The Good Library Blog

Libraries compete for people's time. Whether we buy a Mars bar, holiday or car, part of what we pay is the cost of persuading us to buy in the first place. Libraries have no money to persuade users to come through the doors so we find it hard to compete. The product has not changed, staff attitudes have not changed enough and worst of all buildings have not changed. Public Libraries do need a shake up but an action has an equal and opposite reaction. The Coates' comments, and to lots of us, dodgy sums just annoy rather than encourage. We know there is bureaucracy but we are stuck with auditors, surveys and the like.

Which dodgy sums, Ian?

I am trying to provoke you or your colleagues into doing something that makes an improvement.

I can't do anything- -but you can

Some things can be done, yes. And should be done where possible. I'm sure Dudley librarians could advocate for these libraries, but in the end it is councillors- the people you always say should be in control- who are making this decision.

Ultimately there are always forces which librarians, or whomever cannot control- any more than you and t'other Tim could stop the HMV/WHSmith behemoth, regardless of valiant efforts.

Pete

I have no idea what happened in Dudley at all. But very often-- in fact normally-- it is the officers of the council who make detailed proposals as to what should be done, and frequently those proposals offer little real alternative and are what the councillors adopt.

It is very difficult for a councillor to overturn, in detail, the proposals made by officers and those officers are the library managers-- normally the head of the library service.

Sadly in many of the instances of closure the chief librarian has not advocated the saving of the library-- in fact they have recommended the opposite. During the past 18 months it has frequently been the head of the library service who has recommended library closures and or reductions in the book fund. Frequently, too, it has been the councillors who have had to ask the chief librarian to think again. So you should not be so sure. There are a lot of examples and they are very embarrassing for those people involved -as they know when we persuade the Bookseller to print their names

That is why, scornfully, I labelled the Society of Chief Librarians, the SCL the Society for Closing Libraries.

I'm sure that they *could* is what I said- if they do not then that is disappointing.

Often the effective head of a library service isn't a librarian at all, especially with all the new 'directorates' the cabinet system has spawned.

And a councillor who does not ask questions and at least challenge advice when it advises closures etc is a placeman and should stand down. Recent plans have shown that councillors- right or wrong- can and do make plans of their own.

One positive note- they plan to open libraries to 7pm, and on Sundays.

Pete, the problem is that there will be fewer libraries to open until 7.00 pm and on Sundays.

It shouldn't be necessary to go through the negative effects of closing small libraries in terms of the impact on local communities, the environment, or people's daily lives, or on the library service itself.
Closing smaller libraries to pay for services at bigger libraries has become habit-forming.