The Good Library Blog

I fully agree with Mr Coates's entry above. It is clear that the Hampshire policy was firmly in place before any voter was put in the picture and anecdotal evidence tells us that although initially furious, the inevitability of the process has finally led to an apathy amongst would be library users in Gosport. A contingent from Gosport (not organised but indicative that enough independent persons felt strongly enough to travel) attended the Winchester DC pantomime, almost two years ago, not to defend the already lost Gosport Library but to warn the local residents that more robust defence of their library was the only way to prevent such a disaster befalling them. Sadly, the residents locally seemed to think it was a Gosport invasion and ignored our pleas. One person who fronted the pantomime was Margaret Snaith. With Mr Ward having to feed her documentation and facts from the side of the stage, it was clear that the politician was presenting only a puppeteers views. With one such puppeteer announcing his retirement, we have to ask when the other one (Ezra) will be persuaded to "spend more time with his family" on an electorally enhanced pension. Better still, without a golden handshake. This would be a democratic result, as in lower management in industry, should I be unelected, brought in to carry out a task against the wishes of the paymaster (taxpayers) and then quietly let others take the blame, I would be hunted out and dismissed without any financial enhancements. Is this not what we would wish for anyone implementing such an unpopular scheme?

Fascinating post. I was intrigued to find out what the stats were for Oxfordshire, where sent off a Freedom of Information request for the same info...

Their total book stock has declined 6.81% in the past 10 years, however lending stock is down only 3.87%, whilst issues are actually up 6.7%.

It's suprised me as whilst working there I have felt that issues were declining in favour of internet access, however it appears I'm wrong.

Phil

Since its Best Value review in 2002, and Caroline becoming the chief librarian Oxfordshire has done well. My figures show that in the past 5 years the book collection has risen by 5% (11% in the last year); visits rose by 18% and book issues by 6%.

Expenditure on books is about £1.80 per resident which is about 9- 10% of gross expenditure on the service.

The shame is that you have to ask a question in order to be able to see these figures-- they should be freely available to all. However, you can always ask me!

I was looking for articles relating to the newly opened Winchester Discovery Centre and came across this site.

I was in the employment of Hampshire County Council until summer 2006. I was fortunate enough to have worked for and with Yinnon Ezra (MBE) and been heavily involved with elements of the Discovery Centre projects. Yinnon treated the staff in his department with more respect than anyone in a position of his power than anywhere else I have been employed.

From a relatively young person and positive thinker, the ideas he brought to Hampshire were maybe not visionary, but so obvious and necessary in a service long overdue for overhaul and otherwise unsustainable.

Personally I had not stepped into a Library since I was studying other than for work. I read books, but I buy them, generally second hand for the same cost as parking in Winchester or less.

The whole Discovery Centre program was designed not to get rid of books, but to attract a wider audience, get younger people interested in the Library by making it 'cool' and introduce them to the joys of reading. Open the doors late or at weekends to make it more attractive to 20-30-40something working people. Employ cheerful people who want to help and provide a service to the customers.

Any change to a service which had remained as outdated as the one provided at Hampshire was not going to happen without some kind of resistance. Some libraries were very positive and some were negative to the point of obstruction. There were a number of good quality staff, but there were also a number of library staff who believed that being a public servant meant an easy life and easy pension and did not have anything to do with serving the public. They would not have lasted a week in the private sector.

I have worked in a number of different places in the private and public sector, all over the world. I am currently working for the forward looking library service in Australia where they look to what is going on with libraries in the UK as a model for their own future with something almost akin to awe.

I lived in Hampshire most of my life and the attitudes I came across through work and at home towards the Discovery Centre project were casually positive or indifferent. It seemed that the only folk with any kind of axe to grind either way were small groups of current users in privilidged socio-economic groups who see the library (particularly in Winchester funnily enough) as theirs and want to keep it that way.

England is my home, Hampshire is where I grew up, Winchester was where I lived. I love the place but one of the reasons I left was because I saw too many good things being obstructed by people with their own agendas and a lack of 'bottle' by the people in power to make improvements. The revamp in the Library service was all about providing something good for the people of Hampshire and everyone who worked on the project felt that is what they were trying to achieve apart from a few institutionalised library staff.

It is a shame that in your article you feel the need to resort to the furious and inflamatory language of the paranoid (being the operative word) tabloid press to get your messages across. In addition you do not have to be a genius to know that statistics can be bent any way to suit your cause. I also notice you called your piece 'The People of Hampshire'. Do you live in Hampshire by any chance? and out of interest what is your reason for this fury?

Cy

No one disagrees that improvements were needed. But that doesn't mean reducing the quality of the book collections. You were deceiving yourselves. you spent oceans of public money reducing Gosport library to a playpark - and proposed to do the same everywhere. Hampshire library service has become a terribly important national issue

What way should the figures be understood?

Good luck in Australia.

My point was that anyone could wheel out stats which support their own spin on the argument. I am sure if you Google 'Winchester Discovery Centre' you will find plenty of figures which support it.

Thank you for your wishes.

Yes that was your point; and the question in response was: how do you interpret the figures?- how do you think they should be understood? How do you explain how the money has been spent?