The Good Library Blog

Dear Tim
I am the webmaster for the website www.colyton.co.uk (click the Library button)
I will put a link on our site to your blog.
Keep up the excellent work we the Colyton Library Action Group are right behind you.

The person behind plans to rob the rural libraries to fatten the town libraries is County Councillor Sheila Hobden. She has just shot herself in the foot, she states that the plan is designed to combat the uneven spread of library services in Devon. She is clearly unable to see that her plan will greatly exacerbate this unevenness.

Kind regards

Adrian West

This is the most outrageously inept piece of bureaucratic obfuscation. The assumption must be that if they can't find the documents to back their decision, they just don't exist. You may like to know I have emailed in the following terms:
Dear Lynn

Shocking as it was to read of the forthcoming closures of public libraries in your authority, it was still more shocking to read that you do not know why you are closing them.
Surely it is of the essence of library and information services to be able to find information like this.
Not to be able to find the report containing the data which will determine the future of a main cultural asset to twelve communities would seem laughably incompetent. Given the seriousness of the case, your inability to find the data on which significant decisions will be based verges on the culturally criminal. And I trust you and your department will be summarily dealt with.

Sincerely

Elgar Atkins

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

Congratulations, Tim on your magnificent blog. I am a children's author currently campaigning against the closure of Appledore Library in Devon and I read this entry with special interest.

Isn't it odd that contradictory factors should be conflated when Devon decided which library to close?
In Appledore we have a community that everyone agrees is deprived and one would have thought that one consequnce of this deprivation is lack of money to pay for transport. Nonethless Appldore was still deemed
a candidate for closure becasue it has an adequate bus service and other libraries are nearby. Surely if people can't afford the bus these other libraries might as well be on the Moon!

And come to think about it isn't it odd that Dorset - a neighbouring local authority drew up its closure list in a completely differnt way? Are libraries now to close because a quirk in methodology that varies from county to county? Why is that the library professionals cannot actually tell me what they mean by a non-viable library? I will be talking through these points with the Councillor and Librarian involved.

One other thing - there are small signs that Devon is preparing to listen to public opinion libary on closures and this seems to be supported by the tone of Janet Kipling's e-mail. I'm telling the story of our campaign in Appledore at
Saveourlibrary.blog.co.uk
And I'll certainly let you know what happens in this corner of Devon.

Just to update this blog, I hope this will be welcome news to many of you:

http://www.devon.gov.uk/index/democracycommunities/deliveringservices/directorates_and_departments/chief_executive_s/communication/news_service/press-releases/press_libraries_modernisation_exec_171106.htm