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June 28, 2007
A Hampshire Resident makes her case
This is the paper submitted by Rosemary Conway to the hearings in Hampshire over the future of their library service.
HCC LIBRARY REVIEW Written Statement submitted by Rosemary Conway
representing Winchester City Residents Association
CONTENTS
What should be the main functions of Public Libraries? pp 2-3 (fig 1)
Overview of issues pp 3 -6
3 alternative solutions: Conventional Refurbishment (Alton),
Co-Located Complex (Southampton City) & Discovery Centre (Gosport).
The Library book loan service in the modern world pp 7-8 (figs 2 - 3 )
Literacy issues with knock-on effects on Libraries pp 9 -10
- The Library Services affected by malfunctions of Educational system (fig 4)
- Impact of Audio visual technology on Literacy & Library use (fig 5)
Introduction
We endorse the written (& oral) statements of Mrs Amanda Field & Desmond Clarke,
so rather than repeating what they have said, I have tried to use a different approach, using a ‘mindmap’ or flow chart layout to illustrate some topic areas I think vital to the Library issue.
We hope you will kindly look at these and refer to them when reading the text.
Winchester City Residents’ Association
WCRA has about 300 members, mostly in middle & senior age range; they are conservationist in their attitude & approach to historic Winchester, its architecture, rural setting and facilities.
‘Conservationist’, we hope, does not equal ‘backward looking’. Society is changing rapidly, giving rise to new needs and solutions. Change is largely shaped by market forces but also needs to be intelligently directed and controlled by strategies that will build on, rather than neglect & lose, the human cultural skills and achievements of the past.
WCRA’s involvement with Library issues:
In July 2005, our committee members visited Gosport Discovery Centre. The new features had been carved out of existing space & resources available to books, resulting in an attractively modernised environment but a shallow, superficial core bookservice. This clearly had possible implications for “Winchester Cultural Centre”.
On 4th August 2005, I had a 2-hour meeting with Richard Ward, to express WCRA’s concerns over bookstock quantity, quality and space issues. I met with a courteous reception and the issues were discussed in detail; WCRA also did a deputation to the Recreation & Heritage Policy Review committee in November 2005. Our concerns remain unallayed.
At our AGM in November 2005, the speakers were Tim Coates & Cllr Mrs Margaret Snaith, with Richard Ward present. An audience of c. 300 people including committee members of the City of Winchester Trust, and some library users from Gosport, made their views clear in a lively meeting.
The concluding motion ‘that Winchester’s new flagship library ought to retain the name “Winchester City Library”, instead of “Winchester Cultural Centre”, was approved unanimously…
We were unsurprised to hear in 2006 that a decision had been made to go with the name “Winchester Discovery Centre”. I am informed by Rachel Masker, a reporter, that she was told on inquiry that this was “after consultation with focus groups”. Our Association clearly, wasn’t one of these…
Library service: how it fits with rest of educational system & retail sector (fig 1)
Working in tandem with rest of Educational system:-
The Family: parental reading to children at home, conversation, vocab, concepts
Pre-school, infant, junior & senior schools. Reading & literacy skills including grammar, syntax.
Universities & colleges & their libraries
Adult learning evening centres & community centres
Museums & Art galleries, subsidised theatre & arts venues, etc.
Government info centres of various sorts (info, not education)
MAIN FUNCTIONS of the Library Service:-
information, learning & culture in form of written word made accessible to all, regardless of income.
free bookloan service - unique service/selling pt
inculcate skills & joys of Reading
support & maintain Literacy & the vital cognitive skills dependent on it, against competing plethora of audio-visual ‘fast-food’ entertainment technology.
Preserve & maintain the human cultural heritage over 3,000 years, to make all branches of learning available & passed on to succeeding generations,
Info to enable individuals and society to respond to change positively by evolving new skills & solutions.
2
THREE ALTERNATIVE SOLUTIONS being proposed:-
Conventional Library Makeover: greatly increase bookfund & improve quality, quantity and range of books to supply needs of users, accompanied by modest IT provision & coffee machine, WC, etc. eg: Alton.
Co-Locating the Library with other facities such as Art gallery & Museums in a large central complex - eg, as Southampton City Library - gets cross fertilisation.
Discovery Centre Policies - which make over (or inadequately extend) an existing previous Library building, carving out space for other facilities at expense of space, resources and funds for books. (Gosport, Winchester).
WHY is the Library Service failing?
Underfunding of book fund over decades results in core book provision failing to meet expanded demands of modern needs. Bookstocks declining in quantity, quality and range, at the very time they needed to increase & improve.
Socio-consumer factors:
- competing plethora of audio visual ‘fast food’ entertainment technology seriously impacts literacy and competes for disposable time esp in younger generation
- rise in book prices matched by rise in average disposable income. Some people can afford to buy more of the books they want to read. Others (including literate low incomed) forced to buy, over the years, as quality of in-branch bookstocks declined.
RESULTS-
Library Service over decades has lost users to the Retail Book sector. Many become occasional rather than habitual users.
But the service is still deeply important and vital to many consumers. It is more relevant than ever, and needs focus on literate values to revitalise the service.
AND with Retail provision:-
Retail booktrade: (more books published every year than ever before).
