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January 30, 2008
MLA and the Reading Agency are at it again!!
"Love libraries" is only just dead in its gold lined Saatchi designed coffin and here we go again with the first of the year's nonsense from the overpaid staff of government library quangoes.
Sue Wilkinson and Miranda McKearnie have made a statement which they call short and simple. In fact it's long and complicated, contains no reasoning, and doesn't offer any help or explanation to those to whom they are preaching.. and therefore, inevitably will be yet another waste of paper and time (but I imagine they all sluiced champagne at the launch) like all the other launches and initiatives they have had. All that happens is that they get paid a large salary and yet another committee will drift off into the heat of global warming.
Why doesn't somebody tell them that this is not the way to achieve the improvements that people want and pay for. Wake up Admiral Roy- that's your job.
Posted by Perkins at 8:15 AM | Comments (9)
January 28, 2008
London Evening Standard
Printed an edited version of this letter tonight
"A L Kennedy was absolutely right to condemn the decline of our public libraries in her Costa Prize-winning speech. There used to be a presumption among those who worked in them that anything might be worth reading and anything that had been published could be made available.
But for anyone under 40, the public library service is an odd, out-of-date institution, kept alive for similar reasons to the Anglican church.
There was no need for this to happen. The destruction came about because those who run our libraries, although provided with plenty of money, gradually reduced the emphasis on books. The situation is worst in London, where only 4 per cent of the £200 million annual budget is spent on books. Most of the funds go on administrative and professional management.
Very few libraries are open in the evening when young Londoners need them and the buildings are mostly decrepit and dirty. The result is that only 15 per cent of Londoners believe libraries are relevant to their lives and book lending has halved in a decade.
It is up to local councillors responsible for libraries to do something to stop their administrators behaving in this way. Most do not know how; they could do worse than listen to Hillingdon's Cllr Higgins who has introduced some simple improvements which have doubled the usage and the popularity of his libraries."
Posted by Perkins at 10:31 PM | Comments (1)
What A L Kennedy said
"I truly believe in Britain that we're in danger of losing our stories. You want people to remember that narratives are important. They're how we define ourselves as human beings. You can't have a functioning democracy if people can't express themselves adequately with language. But we don't have the libraries, we don't have the bookshops."
Posted by Perkins at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
January 27, 2008
The Observer names and shames Yinnon Ezra and Margaret Hodge! -- Is Hampshire really a New Labour Council?
Residents of Hampshire who thought they had voted for a Conservative Council are in for a shock as the Observer reveals their real roots are with the Labour party
Rachel Cooke writes this morning
Vandals at the library
I gather that AL Kennedy was in two minds about what she would say if she won the Costa book award: either she was going to mention Iraq, or she was going to talk about libraries. In the end, she spoke up for libraries, which was both brave (it's hardly the sexiest of subjects, or at least not for a black tie crowd of B-list celebs) and timely.
The new year was largely dominated by the controversy about the proposed Arts Council cuts, which meant that the latest news from our beleaguered libraries passed by almost unreported. So let me update you. At the end of December, Margaret Hodge, Minister for Culture, finally admitted that 40 libraries closed in 2007. In one way, this came as a relief: I was beginning to think that I was losing my mind. Last time I wrote about the dismantling of our libraries, Hodge simply denied the facts, boasting that 'there are 1.5 million more books in our libraries today than when Labour came to office in 1997' (the truth is that, as the government's own figures show, there are 20 million fewer books in libraries than in 1997). Mostly, though, it was just profoundly misery-inducing. Forty closures: that's getting pretty close to one every week.
A few days later, just to brighten my mood yet further, came the news that my pal Yinnon Ezra, head of leisure services at Hampshire County Council, and a man who believes that there is no place for fiction in libraries because 'most people buy books', had been awarded an MBE for his trouble. I doubt that Margaret Hodge, who appears to share some of Ezra's views, will bother to respond to Kennedy's impassioned words ('We're in danger of losing our stories,' she said). But should the Minister decide to do so, no doubt she'll treat her as she did me. She will accuse Kennedy, obliquely, of elitism, of longing for a return to 'the smell of Mansion polish and a tweedy librarian shushing anyone whose voice rises above a whisper'. Well, then let her. Kennedy is tough. She is also right. Hodge, as ever, is wrong.
