The Good Library Blog

Helen Rumbelow should come to my neck of the woods. The rural small towns are well served by libraries in my county and they need to be. Not only children, but older retired people borrow a great many books and the latter and often huge readers. But because they live in nice houses in a pleasant area does not mean they can afford to buy every book they want to read, even on amazon. They are on fixed pensions, and they also do not have the space to start all over again storing up shelves of books. And many books they enjoy are things they want to read only once. Hence our excellent libraries, most of them small, all of them bright and air and well kept with pleasant staff - and they are always busy, with people browsing and borrowing. There are 2 computers in my local library but they are used less and less as the price has come down, broadband is universal and most people have them at home.
All is not lost on the library front. At least in Gloucestershire, thank God. It is other places we are fighting for - because there are plenty of people out there wanting to borrow good books. And happy to pay for the privilege via their taxes.

Susan

I notice in the Bookseller last week that the chief librarian of Gloucestershire said she was conducting a "review" of the library service.

Given what that has meant elsewhere in the country I would keep an eye on what this lady has in mind.

tim

Tim,

The journalist is writing about an Ideas Store, a place which does not employ professional staff and which values retail experience over library knowledge (yes customer service is important, but knowledge and experience should not be ignored). She does not mention dissatisfaction with a library service. She simply imagines that everyone will buy all of their books instead of borrowing them.

My friends are amongst the 14-35 age group which we are well aware are not using public libraries. Many library professionals (including myself) are concerned about this but the problem is a rather complex one and there is no quick-fix easy solution.

When called upon to justify their existence library professionals stress the important contribution we make to society. What it unreasonable about that? Any public service is obviously of greatest benefit to those who cannot afford an alternative but this does not mean that other people cannot benefit from them.

I meet ordinary people every day at work.

Susan,

I agree completely. The faceless anonymity of the Ideas Store is completely different from a small branch library.

People, as you say, use libraries for many different reasons and none of these are explored in Ms Rumbelow’s article.

Miriam

The so-called "14-35 problem" is not complex at all. You have to have what these people want. And the market research earlier this year showed absolutely clearly that what this age group wants in libraries are : books; long opening hours and acceptable and welcoming buildings. That is exactly the same list as for every other age group and all over the country. The publishing industry finds these age groups challenging - and very rewarding, but they don't want dirty old books in dismal buildings that are normally shut. These readers demand better service and everywhere else they get it.

What is so disappointing is that the library profession believe they have a right to exist and carry on in their same old ways, whether or not what they does is used and useful; and they are in charge of public libraries. Library so-called professionals don't have that right any more than anyone else does. Unless they provide a service which is of the standard and of the kind required by all people they should pack up and go home and allow public libraries to be run by people who genuinely attempt to understand what the public wants.

It is like Swiss watchmakers still insisting that the noble craft of watchmaking is so important that everyone should be forced to buy hand made watches.

By the way I am sure that the rather good staff in the Ideas Stores will be disappointed to think you don't see them as "professional".

Yes they did ask for those things Tim.

They also wanted various other things which you are choosing to ignore because they don't fit into your general argument.

I have no problem with libraries having longer opening hours and nicer buildings and neither have any of the library professionals I have ever met and spoken to. If you think that not wanting to work a 71 hour week for minimum wage means that I don't care what the public wants then so be it.

I have been told (by the manager of an Ideas Store) that their model of best practice comes from Tesco. Personally I wouldn't go to Tesco with a reference enquiry or for advice on what children might read or for suggestions on how to start up a new business.

I really don't think that Ideas Store staff care about my opinion. They don't have training or experience in actually providing information to their customers and I stand by my previous comments.

Incidentally the assumption that all library professionals have the power to change things but are to narrow-minded to do so is incorrect. If you actually want to know more about this then I would suggest that you speak to people currently studying for LIS qualifications or to recently qualified librarians, most of them will have plenty of ideas and very little chance to do anything about them.