Internet (vast explosion of information & reference, but not always reliable or high quality. Does not necessarily foster high order cognitive skills in same way as from book - may substitute for genuine learning & enables copy-pasting of notes & essays. Much is socio-informational, consumer-informational, recreational etc
HOW is the Library Service failing?-
Not fulfilling above functions to adequate standard
book issues declining over decades
visitor nos declining (until reversed to some extent by IT provision
The main function of the Public Library Service
The main functions of public libraries (fig 1) should be to:-
make knowledge, information, learning & culture in the form of the written word accessible to all, regardless of income.
provide a free bookloan service - unique service & selling point
inculcate skills & joys of Reading
support & maintain Literacy and its dependent vital cognitive skills - under threat in the long term, against a competing plethora of audio-visual entertainment technology.
cherish & maintain the human cultural heritage, Homo sapiens’ 3,000 years civilisation;
to make all branches of learning available & passed on to succeeding generations,
as part of a continual process of change & evolution (now more rapid than ever before).
enable individuals & society to respond to change positively by evolving new skills & solutions.
These functions obviously have to shape themselves round the prevailing needs & character of the local community which the Library serves. Some communities may be fairly homogenous, most probably will include a wide variety of ages and viewpoints.
This entails some conflict where makeovers such as that at Gosport take place. The Library service should have some norms and values, and aim, not only at satisfying existing tastes & needs of individuals in the community, but at increasing culture and learning.
The Library Service performs these functions in tandem with the rest of the Educational system (fig 1), through various initiatives.
In our view, key issues surrounding the failure of the Library service are these:-
Overview of the issues
Problems
The Library Service (including Hampshire) has been in gradual long term decline for about 40 years, in terms of book issues and visitor numbers. This is a long term national trend.
Broadly, there are 2 sets of factors responsible: (1) socio- consumer trends: ie, expansion of information & publishing, changes in reading & lifestyle patterns, etc; and
(2) defective national and local Library policies which have failed over time to respond to these trends and also failed to be sufficiently focussed and purposive about maintaining a culture of books, reading and literacy.
That this decline is NOT an inevitable trend of modern life; that the Service can be turned round to increase both visitor numbers and book issues has been demonstrated by initiatives in various parts of the country, and also at Alton Library in Hampshire.
And we forcefully affirm that a quality free book loan service is more relevant than ever in today’s world.
The book loan service has not just been seriously underfunded for the last 5 years.
It has been underfunded, starved & neglected for the previous 40 years, at the very time that more books than ever were being published every year and that it needed to respond by increasing its spend on books. This is a major reason why many users have exited from the Library Service to the book retail sector over the decades (figs 2 & 3).
Hampshire County Library policies of the last 5 years have greatly exacerbated this.
They have presided over a disastrous, even steeper decline in book issues - worse than the national average. However, the picture is not the same everywhere in Hampshire.
* At Alton, where the ‘Conventional refurbishment’ method was adopted, improving & increasing the bookstocks, there has been an increase in book issues as well as visitors.
* But where Discovery Centre Policies, the key plank of Mr Ezra’s strategy, have been adopted, as at Gosport, visitors have increased greatly but the core book service has become degraded even further and book issues have fallen even further.
* We are likely to see the same picture at Winchester Discovery Centre when it opens,
unless a very much more book stock focussed strategy is adopted for the future.
Discovery Centre advocates v traditional library campaigners.
HCC Library Service chiefs and politicians have tried to represent the decline in book issues as an inevitable trend, and to claim that the book issues performance indicator is decreasingly relevant to what they are attempting to achieve. Frequent references are made by politicians and Library chiefs in the press to “greater affluence” and “cheaper books” arguing that more people can afford to buy their books” ; “most people can afford to buy their fiction books now”. (Yinnon Ezra, oral statement19/6).
These statements are so carelessly worded and sheerly glib as to be inaccurate, untruthful and misleading - and to arouse anger in Library campaigners, who see them as an attempt to plaster over the failure of Library policies. Books are not “cheaper”: their average price has risen steeply over decades. And many people - including readers - are most certainly not affluent. Mr Ezra appears to have little concept of what life is like for a high volume reader on an income of £7,000 per annum, paying £1,887 in council tax, and attempting to keep up a home and a roof over their heads, for their own books, which they have been forced to buy as those books disappeared from the Libraries. But relatively, average disposable income has risen; and this, combined with some tendency of many to read less, means that more people are happy to buy a larger proportion of the books they do read.
Library campaigners are not claiming simplistically that decline in book issues is caused only by neglect of the book fund; they know these socio-consumer trends exist; but the key factor is that the Library Service has failed disastrously to respond to them appropriately.
Figs 2 gives an overview. Fig 3 lists some reason why the book loan service is vital.
IT provision is an important component of the modern library; nationally and locally, the decline in visitor numbers has been partially halted by the People’s Network programme
but the reasons why it cannot substitute for a book culture should be clear to any educated person. (fig 5).
The huge explosion of audio-visual entertainment technology (fig 5) must be by far the greatest single factor in the decline of reading as a proportion of leisure time. It will also be a large contributive factor to the long term decline in Library book issues & visitor numbers.
* The Library Service responded some years ago by giving this pabulum - already freely available from every corner of the High Street and part of the problem - an increasing place in the libraries too, under the initial justification that this might lure people into the libraries and induce them to also take out books.
That hope proved delusory (as anyone with common sense could have predicted). The horizon progressively shifted: videos & DVDS are assumed to be a legitimate part of library provision in its own right.
The negative impact of burgeoning audio-visual technology - not merely entertainment but functional, such as automated text processing software, etc, for the long term on literacy skills is very serious; any responsible central (and local) Government desperately needs a clear long term ‘futuristic’ co-ordinated strategy to help manage this process and to preserve for society the alternative of literate culture and values.