What do you think? review@observer.co.uk
Posted by Perkins at 8:49 AM | Comments (0)
January 26, 2008
Get rich - work in public libraries
Those of us who don't work in the public library service will have our breath taken away by this advertisement for some posts in a library authority.
This particular authority spends less than 4% of its funding on books--
- Head of Libraries (£54,312-£61,689)
- Information Services & Adult Learning Manager (£37,416)
- Customer Services Manager (£37,416)
- Project & Development Manager (£34,962)
Of course none of these posts require the onerous obligation of standing at a counter, they are all office jobs. Croydon is the place and I know this information will break the hearts of the doughty fighters for Upper Norwood Library for which Croydon council refused to find proper funding.
Posted by Perkins at 8:20 PM | Comments (0)
Jibber Jabber
Here are three paragraphs from the recent Hampshire County Council report on public libraries. What do they mean? (LIS means the 'Library and Information Service' operated by the county)
"5.2.1 The Panel is aware of the strength of feeling regarding book stocks, and the clear views expressed by some witnesses about the need for these to be increased after a period of declining investment in book stocks (see Appendix Two: Statistics for Hampshire Libraries from 1997/8 to 2005/6). However, members are also aware of the conflicting demands upon the LIS for funding, and the increasing range of electronic information and media services that need to be considered as part of library provision if the service is to modernise effectively.
5.2.2 Individual Members expressed a range of views on the of matter of book stocks which reflect the sort of discussion that needs to be held within communities. There are significant tensions between the need for the service to understand and respond to the opportunities presented by rapidly developing information and communications technology, as well as different lifestyles, and the view that such electronic services need to complement, rather than replace particularly fiction book stocks. The Panel understands that the LIS has to consider these tensions within the wider context of their role in supporting the County’s priorities.
5.2.5 The Panel accepts that discussions such as these are critical to the formation of strategy and direction for the LIS; it also accepts that there are no easy solutions since a number of interests may be represented in localities. Members see it as essential that such discussions actively involve the public in planning for the library services that are relevant to the needs and aspirations of the different target communities across Hampshire. In some instances this
might lead to greater investment in book stocks or in other instances, different resources may need to be provided."
OK? -- so what shall we expect.. ....
This report took two years to assemble and the most recent figures show despite a huge pouring of money into the service, more than anywhere else in the country, that both visits to and lending from Hampshire libraries fell again last year -- the decline in book lending in Hampshire in the past 6 years has been 40% and that is the worst figure of any English county. Do you get a sense of urgency to deal with this from the (92 page) report? Do you get a sense of anything? Yes you get an enormous sense of complacent supercilious waste of time and public money.
Posted by Perkins at 7:48 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2008
What does it mean?
Good management is a process of using somebody else's money and achieving what they want with it. It doesn't have to be commercial-- it can apply to anything that needs to be done.
One of the tricks of good management is being able to use words so that the people who give the money know that you understand what they want and so that the people who work with you know what they are supposed to do. As is so often said 'If you want to succeed - Keep it Simple'
One of the reasons the DCMS and the MLA have been so constantly ineffective is that, despite their apparent connection with literature they can never say anything that another person can understand. What does this mean --?
"An MLA spokesperson said: "It’s envisaged that in the future we'll work more flexibly and generically. Rather than working on one specific dimension like libraries, we’ll work increasingly across the three sectors. The [MLA] structure will reflect that."
You can see from this piece in the Bookseller that these three sentences were given in response to the jounalists offer to let the MLA explain its latest press release. If you are a taxpayer who pays Roy Clare's salary (140 uk pounds per annum) what do you think he is going to do? What are you paying for? If you work at the MLA what do you think you are supposed to do? What does this mean? How will you know if you have done a good day at the office?
