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August 24, 2006
Laugh or cry?
I don't know whether I am going completely mad; I suppose I must be, but firstly I saw a poll in the Bookseller which said that for libraries to work the Government should give the management more money to spend, and secondly I read this article.
When the public library service has closed down completely in five or ten years time, I hope somebody takes the steering committee of the supply review, the entire MLA and project team at Price Waterhouse Cooper and dangles them from Tower Bridge.
Let me explain again.
Firstly, about one quarter of the money given by Government to run the public library service is wasted on inefficient practice. That is £250m per annum, which if divided equally between more books and more redecoration of buildings would provide a wonderful public library service. The inefficient practices were identified last year by PKF in a government report and not one jot of action has been taken to correct them.
Secondly, since there was a rush of competitive activity between current library suppliers in the last 18 months has meant that that the savings of £10-20m on discount of which PwC talks is fully available now to councils who take up the better terms on offer. Very little extra saving will be available by buying direct from publishers, because library books need to be processed for lending and publishers don't do that.
Thirdly: In many councils NOW, there is an urgent budget crisis for the library service which means that, unless they work with the suppliers in order to reduce the costs of their backroom operation - there will probably be 300-500 library closures next year. Book puirchasing is probably already down to 7% of total spend and will fall to 6% within 12 months. Libraries have allowed themselves no money to buy books.
The PwC report on supply is totally irrelevant to this emergency and will do nothing to address the long term problems. By the time they begin implementation in 2008, the library service in many councils will be almost closed.
The Library Service does not need more Government or Taxpayers money- it needs to learn how to spend properly the money it has
Buying books direct from publishers will not improve the range or selection of books in libraries.
We are walking over the cliff edge and NOBODY is doing the right things. FOR GOODNESS SAKE, WILL SOME POLITICIAN PLEASE HAVE SOME COURAGE AND CALL FOR URGENT ACTION AND DO THE RIGHT THINGS INSTEAD OF THE WRONG ONES.
My heart is breaking with frustration
Posted by Tim Coates at August 24, 2006 9:01 PM
Comments
I have spoken to a wide range of friends and colleagues about the Price Waterhouse Cooper report and not one of those working in public libraries thinks it is a viable project. I'm hoping that this means local authorities on the whole will not buy into the scheme.
Dumbing down libraries on a national level is not going to improve our service and neither will the exodus of good library workers who will look for work elsewhere as they are asked to provide an increasingly poor service to the public.
Posted by: Miriam Palfrey at August 25, 2006 8:08 AM