No such strategy is in place; while many praiseworthy initiatives exist to increase reading in tandem with the Library Service and the educational system, doing the hard work at the coalface, this is a piecemeal approach. Councillors need to think much more deeply and carefully over these issues and to hear some expert witnesses.
The Library Service seems to have lost its direction as regards Literacy, in spite of these piecemeal initiatives. It has also suffered as a result of patchy achievement of the educational system in the last 40 years, which also affects the educational background of librarians who chose and procure bookstocks.
a) The quantity, quality and range of Library bookstocks has declined over the last 40 years and failed disastrously either to conserve the old or to keep pace with expanded modern needs of the new modern fiction and non-fiction book world. (figs 2 & 3). Both failures force readers to the retail book sector whether they can afford it or not, and whether they want to or not.
b) ‘Conserving the old’ is probably actually the more important failure of the Library Service since the high street bookshop, except in notable centres such as large London Waterstones, is poor about this as well. The high street bookshop tends to concentrate its shelf stock on recently issued books and can fill this need as the Library has failed to supply it.
But one unique function of Libraries is also to keep an adequate stock of the vast and growing list of humanity’s valuable out of print or past books and make them accessible to new readers.
The Internet is the resource for information & procurement of books of the future.
The Library service has also achieved some success in its computerised ordering interloan system, to which Library users have access via a PIN. But Library Interloan is not free (see fig 2 for charges) and therefore not a substitute for adequate in-branch stocks.
c). Our civilisation is based ultimately on Graeco-Roman sources, feeding through to a total of 3,000 years of complex achievement and the magnificent literary achievements of the 18th, 19th and early 20th century European & English classics, whose presence in the libraries has declined badly over 40 years. They have a clarity of sentence structure and beauty and complexity of vocabulary which is not found in much of modern literature which tends towards reduced attention span ‘Kellogs cornflake packet English’ which sacrifices nuance.
The failure of the Education system to pass on this literary heritage to a new generation, increasingly marginalising the Classics, is one which will permanently impoverish humanity, and it has resulted in a corresponding failure in the Library system to do the same. (I’m one of the many who, over this period have been driven to the Retail book sector, albeit on a low income, to buy the books many of which I had first encountered a library: buying them as they disappeared from the libraries).
Decline of literacy is surely a complex issue with many factors:- family breakdown, growth of non-verbal technologies, progressive knock -on dysfunction of the various parts of the educational system. Those in charge of and making decisions about library policies need some sort of mindmap (figs 4 & 5 make rough stab).
This topic area is very relevant to the Libraries discussion if Libraries are now expected to change their nature & functions radically to attract people whose literacy is marginal, thereby neglecting the needs of those to whom literacy is a central part of their life and needs, (many of whom may be poor, on a low-fixed income) or senior citizens with book needs whose scope and nature are have been totally inadequately assessed by Mr Yinnon Ezra’s policies.
People at all levels of literacy are taxpayers: but our tax money should provide a balanced range of services for all, without compromising quality of each. Turning Libraries into umbrella venues to provide services already provided in adult learning, recreation, arts venues, museums and galleries within a limited sized building only debases the core product.
And more importantly, that Library Service is thereby failing the central core of people who both professionally and academically, support the need of society and civilisation for interest and learning in all aspects, who have high standards - people like Amanda Field. They too are taxpayers and they are not receiving the service which a Library was designed to supply.
Solutions
There seem to be four broad options open (fig 1)
Conventional makeover (eg Alton). Improving & increasing bookstocks and refurbishing to give moderate IT presence, coffee machine, WCs, etc.
Co-location of Library Building in a larger complex (Southampton City Library).
This is a very different thing from a Discovery Centre, because it allows adequate space for books.
Discovery Centre (Gosport & Winchester). Carving out space for other facilities in an existing Library building of limited size (Gosport) or failing to adequately extend it (Winchester). Results in depleted facilities for books, where they compete with IT and other use, and an overlap with other urban facilities such as adult education centres & recreation centres. Local studies sections are usually extruded, to the dissatisfaction of their users, who want the same kind of environment as the Library. It may result in provision of shallow and mediocre art & museum resources and in winding up the specialised provision which previously supplied them -such as the Tower Arts, Hyde Resources Centre, etc.
It also results in conflict between different age groups which cannot easily be reconciled.
But if the justification for creating Discovery Centres is to induce learning and promote literacy to a wider audience, their success needs to be measured in terms of how far this is effective. Visitor numbers alone are misleading, because the resource may have siphoned off users from previously existing venues, rather than creating new ones.
New build to make much larger super libraries, or a selection of smaller specialised libraries such as youth libraries, attached to colleges, etc. France has biblioteques and popular libraries.
The final pages show flow charts. I apologise for the length involved but these are complex issues. We think they really demand a much longer period of time and thought for evaluation. But that should not be used as an excuse for continuing to implement the same defective policies as a fait accompli.
The Core Book-Loan Service in the Modern World, - factors behind exit of readers from Libraries to the Retail Book Sector (fig 2)
Modern Trends Implication for Library Policies
Low income readers often buy their own books because it is more economic than paying 50p or £1.50p everytime they want to borrow the book.
SO
For the last 40 years, people have increasingly been unable to find the books they want to read in their Library branch.
So they have EXITED TO THE RETAIL BOOK SECTOR.
This includes not just the “more affluent”, but low income high-volume readers, who are forced to.
