« Internet access in libraries | Main | About Philip Pettifor »
May 10, 2007
Councillors
In May each year council elections lead to the appointment of new council cabinet members with responsibility for public libraries. As far as I am aware, outside their own council no one sits down and discusses with them the problems and issues surrounding the public library service and how they can best address their new role. Their own officers, of course, will have a view, and brief accordingly, but anyone who ever saw "Yes, Minister" or even a reader of this blog, will know that a councillor ought to listen to other voices apart from those of the officers.
So last week there will have a been a considerable number of new entrants many of whom will have the ambition to make some improvements and I believe that they, more than any other group in central or local government, or in the library profession and its attendant interested parties, do have the opportunity to make changes: as I would say, to put the service back on the track from which it has strayed.
One such councillor, I won't say where, was given the post this time last year and she (or he) started by asking other experienced people in other councils to help. That has lead to a thorough appraisal in that council and the foundations have been laid properly, for the first time, for a complete renewal of that library service. There are many forces that might deflect the good work and these surround the project, but so far, there is strength and determination not to let them.
When it is possible to reveal exactly what is being done, I shall try to explain on here. But it is exciting and good news at last.
(apologies to commenters for being so slow to post your entries-- I am still without my own broadband in the wilderness. Someone one day will explain to me why library PC's have return keys that don't work, why you can't "copy and paste" - and even somtimes why you can't use "yahoo" and how with all these contraints you are supposed to manage. I don't want to reveal where I am it is a large county town) because I have been asked to write a book about a nearby area and I shall eventually depend upon the book sales!)
Posted by Tim Coates at May 10, 2007 11:10 AM
Comments
I wish the councillor(s) well. I hope they get the renewal they want, and that it gives the public the library service they need.
But why is the 'library profession' and its 'interested parties' (suppliers? vendors?)so weak; are they seen to be necessarily against this plan? I appreciate there is the notion that councillors represent the public, but surely they do have a partisan agenda; could we at least know what this radical plan is?
Civil servants have many faults I'm sure; but their value is that they can (even if they often do not) take a long view, free from party favour.This does not mean that they should get the final say, but it would be dangerous to discount it altogether. Not everyone is self-serving; not even politicians ;)
Posted by: Pete Smith at May 10, 2007 12:34 PM
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that someone critical of library spending on resources other than books is forced to rely on those same services?
Posted by: Paul Wells at May 11, 2007 12:20 PM
I think it is the people who use the services who should say when they are failing - who else? Besides the whole thrust of the argument about Library resources is that the provision of computers and online resources should not be at the expense of the book stock. When funds (from whatever source) have been spent on IT it is quite reasonable to expect the computers to work.
Posted by: Martyn at May 11, 2007 9:36 PM