Libraries, Museums and Archives are actually quite different things used on different occasions for different purposes. Anyone knows that. What makes one good is not the same as what makes another good. It's obvious. Even a cat can see that. So why pretend otherwise?
Posted by Perkins at 11:23 PM | Comments (0)
January 21, 2008
Swindon is closing the Old Town library
From Shirley Burnham
"Our small library in Old Town, Swindon, is earmarked for closure, ostensibly to help pay for the running costs of a new super-library in the town centre, once it is fully commissioned. My petition against this proposal has so far gathered about 76 names. Any advice? I have got into the local paper and may go on local radio this week. there does not seem to be any public consultation that I have heard of, nor have the local councillors responded to my emails or even acknowledged them. I fear the library will close willy nilly."
Shirley- find the names of the cabinet members of the council. Get a local printer to print cheap day glo "Save Old Town Library" posters. Get school children to take the posters around schools and also put the posters through the doors of every house in the streets where the councillors live. Make sure they (and their families) see them as they leave their houses. Tell the Swindon Advertiser to doorstep the councillors and ask their own view about closure. We'll post the names of the councillors on here shortly
Here are the members of the cabinet of Swindon council who have decided covertly to close the Old Town library. Shame on them. You can be sure there is no need to do this.
Posted by Perkins at 2:21 PM | Comments (1)
The Bus to Hillingdon
Here is Ed Vaizey, currently the shadow minister for arts and libraries getting on the bus to Hillingdon.
All aboard !
Posted by Perkins at 5:19 AM | Comments (0)
January 18, 2008
Roy Hattersley knows
And this is how he described it recently in the newspaper
Posted by Perkins at 8:59 PM | Comments (0)
January 17, 2008
Hampshire County Council
As Mephistopheles once said 'If you have to write a long report about what you are supposed to be doing, you probably won't do it'
Here is the report of the 'Review of the public library service'
Posted by Perkins at 5:35 PM | Comments (1)
Dazzling !
Some time ago this blog urged its readers not to miss performances of the Greek composer Xenakis work for solo cello "Kottos".
Following those evenings in the Purcell Room in London's Southbank centre there was an invitation to perform the work in the Wigmore Hall for which this was a review :-
Music Web International - Wigmore Hall Jan 8 2008
"...The opening of the second half was, for me, worth the cost of a ticket on its own. Cellist Oliver Coates performed Xenakis’ solo work, Kottos. A highly demanding technical challenge, using many contemporary sounds and rhythmic complexity, Coates was always in control and full of charisma. This was a highly communicative performance, full of rich sonorities and musical integrity. Coates is a master of his instrument, who had me transfixed for the duration of the performance. This was virtuosity in the extreme – and he made it seem easy. He is, without a doubt, someone who has a dazzling career ahead of him."
Posted by Perkins at 10:34 AM | Comments (0)
January 15, 2008
Why people use libraries
Here is a report of a study in the US into why and how people use public libraries. We need to do the same kind of analysis over here in order to understand how to improve the service and how to measure whether we are giving people what they need.
Comments welcome
Posted by Perkins at 12:36 PM | Comments (1)
January 12, 2008
Perkins goes to America
Don't be surprised. Cats first came to England in 43 AD. We brought with us a whole load of Italians with Pizza and Balsamic Vinegar. This is just a visit.
Posted by Perkins at 6:30 PM | Comments (0)
January 6, 2008
Offensive contempt for Parliament
Yet again this blog points out that all the many constructive points that have been made in the past few weeks by commentators on public libraries ( and reported here), were made and anticipated by Gerald Kaufman's Select Committee report of March 2005.
Yet the Ministers responsible, civil servants of the DCMS, the officials of the MLA, the senior local government officers and the representatives of the profession all disregarded that report and failed to treat it with other than offensive contempt.
Such behaviour is not and should not be acceptable. Those people should be brought to book for this act.
