« A real cry of despair | Main | Possible library closures in Worcester »
November 5, 2006
Book publishers and public libraries
In response to a question from a senior publisher on Friday I reviewed the expenditure on public libraries of England since 1996.
In 1995-6 total expenditure on the public library service in England was £603m. 11.3% of that money was spent on the purchase of books.
In 2004-5, which is the last year for which audited figures are available, the total expenditure was £1,021m and of that 7.4% was spent on books. The cost has risen quite sharply above the rate of inflation, but the percentage of the money spent on books has fallen in every year, except one.
The estimated figure, at present, for 2005-6 is that it will have fallen to 6.2% and that in the current year, 2006-7 it will fall again to 5.8%. By then total expenditure on the English public library service will be £1,145m.
It does not surprise us when we read that Bill Gates urges the use of computers in schools and libraries, we think of him as a far sighted philanthropist. For a long time I have urged book publishers to approach the problem of public libraries in the same spirit. Books are important and no one is better equipped to say so than the noble fratenity and sorority of book publishers.
Yet their endeavours, from these figures, leave some room for further energy. The problem is that those people who guide the budgets of the public library service and who have watched these miserable figures be published each year, clearly do not feel the same way about books in libraries. Therefore when publishers deal with officials from the library world they would do well to treat their warm words with caution.
I hope and have reason to believe, this relationship will be put onto a more positive and productive footing- -as it would be seen from the public point of view. Readers of this blog know that what the public want from libraries are More books; Longer opening hours; and Clean buildings. Those are the essentials. It is to those three objects only that warm partnership and any available funds should be devoted. Libraries desperately need their book collections put back in order and book expenditure raised to the point that a high quality can be maintained.
Why would a publisher disagree with that point of view? I must here record my thanks to Richard Charkin and Hugh Andrew who are the two leading publishers who have followed and advocated my cause. I am grateful to them and to Desmond Clarke who also understands these matters as well as anyone and is a pillar of strength.
Posted by Perkins at November 5, 2006 9:04 AM