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March 2, 2007
And in the real world
The Department of Culture Media and Sport has appointed new people to the Advisory Council on Public Libraries in order to resurrect it from its morbid state of many years. It is effectively a new and extra committee.
If this board advises the minister and the dcms about libraries, what does the board of the MLA do? What happens if the advice one gives conflicts with the other? People sometimes say- well of course the MLA has far more to do than just look after libraries- but a bit of simple arithmetic quickly indicates that public libraries should far more than dominate the agenda of the MLA- it is the largest portion of the public expediture for which they are supposed to care, by a long way. So now we have two boards of management neither of which actually has responsibilty for the service, nor can account to the public for what happens in it.
Remember- it is local councillors who run libraries. Try asking your local councillor if he has ever heard of the "advisory council on libraries" and if he (or she) knows what it does- or will do.
Until we stop this nonsense of pretending that bodies in Whitehall (the home of Thomas Wolsey in 1520) actually run the library service, we will never make improvements.
DCMS looks for new advisory council
02.03.07 Katherine Rushton
Minister for Culture David Lammy has appointed HarperCollins m.d. Amanda Ridout and Reading Agency chair Miranda McKearney to the Advisory Council on Libraries (ACL)--marking the first time people from outside the public library service have been recruited to the body.
ACL members are responsible for advising ministers at the Department for Media, Culture & Sport (DCMS) on "matters relating to public libraries in England . . . as they think fit". Some six members of the 12-strong council have been recruited from outside the public libraries sector; it will be chaired by Michael Thorne, vice-chancellor of Anglia Ruskin University and former director of the school of computing at the University of Sunderland.
A DCMS spokeswoman said the split was "intended to give the minister a broader base of advice from a range of different but related professional backgrounds. All individuals appointed have a strong interest in public libraries, and particular skills or experience relevant to the public libraries sector." She added that publishers' interests would be strongly represented on the council: "Books are clearly at the heart of the library offer."
Other recruits from outside the public library service are Karen Brookfield, deputy director of policy at the Heritage Lottery Fund; Suzanne Enright, director of information systems and library services at Westminster University; and Jill Finney, communications director for the British Library.
They join six senior librarian members appointed in May 2006: Martin Molloy who heads the service in Derbyshire; Catherine Blanshard responsible for Leeds, Pauline Palmer of Wiltshire, Michele Jones of Essex, David Lightfoot of Lancashire and David Ruse of Westminster.
Katherine Rushton libraries DCMS
Posted by Tim Coates at March 2, 2007 5:39 PM