Libraries FAIL to achieve their duty to make learning & culture available to people irrespective of their income
FAIL to match the attractions of the Retail Book sector: shelves & tables of sharp bright new books, especially paperbacks. Libraries realistically cannot hope to mimic the attraction of the Retail sector without vastly greater expenditure on books.
FAIL to keep pace with the expanded needs of the modern book reading world.
This forces people to the Retail sector whether they like it or not.
These growing needs are managed by a combination of in-branch (free) & centralised inter library loans:
In-branch book loan is free. A large & varied in branch stock should be kept as many people take books from browsing. Hants policies have reduced it greatly.
Inter-branch loans inside the County (costs 50p)
Inter-county loans inside the UK (costs £1.50p)
International loan service (costs £7.50)
The National Library Service’s task becomes an increasing challenge. They need to conserve the old, and keep vast & increasing numbers of important out of print books. They cannot possibly buy and keep all new books. But to meet this total challenge, the Book budget needed to massively increase. Instead of which, it has been neglected for 45 years.
BOOKS are NOT ‘CHEAPER’
On the contrary, the cost of books has rocketed in the last 40 years, probably well above RPI
Only a tiny proportion of books (ie popular best sellers & loss leaders) of total books published, receive competitive discounts. Cost effective via Amazon, etc.
Therefore, the needs & tastes of prospective book borrowers becomes ever wider (both old & new books)
Culture & literature
Branches of knowledge
Fiction (Literature & popular)
Non fiction
More books are published every year than ever before. Sum of human knowledge & activities constantly increasing
HOWEVER
Reading (tho’ having to compete with other activities) is still very much alive
Over the last 40 years the Book Retail trade has expanded greatly
BUT
Average disposable incomes have increased.
The average % of disposable spare time devoted to reading has reduced
These 2 factors results in more people being able/willing to buy a larger % of the books they do read, rather than borrow them.
Why the Core Book Loan Service is More Relevant than ever (fig 3)
A free Bookloan service is the unique & principal function of a Library and should be its chief selling point for a host of reasons.
Obviously, many wonderful & life changing books are only encountered by many people on the Library shelf by browsing, by people at all lifestages and of all shades of culture - books they would almost certainly never have read if they had had to pay for them.
The cost of books has risen steeply - far from being ‘cheaper’, their cost is prohibitive for those on low/fixed incomes. The cost of a large hardback has increased from about £7 in the 1970s to typically £13 or as much as £21 now. To anyone on an income of £12-£7K, this is very formidable. Paperbacks average about £7.99. Again, this is a trifle to the affluent but a formidable sum to the many with small disposable income.
Cheaper deals are mostly restricted to special offers and best sellers. This in no way represents the cultural needs of many low income readers.
The Low Incomed: Many sectors of society are low incomed, or have a very tight disposable income. But they may have wide & varied book needs. Groups falling into this category include:-
a) low paid workers on wages of c. £6 per hour
b) working families with a limited budget, supporting a mortgage
c) middle aged people at the end of their earning cycle
d) Retired over 60s. There is serious under-provision of pensions in our society: it has been estimated that a very high proportion have to survive on tiny incomes, relying on the dwindling state pension plus their slender savings. Many also have to pay a high proportion of their income in Council Tax . Reading is a form of activity particularly suitable to retired people for obvious reasons. They have more leisure. And reading is a particularly suitable occupation for the elderly: it is sedentary, it is safe, and it ought to be affordable. The UK also has an aging demographic profile.
It is extremely offensive and condescending to assume that low income people are going to be marginally literate or without cultural tastes. The reverse can be true.
The journalist, Matthew Paris recently commented that a high volume of his correspondence received was from the ‘genteel poor’, and he commended the intelligence and sensitivity that they frequently displayed.
These groups have been particularly penalised by the decline in quality of the Hampshire Library Service’ bookloan service over the last 40 years.
Low income ‘repeat readers’ paradoxically find it cheaper to buy a book rather than pay 50p every time they wish to read it. The ‘good and great’ have disappeared from the branch Library shelves over the past 40 years, and it is clear we can’t rely on any title being there in future. Such readers have been driven to the Retail Sector as these books disappeared from the Libraries.
There are a huge and varying range of circumstances where people want to borrow rather than buy their books. Those of us with cultural or academic tastes may buy the solid books, classic fiction or textbooks, for a repeat read, but want short term entertainment, our best selling novels from the library. Those of us with more popular tastes might be disinclined to spend our money on classic fiction but take a first tentative taste from the library. Either way, getting a book out of the library is a simply great way (often a necessity for low income people) to decide whether it's worth spending the money on as a permanent acquisition.
With the trend to smaller homes in Hampshire, due to housing pressure, most new homes have very little room for books. And many low incomed people may live in rented accommodation with little room for books or ability to transfer them about.
Decline of Literacy & the Educational System (fig 4)
The Library Service shares its functions with the other parts of the Educational system, with which it works in tandem (fig 1): ie, the family, the pre-school, infant, junior and secondary Schools, and Universities & their libraries.
Each part of the system is malfunctioning to some extent and failing to do its proper job. Resources need to be put in place to address problems at the right stage. Instead, the problems are being passing on to the next part of the system, preventing each in turn from doing its own proper job and ‘dumbing down’ the role of each in turn, including the Libraries.
Universities
Forced to lower academic standards in many disciplines and do remedial work in literacy & numeracy skills
Government’s programme of getting 50% of young people to University is resulting in lower standards
The Public Libraries
Attempting to popularise image but neglecting core book provision
More people leave the libraries in a vicious circle.
Core role and function of Libraries under attack.
