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July 16, 2007
"Book Lending is in inevitable decline"
This is the repeated statement of Hampshire County Council- who have used it as an excuse to reduce the emphasis and the expediture on books in their libraries
Happily it is not true; out of 149 Library authority councils in England last year, 53 increased their book lending.
Unhappily for Hampshire, since they released Southampton and Portsmouth from being operated by the hapless county council library service, both those cities have made great improvements. Last year, Southampton improved book lending figures by 30% and Portsmouth by 18%
Book Lending is only inevitably in decline, Yinnon, Richard, Margaret and Ken, if you take away the books- as you have done.
In Hampshire last year book lending fell by 8%; in the past five years it has fallen altogether by 37%-- that is the worst fall of any English county. Expenditure on books is now less than 6% of the money spent in total by the service. Most of the remaining 94% of the funds go to staff and management who do not actually attend the library counters themselves but sit in an office.
Needless to say, the stock of books available to the public is awful.
Posted by Tim Coates at July 16, 2007 8:34 AM
Comments
Out of interest, what are the positions of these people? Are they Librarians or Council staff? And do their wages count as part of the 94% statistic? What is the rise in lending in Southampton and Portsmouth attributed to? Just asking out of curiosity.
Posted by: Paul Wells at July 16, 2007 11:28 AM
Yinnon Ezra is the officer and director of the council who is head of leisure services, which include the public libraries; Ken Thornber is the paid elected leader of the council; Margaret Snaith is the elected councillor who is paid to look after a number of services including public libraries; Richard Ward is the paid officer who is head of the libraries and information services.
All of Richard Ward's costs will be included in the 94%; a portion of the costs of the others will be included.
Posted by: Tim Coates at July 16, 2007 1:52 PM
I assume Soton and Pompey are unitary authorities, so a council is still running the service. As Paul asks, what have they (and the other 51) done differently to achieve this increase?
Posted by: Pete at July 16, 2007 1:53 PM