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September 17, 2006
It costs more money to repair the buildings
Susan writes
"But they WILL say there isn`t enough money and people will believe them because as we all know building work costs a lot more than new books. So there will be a cry of 'We would certainly repair all these buildings if only.....'
I'm sure they will say that, but I stick to my view (and my experience). In the UK each the library service spends a total of £1.3bn - of which £100m is on capital works.
Out of that total, inefficient practice, of the kind we talk about on the blog and which people now freely acknowledge, takes £300m. If that £300m were equally split: an extra £150m for books and an extra £150m for building redecoration and repair; within 5 years the whole estate would be in prime condition
It is as easy as that. A council I know extremely well, which has a total expenditure of £4m per annum and was on the point of closing libraries, having already reduced its book expenditure to a minimum level, found, on careful examination that £800,000 that it spent, added nothing to the service received by the public. By allocating £400,000 pa to books and £400,000 pa to buildings, they, in fact will transform the service in 3 years, and at the end have some spare to give back to the council. When the programme is complete, their library service will be wonderful; second to none. They will be reading this and recognise themselves.
What did the £800,000 comprise? Join the programme and I'll tell you. They'll tell you themselves. Don't ask Price Waterhouse.
Posted by Perkins at September 17, 2006 3:28 PM