The Remedy: decline in Reading is an issue needing to be addressed by putting resources in at each appropriate stage.
Junior & senior schools
Move away from teaching of grammar, punctuation & spelling in 1960s/70s, failure to support proper standards of writing & articulate speech
Move away from streaming for subjects makes focussed instruction more difficult
Examinations and coursework geared towards pre-structured learning with little emphasis on essays, personal reading and writing skills
Many emerge from this process semi-literate. Others go on to University still deficient in these skills
Competing entertainment technology
No longer necessary to get through difficult initial stages of reading to get a fantasy experience: short term alternatives of videos, computer games, TV. Some children never get to know the pleasures of reading.
Reading is vital to build sentence structure, vocabulary, ability to think and handle concepts.
Remedy
Outreach programmes & parental skill programmes
Social policies: subsidise those with serous parental skill deficits to refrain from starting a family until their skills are improved
Infant school
Children may arrive there with behavoural problems already and lacking elementary language skills
Move away from phonetic reading teaching methods in 1960s/70s a serious barrier to Literacy; exacerbates behavioural problems
The Family
Reading to small children in the home is vital first stage. Many families are disfunctional & lack verbal skills
Rational conversation to build concepts, language & vocab
Limiting TV & home computer use
Children of well educated parents one year ahead of deprived ones at age 3
Impact of audio-visual and text handling digital technologies on literacy skills (fig 5)
Improved technology does not necessarily deliver a more cognitively developed human being. Homo sapiens is a tool making species and all tools are essentially a means of amplifying but also substituting for human endeavour.
Potential problems began when Homo sapiens began to invented technology to substitute not just for physical but mental activity and its own creative powers. Obviously, computer technology extends our corporate social results by enormous bounds, but it has a downside.
….itself tended to disable human powers of memory.
These powers are naturally vast. Preliterate human beings could identify 3,000 plant species, or 3,000 herd animals. They could commit to memory long oral sagas (Homer’s Iliad, Odyssey, etc), genealogies and legal codes.
Some examples:
Even the Invention of Writing - clearly an enormous cognitive advance….
Text reading on Internet may be less effective than ability to absorb long texts in a book.
Internet enables massive plagiarism in education, shortcuts which bypass real learning. Students can copy/paste text for notes, essays, instead of learning by compiling them for themselves. Essay writing confidential service for students.
Much Internet use is socio-informational, consumer-informational (shopping, holidays), etc, about products, goods services, or taxes & benefits. We must make a distinction between information & learning
Sub-literate mobile phone speak degrades and undermines written skills.
Internet discussion forums and blogs a great communication advance but frequently show abysmal written skills
Text processing technology
Spellcheckers, automatic letterwriting software and audio dictation software: has serious implications for human literacy
massively competes with reading for disposable leisure time, particularly of teenagers and sub-literate families.
Has removed the need for reading for entertainment in many; the actual ability to construct whole scenes and envisage them in the brain from written symbols, by imagination, may actually wither away. In other words, the habitual reader easily constructs a video in their heads.
Written texts have enormous complexity and subtlety which films and videos normally cannot begin to cover. All this heritage may be lost
Culture of Book becoming marginalised: TVs in hospital waiting rooms, instead of allowing people peace to read their books
Internet
Enormous explosion of information greatly increases access & informational horizons
Home computers
Computer games (hundreds)
Computer recreational use (chat rooms, etc)
Mobile phones with subliterate messagespeak
Burgeoning plethora of ‘fast food’ audio-visual entertainment technology
TV (hundreds of channels)
Video & DVD hire shops
Downloadable films from Internet by Ipod, etc
Popular music culture
Audio voices on machines such as photograph booths
Have led to a widespread & substantial decline in numeracy - emphasis on learning multiplication tables and mental arithmetic is necessary to internalise numerical concepts.
Posted by Perkins at 12:56 PM | Comments (6)
June 25, 2007
The Battle for Hampshire Libraries
Hampshire County Council are arguing vehemently that it doesn't matter whether books are an important ingredient of a library- what matters is that they have a building of which people make use- and they are spending oceans of tax payers money in support of what they say.
On the other hand the residents of Hampshire are emphatic that libraries must be about books
Posted by Perkins at 9:01 PM | Comments (2)
June 21, 2007
Crisis in Conwy
Christopher Draper writes
"Here in Conwy, North Wales, our pathetic excuse for a library service is about to be devastated at the hands of people who would surely be happier running a branch of Starbucks. These so called librarians (barbarians?) admit that spending on books is already about the lowest in Wales (£1.30 a head) and the provision of libraries well below the Welsh Library Standards yet they've just advised the Council to close 6 of our 13 libraries! Ironically for a "Library & Information Service" they are refusing all FOI requests for documents supporting their closure plans. I note that in a recent article in Readers' Digest Tim identifies bloated management costs and minimal spending on buildings as a curse blighting public libraries and so I've researched Conwy's costs. Tim reckons successful book chains spend roughly equal parts of their budget on each category, books and staffing, and deplores libraries that spend as much as "55 percent of budgets on wages and top heavy management and as little as 11 percent on buildings". Conwy's official figures are 64 percent and 1 percent respectively! Despite the best endeavours of library management to intimidate junior staff into keeping quiet and toeing the party line their embargo on information is leaking like a sieve. Staff with integrity have provided all sorts of facts and figures but we desperately need support and publicity. For more info you can call me anytime on 01492-547590."
Help!!
