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October 27, 2007
Scrap yard
Martyn writes
The Museum Libraries and Archives Council is to scrap two key components of the Government's strategy on Libraries according to an article in today's Bookseller. The so-called "Blue-Print for Excellence" is to be scrapped because of insufficient consultation, and replaced by an MLA "action plan". The second casualty is likely to be the much publicised plan to centralise stock selection, as an external audit indicates that the savings to be made are less than originally claimed.
The magazine also carries an interview with Admiral Clare.
Philip adds
Well, what Admiral Clare says is no surprise; but the fact that he is saying it quite so boldly is unusual within the MLA we've come to know.
I have been convinced all along that MLA was acting far beyond its remit by seeking to skew the stock supply and LMS markets in the ways proposed. Equally, we were all aware that the PwC costing exercise (which created the myth about massive savings) was an appalling piece of research which bore no relation to the realities of library supply. At long last these self-evident facts have been acknowledged.
The real scandal here is the cost to the taxpayer of the poor quality research and entirely misguided work which have been expended on this project to date. Just think what those millions could have done for the library service in this country if they had been fed into some proper centralised funding for F4F national offers.
It makes one wonder how long it can be before some senior MLA mandarins are notified of their tranfer to somewhere suitably punitive to see what they can 'skew up' in their new environment.
Posted by Perkins at October 27, 2007 2:15 PM