Miriam

This is an important discussion and I am guilty of slightly trivialising some of the points: for that I apologise.

Nevertheless I would like to pursue the question of influence- if you will allow me to. I have worked with councils a lot now, so I claim to have seen that of which I speak. Directors of councils, each year, ask the Chief Librarian to prepare a budget. Normally they add some general requirement of the council like - "confine your overall expenditure to X% more than last year" and "the council has certain aims and we would like you to make a contribution to those"

Nevertheless they depend, in the first instance, on the Chief Librarian and colleagues to assess the detail of what is needed in the budget; they may ask questions which lie under broad headings "what is the pay increase?"; "what is your plan for the book fund?" etc. However it is for the Chief Librarian to propose and senior officers to approve.

This is a totally normal process that takes place in almost every organisation, public and private. This is the mechanism whereby service is improved, public needs are addressed and changes are made.. It isn't for the council or the councillors to initiate such change, it is for the chief librarians and their colleagues.. Moreover, in most councils, the chief librarian is a "professional librarian" and there is a tradition to maintain that (as you have alluded to in your comments about Tower Hamlets). Therefore, if professional chief librarians don't take on the responsibility of changing the service and imnproving it and keeping it relevant for new generations-- there is no one else who is easily in position to do so.. It has to be done by others in such a way that chief librarians will say that "change has been forced upon us."

If they don't take upon themselves the responsibilty for doing this, there is rarely anyone in the council who will feel themselves able to intervene in the "professional operation" of the library service. For years it has been perfectly sensible to leave the whole subject to professionals and assume that all the important matters are under control. After all the professionals spend enough time at conferences and writing reports, it's fair enough to assume they know what they are doing.

Mostly there were no complaints and no one looked at figures of performance, so there was nothing for a politician to worry about. If anyone did grumble, it was easy enough for chief librarians to reassure the councillors that these outsiders didn't understand the complexities of a a skilled professional training. They said things like "a library is not a book shop" or "Tesco's couldn't answer questions of the kind we get asked" and everyone smiled knowingly and moved on to another topic.

So where in most organisations there is a constant low level pressure to keep seeking change and improvement, in the public library service there has been none from the inside and none from the outside.

Suddenly we have hit the brick wall. People like me are not fooled or taken in by protestations that "you don't understand" because the truth is that there is nothing to understand. The public can just as easily understand the operation of a public library as they can the operation of a coffee bar. Calling the staff "baristas" doesn't make their job more difficult. Calling the people behind the library counter "para-professsionals" doesn't change the questions they get asked.

We have a problem-- and if chief librarians won't solve it, then the public will demand that someone else does. And those people who do will be the real professionals. Actually to have a manager of a Tesco's branch running a few library services would do a world of good. Most library professionals wouldn't know what hit them if they encountered a proper professional manager. They have had it far too easy for too long and the public library service is in collapse as a consequence.

An interesting debate here! May I endorse what Tim said to Susan. Please dont be complacent about what might happen to libraries in Gloucestershire next year. Start asking some questions now.

I am less confident than Tim about the public demanding that somebody will solve the problems of libraries. They don't take much interest until they hear that their library is threatened with closure. When that happens many communities fight excellent campaigns. However they dont raise their sights much beyond their own libraries and look at why there is a problem. Success may only be saving their library at the expense of a cut in the book fund.

Phil

Well, I wouldn't be so sure. I can see a process where at least two of the opposition parties to Government are planning quite major operations to improve the public library service on behalf of the public.

The disdain with which Chief Librarians collectively and individually and their colleagues in the MLA, CILIP, Reading Agency, DCMS etc have ignored the sensible advice of last year's Culture Select Committee has caused surprise and anger among many senior people in all parties in Whitehall. I certainly have tried to feed this - because it is right. And I intend to be first in to see the replacement of all those Chief Librarians and the remaining senior officials in the pursuit of saving our near dead public library service. It's time for tin hats. "Off with their heads", said Alice's Queen and I know what she meant.