Posted by Perkins at 3:14 PM | Comments (0)
June 20, 2007
Attitudes to libraries
One of the actions that I and others have long urged the MLA to undertake is what marketing people call a "Usage and Attitude" survey.
These are methodical and professional studies which help to define the objectives of an operation and then the most meaningful measures they can use to see if they are doing the right things. When used properly they are incredibly valuable.
However, as always, the MLA and DCMS have failed to take up advice. Nevertheless Denise Hayes from Wales has offered her view:
Peoples attitudes are changing towards libraries. Even if local papers and authorities were prepared to support them there are lots of people saying they are redundant. see - http://www.thisishereford.co.uk/mostpopular.var.1472141.mostcommented.we_want_your_views_on_a_new_library_for_hereford.php
We need to find other ways of reaching out to people, also we need to get rid of the idea that libraries are just about books, they are about knowledge and sharing knowledge, about community. I live in a small town in Wales, UK the library here is used by lots of people despite being housed in a small prefab and having a staff of middleaged, middle class women who correspond with all the caricatures of librarians. People read the papers, use the internet, borrow books, listen to storytime even attend IT classes in a space 40ft X 15ft at most. I learned to read and love books in my local library (Camberwell London)when I was 4, since then I have belonged to libraries in every area I have lived. I also use local libraries if I visit a new area just to find out whats going on and if there is anything interesting I should see. My children also use local libraries despite the fact we can all afford to buy books. Denise
Posted by Perkins at 5:11 PM | Comments (1)
June 16, 2007
Richmond
An anonymous comment has popped up out of the blue, following a long-ago entry I made praising Aileen Cahill for addressing some of the fundamentals when the Royal Borough of Richmond on Thames was one of three libraries selected for the "Love Libraries" campaign (remember that?)
"Yes it's encouraging to see the turn around in Richmond but the real challenge for Aileen and her staff will be how they sustain these improvements. As the article in the Guardian mentions the "transformation cost £90,000" the national picture is one of "decades of underfunding" and "up to two-thirds of a billion pounds... needed to wipe out the backlog of building repairs and refurbishments." In my own authority we're facing a 35% cut in our book fund! "
It is possible both to sustain improvement and avoid the effects of book fund cuts-- don't let it be a disaster. There are lots of useful courses of action available
Posted by Perkins at 12:26 PM | Comments (0)
June 15, 2007
The end of books
Here is the head of Edinburgh libraries explaining to everyone that the Google digitisation project means that books are finished.
Am I missing something? So what are librarians doing about this?
If there were the least grain of realism or truth in what Mr Wallace in Edinburgh says, any half respectable, half decent librarian would be fighting on the barricades with publishers to prevent Google stealing the copyrights -- but where are the librarians? sunning themselves at yet another SYRUP conference no doubt.
Posted by Perkins at 10:27 PM | Comments (3)
"Update"
The CILIP magazine "Update" is one of the main fora for discussion among professional librarians.
I have often felt that it really doesn't matter what the library profession think their "strategy for the future" should be. There is a job to be done for the public, they are well paid and they should get on with it. If they don't want to do it or haven't got the nous to find out what the public wants, then they are in the wrong job and should leave - or be made to.
Whatever their qualities as individuals which are normally excellent, I'm sure, ,as a collective (either as CILIP, SCILIP, CYMAL or the SCL) - by and large they are clearly obstructive, destructive and a pain in the neck. And the result of their negative behaviour has been the needless destruction of the public library service. The senior members of these bodies have been promoted into senior government and civil service positions (the MLA and DCMS) and have infected the mechanisms of government, which should work for the public good, with the same trough of misery
However, there have been many very sensible people who have argued that the whole process of putting libraries right would be much better if the so-called professional bodies could be turned round and could see a more productive route forward. One of these honourable people is Frances Hendrix and she has written very sensibly to "Update" about the matter of the articles in the professional press which were reported here a few weeks ago.
I have reprinted her letter below
Froud and Gent accuse Tim Coates of having a limited vision of the public library service (Gazette 4th May 2007) BUT at least he has a vision, and is publicising it as much as he can.You may not agree with everything Tim says, but he is at least getting huge publicity and putting public libraries on the agenda.
What vision do Froud and Gent have for the sector? What is the brave new world for public libraries where all around us is changing at break neck speed? The statistics, research, evidence and common sense indicate that younger people are not reading., they are switched on to other means of communication and entertainment., book sales are up., there is competition for all a library offers., the internet is being increasingly used for commerce, entertainment, communication etc.The sense of place the library offered is not now paramount and more people are using the new internet groupings for socialising.
So What is the ten year plan for libraries? Is there one? The Blue Print seems more like an out of date grey print, lacking in so much, very short on real vision.
Froud and Gent say 'libraries offer everyone access to books and reading, and to the information they need to make sense of the world', and how patronising is that last statement! But come off it, try ringing your public library for information and compare it to the speed, convenience and accuracy of using the internet for information (where ever you are in the world!). And you can offer all you like but if the offer isn't what the punter wants you are dead. Look at how even the mightiest of commercial giants had to face up to that, Marks and Spencer. They tackled it but a huge and expensive task. How are public libraries tackling their problems and desperate need for change and development? Where is the leadership, the high profile., the support the long term and national strategic plan etc? Other organisations, including the British Library have cogent, costed and publicly available strategic plans, which are continually under review. The OCLC Environmental scan for libraries some years ago had pointers to all the changes the sector had to address, the changing habits of users and those needing information, the rise of the Goggle society etc. have the public library sector looked at and taken on board any of this?
