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August 24, 2007
Shocking
The Bookseller in it leading editorial this evening has described Yinnon Ezra's conduct of the Hampshire County Council public library service as 'Shocking'
David Lammy once asked a conference of librarians scornfully 'Who reads the Bookseller?' and was embarrassed to find that most of his audience did. It is also true that most journalists who are also authors (and a lot of them are) also tend to read The Bookseller.
Good for them. I wonder what the 'Observer' will say on Sunday.
The Bookseller leader is here
Libraries need a line in the sand 24.08.07
Libraries were the subject of this week's Leader column in The Bookseller. Here it is:
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The library sector is good at developing readers, reaching out to minorities, and embracing digital change—but at a more fundamental level, flexibility is scarce. Advisory bodies wheel out tired answers to unsolved problems, and heads of library authorities seem reluctant to break with the status quo.
So it was quite a coup when professional body CILIP broke ranks and pronounced that all this talk of re-invention and redeploying resources was just another name for cuts. The politicians are guilty of "spin doctoring", cried CILIP chairman Bob McKee.
But if the politicians are to be believed, they have little real power to do anything about cuts. Library funding is a discretionary spend in local government, and the book fund is discretionary within that. The only legislative tool available—the 1964 act that permits the government to seize control of failing library authorities—has been reduced to an all but theoretical threat. Margaret Hodge, the new culture minister, recently told The Bookseller that she could act only as an advocate. Hodge has a pedigree in dealing with local government pressures and seems to understand the nature of the challenge. But if her powers really are that redundant, the perennial question raised by library firebrand Tim Coates comes to mind: if not Hodge, who's in charge?
The Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) says it's not them either. It employs more than 90 people at a cost of over £50m a year to provide advocacy and advice for the sector—but it can only conjure up new plans and hope councils buy into them. Disturbingly, the MLA's board members include Yinnon Ezra of Hampshire, who has outraged residents with his "revamp" of the service, overseen a decline in book issues, and—shockingly—raised doubt over whether libraries should bother to stock fiction at all.
This lack of a clear national mandate for libraries makes it impossible for local authorities to defend branch budgets against "core" services like schools and hospitals. Rather than constant strategy reports and "visions", libraries need a line in the sand on resourcing and priorities. As Coates points out—and now proves with his impressive restructuring scheme for London's Hillingdon—overall funding is only part of the problem. Bold steps are needed to simplify structure and accountability, rebuild book stocks and help the frontline staff who are working so hard to engage with communities.
Posted by Tim Coates at August 24, 2007 8:08 PM