provide modern study space and the best access to information sources that new technology and a national library service can provide. By going through this process we will learn what is needed to do the same in other councils

£80m would probably provide the means to set up 4 good council library services around the country which could then be used as exemplars and training models. That is how, in my view, the money should be spent. Such a programme needs to be conducted with the highest possible management skill and experience from sectors both private and public; it needs ministerial leadership and government support with the long term aim of addressing the problem of the whole public library service as quickly as possible. It needs to be a fully managed programme by a project team with a national purpose. It should not be handed out by regional boards in response to sundry applications for small building renovation and community projects, which in 5 years time will have been demonstrated not to have met the long term public requirements of the library service.

I have previously predicted that unless we introduce a dramatic new management programme, the whole service will collapse. This fund of £80m may be the last opportunity: I dearly wish we would use the money properly.

c Tim Coates

Posted by Perkins at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)

June 8, 2006

Is the Book Dead ?

Susan Hill has generously written a comment from which I have taken a short quotation...

"About 5 or so years ago, having my arm twisted, I went to talk to a meeting of regional librarians. Every single question was a variation on 'Is the book dead ?' in a tone that implied they really, really wished it were. They were all adamant that computers were taking over and were the way forward for all libraries, that they were fully justified in de-stocking books as fast as they could go and could not wait for the arrival of the e-book. I was baffled that they did not seem to see the full consequences of this line of thought for themselves. The funniest comment came when someone suggested I, as a writer, was only keen to keep the book going because I had a vested interest. I waited for them all, as librarians, to see the funny side of this but do you know, I was the only one who laughed"

What surprises us all is that it is public librarians who have tried to end book collecting and lending as important parts of our culture and heritage. In England "books for loan" in public libraries have fallen from 105m to 80m in just a few years, and book lending has fallen at the same rate. So the librarians have been successful in their sorry pursuit. Book use and reading in society, during that time, despite the efforts of librarians, have continued to rise. I'm afraid that is not thanks to the public library service but rather due to the efforts of some very notable authors (living and dead) and the publishers and booksellers who support their effort.

Posted by Perkins at 9:19 AM | Comments (0)

June 7, 2006

Bloggington on Sea

The sun was shining in Bloggington today and the residents were out on the beach with their knotted hankies to protect them from the heat. No place more beautiful. No strawberry milkshakes more lush.

Next week there is to be an important meeting between Mr Grimsdyke and Bollikins' the Bookseller. It is true to say that Bollikins have been the source of many of the ideas that have made Bloggington libraries among the best in the world. Mr Grimsdyke's genius lies in his ability to listen and learn from others. He does not tell his suppliers what he wants, but rather he asks them what they have to offer. Bollikins are pleased to have been able to contribute so much.

I saw Mr Elgar Atkins hobbling about the town. He may be a bit crotchety but he's not above feeding Perkins a few tiddlers.

Posted by Perkins at 9:54 PM | Comments (2)

June 6, 2006

Breakaway library movement

At the Conservative Party Forum next week I am going to call upon councils to break away from the direction of the Government and renew libraries as centres of reading and study.

If you live in a Tory managed council you can ask the councillor responsible for libraries to follow the lead that I am offering. If a number of councils will join me I can guarantee that within a short time, book collections will improve, opening hours will get longer and we will embark on an attractive, but economic, redecoration programme that will make the libraries pleasant to use.

This will be achieved by seeking the ecomomies and efficiencies which are available in most councils and we will use the methods used by Mr Grimsdyke in Bloggington on Sea

These councils will be invited to remove themselves from the influence of the DCMS, MLA and other current bodies and join together to form a breakaway library service. We will call the libraries "Grimsdyke" libraries- it is a revolution.