Yes some wonderful good practice around, but it hasn't jelled, there aren't the national offers, and the publicity of reading groups go to the big and popular players like Richard and Judy!
Gent and Froud seem out of date with the march of time and the huge uptake in use of broadband., and now even in the remotest regions of Cornwall! And what are the Development plans for the old and hackneyed People's network? How is this going to be funded and is it now the right tool for todays' communities? It is after all more than 10 years old in concept design and functionality.Older users of the internet amaze me, on a recent trip the oldies were so up to date and confident it was incredible., they are switched on, so don't underestimate them. If you have facts about any of this let us see them!
One thing Coates does have that Gent and Froud don't and cant have, is freedom to say what he thinks about public libraries, without the constraints of local authorities employment restrictions. It is good to have some one raising these things so that little by little , bit by bit, the wider world will realise public libraries are in crisis.
Again Gent and Froud mention some interesting, but limited and short term partnerships., all good stuff, but no real long termism, and of course dealing with 149 public libraries is a very big pain in the rear to any potential partner.We missed the opportunity of partnering with post offices, another service in crisis, and one I suggested we do business with some 10 years ago!
This isn't just me spouting off, commissioned reports, independent research by other than just Tim are saying it and have been so doing for years! Can we be in denial for ever?
Re leadership, I wish I could see what Gent and Froud claim. Clore has given opportunities to 4 librarians now, all excellent candidates and all different BUT are they yet at the point they can demonstrate leadership, no not yet., will they get those opportunities, the jury is out.( and why do so few apply for the scholarship anyway)? it may be they have to move out of the sector for real success, we shall see. There has been published criticism of the review of the leadership initiatives offered from within the sector, and comparing the current library leaders ( and who are they by the way),with leaders from other sectors would be an interesting experiment. How many library leaders are active in other sectors, move into other sectors, are nationally known, are 'names'?
Finally why not get round the table with Tim? I am sure he would be willing to speak without a megaphone
Frances Hendrix
Posted by Perkins at 9:25 AM | Comments (7)
June 14, 2007
Public Library Standards are finished
I read that CILIP Update has an article reporting that Public Library Standards are now a thing of the past.
Shall we tell their sad and sorry history here? Will heads roll at the DCMS and MLA? Will the public ever see back the hundreds of thousands of pounds that have been revising and reviewing them. Didn't Price Waterhouse Cooper get paid a fortune last year to report and recommend a new set? Were not the Parliamentary Select Committee assured that new measures were just around the corner? weren't bus loads of Welsh librarians brought to London for consultation?
Will councils ever believe anything that Whitehall says about public libraries ever again?
What is the Government policy on public libraries? don't tell me !! "They are so important to local communities" -- oh gosh
Who is in Charge?
Make no mistake: when the full story of the destruction of the British Public Library service is told, as it should be, it is a tale of incompetence, evasion and wilful disdain for the public on a scale that will astound readers around the world and in ages to come. Civil servants of DCMS, officials and board members of MLA (and Resource, as it was) and the other regional agencies and senior members of CILIP those of the SCL and members of the ACL deserve nothing short of trial by their peers and the punishments of the Red Queen. Away with them all
Posted by Perkins at 10:31 AM | Comments (0)
Libraries in Fife
Very pleased to report that some libraries in Fife, threatened with closure have now been saved. We reported the threat here some months ago.
Posted by Perkins at 10:19 AM | Comments (0)
June 13, 2007
Talis
Many thanks to Richard Wallis at Talis who kindly invited me to discuss matters about public libraries in a recorded interview for the Talis website.
Posted by Perkins at 11:29 AM | Comments (2)
June 12, 2007
Philip Pettifor
Readers of the blog will remember that earlier this year Philip Pettifor died, unexpectedly, of cancer.
Philip has been one of the main architects of our endeavour to revive the public library service. He was a wonderful communicator, an experienced marketeer and a tremendous mind.
It is to their enduring shame that civil servants of the DCMS and officers of the MLS labelled him a "trouble-maker" - for asking them difficult questions about how they conducted their responsibilities. Philip's successful efforts have been considerably greater than theirs.
We have gathered together the pieces of Philip's writings on libraries and his contribution to the Libri website on an entry which you can read in the left hand tramline here.
Posted by Perkins at 8:51 AM | Comments (0)
June 10, 2007
In praise of older books
Many people have quite rightly made a big fuss about how few new books are being bought by the public library service (less than 7% of the library budget is spent in this way). There is often a confusion about what is meant by "new books". Frequently one person means a "new publication" while another means a "new copy" - and so on.
However some of the great assets of the public library service are their deeply hidden collections of older books. I don't mean just those of antiquarian value- but the huge landscape of publishing of the past, trivial and fascinating which often lies in locked or inaccessible storage; mostly not available to the public
I spent happy hours yesterday in a glorious pair of second hand bookshops in Felixstowe. Shelf after shelf of well organised lines of other people's discards, piled high and a little bit dusty. Most villages and small towns have these, with a bookseller at the desk wondering what happened to his life, but happy with his unfathomable knowledge of history and literature and the town in which he lives (they are mostly men- I could be one of them; it is the perfect garden shed).
I am told that publishers marketing folk worry about the growth of the second hand market which has certainly flourished with the arrival of www.abebooks.com; and I suppose that Abe has taken a serious slice of income from many second hand dealers. So I don't know whether my growing addiction to old books (which has been going on for some time) is a sign of the times or just my own age.
However, I do certainly think that public libraries could make more use of their own rooms full of these books. We should trawl the basements and locked rolling stacks and put the stuff out on the shelves. Why not?
