« An angry library assistant writes | Main | Invitation »
August 10, 2007
Grateful
My thanks to Councillor Henry Higgins, of the London Borough of Hillingdon and Councillor John Whelan, the leader of the Conservative opposition in Lambeth and also to senior officers in Hillingdon, for their help in the progress we have made in their programme described in the Bookseller below-- There is still, of course, a great deal to do to make sure it all works - read on.
Tim Coates to save Hillingdon £260,000
09.08.07 Katherine Rushton
Library campaigner Tim Coates has designed a major overhaul of Hillingdon libraries that is projected to increase opening hours and book stocks, and save £260,000.
The plans have been approved by the borough council and are expected to be implemented from September. They will see all 17 libraries in the borough entirely refurbished, Starbucks coffee made available in every branch, opening hours extended and the supply chain simplified.
The plans are a stark contrast to the branch closures and cuts to staff, book stocks and opening hours being used to meet budget cuts in many other councils. Councillor Henry Higgins said he hoped they would act as a blueprint for other councils to follow. "If the figures work, then this is the way that other councils should push forward, no argument."
Under the Hillingdon plans, all the library refurbishments will be undertaken by retail refit specialist MacKenzie Wheeler. "Attractive" furniture has been sourced at a cost 30% lower than from traditional library furniture suppliers and Starbucks has agreed to install cafés or fresh coffee-vending machines in every branch. £80,000 will be diverted from installing new radio frequency indentification tagging facilities to fund the refurbishments.
The cosmetic changes will be underpinned by a supply chain overhaul. Book stocks will be sent direct from library suppliers to individual branches (instead of via Uxbridge central library), making them quicker and cheaper to source. Negotiations between suppliers and Wellstock—the book buying consortium of which Hillingdon is part—are expected to save the borough enough funds to buy an additional 13,000 books (an 11.6% increase) without increasing its bookspend.
Outreach work will be scaled back so that resources can be redirected to library branches and opening hours extended. The council hopes to keep all branches open through lunchtimes, and more branches open on Sundays.
"Hillingdon has approached this in exactly the right manner, by being very thorough," Coates said. The former m.d. of Waterstone’s has become a source of controversy in the libraries sector because of his strong criticisms of the senior officials in charge. He also criticised the 2006 Love Libraries makeover programme, saying it had not addressed the operational problems of staffing and stock procurement
Posted by Tim Coates at August 10, 2007 11:24 AM
Comments
Well and I wish you all well.
Just one question- what is the nature of the outreach work that is being scaled back, and how are the resources being redirected to achieve the (very laudable) aims.
Again, my genuine best wishes.
But really, Starbucks? 'Agreed to install'? Very good of them...Coudln't you at least have got a decent coffee supply? ;)
Posted by: Pete at August 10, 2007 11:50 AM
Excellent news. More books and longer opening hours. These must be positive steps. I hope other libraries will be following the Hillingdon example.
Posted by: Adam Hodgkin at August 11, 2007 8:41 AM
I'm not sure the dumbing down of library services to save money should be so congratulated. The services offered by Hillingdon council libraries such as homework clubs, story times and the various outreach programmes offer a valuable service to the community, particularly the more deprived areas. What we are left with will essentially be a Waterstones/Starbucks that lends books (I suspect we'll have to pay a hire charge for books in the future!). So much for David Cameron's promise not to make cut backs to public services, looks like it's starting at local government level.
Posted by: Mark at August 13, 2007 9:08 PM
There is nothing in the plans that I have seen that would reduce the outreach programmes such as homework clubs or storytimes or reading groups. On the contrary I believe the plan is to increase and improve them. I don't see how anyone could possibly describe any of this as a cut back in public service.
Posted by: Tim at August 13, 2007 9:40 PM
Hi Tim,
The reports so far sound positive but I haven't yet found any detailed list of the changes.
Are you able to answer any questions about them at the moment?
If so I am curious about the following:
Outreach Work - How has this been scaled back? Is it just a matter of spending less staff time on it or have particular services been scrapped? If so which ones and why? When do the new opening times come into force and how many extra hours have been
Starbucks - Are they simply renting space from the libraries? If so have they guaranteed to rent it for a certain length of time? Has any profit from the Starbucks arrangement been included in the revenue targets for the library service (i.e. if Starbucks should choose to vacate the libraries in future would the service need to make up the shortfall in some way)?
Supply Chain - How were deliveries organised before now?
Thanks.
Posted by: Miriam Palfrey at August 14, 2007 12:30 PM
Miriam
Thanks for yours. There have been a number of questions from correspondents which I am not able to answer. At the moment all that is public, quite properly, is the document that has been published by the council. I should not and could not comment - which explains my reticence. as you rightly sense I can't (and shan't) engage in a discussion about the detail
Of course I would be happy to work privately with any other councils- for whom I'm sure the analysis and the solutions will be related but different. This comes back to my long standing suggestion that it would be interesting to hold some seminars with two or three councils which involve senior officers and councillors, to discuss the issues in detail-- that offer is definitely still open
Tim
Posted by: Tim at August 14, 2007 5:04 PM
Dear Tim
Heartiest congratulations to you and those councillors in Hillingdon who are not only prepared to recognise the shortcomings of their service, but have the courage to do something radical about it!
I am sure that CLIP will second my congratulations and be grateful for the marvelous opportunities this gives them for running all those profitable new training courses in career development they do so well! - The dynamics of coffee bar management, Or The syngergic direction of coffee bean indexng - does RFID have a role in its future? to name but two...
Fight the good fight!
Verity
Posted by: VerityPenglais at August 15, 2007 9:40 AM