I found a copy of the Ward Lock Illustrated Guide Book to Aldeburgh-on-Sea, inscribed by a young hand: "P.Hutton Summer holidays 1920" The opening line goes: Amusements: These are of the quiet open-air order. Restfulness and absence of excitement are characteristic of the town"
A summer holiday in two sentences!
Posted by Perkins at 10:04 AM | Comments (4)
June 9, 2007
Readers' Digest
Here is a link to my article
in this month’s Reader’s Digest.
Posted by Perkins at 5:04 PM | Comments (4)
June 8, 2007
Charles Dickens could have made this up
This is from one my anonymous correspondents
"Today I was contacted by a small legal recruitment company
(City-based).
He said "oh, but librarians in legal libraries have a fixed mind-set. They have a very narrow view on who they want, they are set in their ways."
He added: "if they advertise for library assistants, they want people who don't want to get on in their career, you know, or old ladies and the like".
Posted by Perkins at 10:06 PM | Comments (14)
June 7, 2007
"Take no prisoners"
Said a senior politician to me today- he was urging major reform of the public library service and he meant it.
It is good to see people beginning to get a grip on the whole problem
Posted by Perkins at 4:49 PM | Comments (5)
June 4, 2007
Recruitment of staff
I received this which I am happy to post anonymously
"I wonder if you could start a thread on PL "recruitment" procedures. I am on my fourth London authority. I think even the Italian mafia in Palermo is more open to "outsiders" than public libraries are. Not only are the responses ridiculous, but even in places where ten jobs have been
advertised (eg Southwark) one doesn't get called in for an interview.
This was also raised at the "Getting back to work" workshop run by CILIP by some of the participants.
If public libraries in London were staffed by paragons of excellence, I would not have any trouble with this - but alas, they are not."
Posted by Perkins at 3:48 PM | Comments (12)
June 2, 2007
The backlog of boxes of library books waiting for months to be unpacked
Antonia Davis writes in response to the earlier discussion about why many library library authorities have a substantial back log of boxes of books waiting in their distribution depots:
"The labeling is just a minor problem that could be resolved, but the real reason that boxes of new books sit in our staff canteen is that we do not have enough staff to actually add the books to the computer catalogue. We get imported records which don't match our catalogue which then needs editing and the actual copies then have to be added individually. Librarians are all pitching in to help with book processing but the boxes keep arriving faster than we can clear them "
Antonia- thank you for your comment. I don't want to draw attention to which council you work in, because I'm sure a lot of people in other councils would have said the same. But what I and others can't understand is why "the imported records don't match" your catalogue and why they need editing. If you, as most others do, subscribe to the provision of BDS records why can't you use them in the form which they come? What the Government reports have been saying for several years is that is the fact that councils insist on doing things their own way that is so expensive because every council has to handle things manually and every supplier has to process each council in a different way. Surely your catalogue can be in the same form as the records imported from BDS? One can understand the small number of cases of stock coming from independent small publishers - but presumably most of a back-log is stock from the main library suppliers?
And, I think, it is right to ask why, in the days in which data is transferred electronically, do you need still to add copies which have come from your mainline suppliers, manually, to your council catalogue? Surely all Library Management Systems by now can accomodate the transfer of this information without it being re-keyed? And if they don't- why are councils still using such out of date Library Management systems, when most councils tend to review these contracts every 3 years or so? As you say, it means that valuable librarian time is being spent in doing work that is essentially administrative and clerical.
I don't mean to put you on the spot with these-- I'm sure there are sensible answers to my questions, but they do seem to be at the heart of so much of what is being discussed in the debate about the Library Supply Chain. People ask why are 204 councils re-cataloguing - or even just checking the work of- that which has already been catalogued by a librarian paid to do the work "book in hand" ? The cost of this extra work runs into 10's of millions of pounds-- could we do without it when we need that money?
Posted by Perkins at 7:27 PM | Comments (0)
What shall we buy ?
In one council we have come at last- after all these years-- to the glorious moment at which they have addressed all the questions of efficiency and over-administration and are able to allocate a substantial amount more of their annual budget to be spent on books.
The question came up last week. What shall we buy?
Being methodical, the place to start was by looking at what they have available now and the condition of it.
There is always a temptation to go out and acquire the new titles which are being mentioned on the radio and in the papers-- but I don't believe that is the place to start.
The "Top Ten" to look at is not the Top Ten Titles-- but the Top Ten Sections. Even more than a book shop a library is a place to use to look around for ideas, to find other people's experienced views on subjects which are unfamiliar
Buy the best back list: that's my advice. Go through the sections and re-establish your collections of the standard and best. Spend three- quarters of your money at least in that way and a quarter of it on the new and current fahionable. Make your library useful first. Our new money is wonderful- but it will never be enough to buy everything - you have to set priorities.
At the same time go and look in the reserve collections and bring out onto display some of the gems from the past. Make a big section of these.
Exciting times
Posted by Perkins at 9:50 AM | Comments (2)
June 1, 2007
Aldeburgh
I can now reveal, contract properly signed, that the book I am writing is about Aldeburgh. The publisher will be Antique Collectors' Club, who have a fine list of illustrated and beautifully designed books. The Aldeburgh Book will follow a similar title they published on Southwold
It is a wonderful project and a great privilege.
If anyone reading this has any material- family history, anecdote, photos, that might be suitable, please do tell me. I have to finish by next May and publication will be in the Spring of 2009.
Posted by Perkins at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)