John Whittingdale is the new chairman of the committee- and before he embarks on another four yearly hearing on the public library service, it is to be hoped that this matter is brought to his attention so he can deal with it and the individuals concerned in the serious way their actions merit. We do not want a repeat.
Posted by Perkins at 2:10 PM | Comments (0)
January 5, 2008
Mark Lawson in the Guardian joins the struggle
In an article discussing the changing pressures on publishers of fiction Mark Lawson concludes with the following
"These vicious economic predictions have come into publishing because of a collapse in the market for fiction that prizes prose over plot. At the Christmas parties, many publishers were talking guiltily about new books by authors you might have heard of - winner of a Whitbread 20 years ago, writer of that book that became that film - that they have been forced to turn down because marketing was alarmed. This has happened largely because of a shift in the priorities of libraries, which used to be a guaranteed haven for several thousand copies of hardbacks that take a bit of brain work, but which are now rapidly ceding shelf-space to Citizens Advice Bureau leaflets or DVDs. And pressure on leisure time has made both producers and consumers of entertainment reluctant to sample a product that does not have some advance buzz.
The frightening consequence of these cultural changes is that serious fiction is now almost entirely dependent on judging panels. It is an awesome responsibility with which, literary history suggests, they may struggle"
If only Yinnon Ezra could understand that. Mark Lawson is not really talking about publishers, he is talking about the diverse non populist needs of readers. Meeting these demands is what books do and have done (for both fiction and non-fiction) for a long time in a way that no other creative form yet does. It is about 'social inclusion'- to use the phrase that is bandied.
Posted by Perkins at 2:21 PM | Comments (0)
January 4, 2008
Letters in the Independent
Libraries pandering to the fashionable cult of ignorance
Sir: As a past president of what used to be known as the Library Association, I congratulate Hermione Eyre on her perceptive piece on the perils facing our public libraries (1 December). Research for a recent book has led me to believe that many, but not all, responsible for the service no longer have confidence in its core values and are confused about how to defend them.
It is suggested that if you provide demanding material and activities, people will not come through the doors. This is part of a wider, and what many might regard as a patronising, argument that few people are interested in the world around them or appreciate high art or aesthetic values, and that the poor and disadvantaged in particular crave escapism of the easiest kind, or material that provides an instrumental outcome.
I find it amazing and depressing that it is regarded as elitist for public libraries to redistribute the wealth of information and ideas. Providing access to knowledge is one of the greatest contributions that libraries can make to social inclusion. It is one that benefits individuals and society at large. Ignorance excludes people from much that is important and valuable.
We are beginning to pay the price for the fashionable celebration of ignorance, and the modish dismissal of education. Ignorance and intolerance go hand in hand and the library service should set its face against both. Importing a vacuous culture and tabloid values into public libraries is to betray their past and an abuse of public funds. It may be too late for some, but encouraged by Ms Eyre and others who care we need the professional and political leaders of the library world to understand the perils of populism, recognise that ignorance is not our heritage and formulate a suitable vision for the future.
Professor Bob Usherwood
Sheffield
Sir: In May 1962 Kenneth Halliwell and John (Joe) Orton were sentenced to six months’ jail for stealing and defacing Islington library books. Now Hermione Eyre has revealed (1 December) that Waltham Forest have deliberately de-stocked their library and sent a whopping 239,344 of their books to the council incinerator. One wonders how many months they’ll receive for this crime? None. Rather an MBE and index-linked pension no doubt.
Tom Orchard
Manchester
Posted by Perkins at 4:57 PM | Comments (0)
January 2, 2008
The Bookseller sums it up
The Bookseller sums up the story in the national papers
The news is only that this time the Government and the MLA cannot deny the obvious and lie about it as they have in previous years. A cat could run a better public library service.
The editor is more polite. He concludes his leading article for the New Year by simply suggesting a plan: "Perhaps the MLA, or whoever is in charge of libraries, also needs a gentle prod with an admonishing finger: libraries should be places full of books, not just government community outreach centres."
Posted by Perkins at 11:14 AM | Comments (0)
January 1, 2008
Daily Telegraph on closing libraries
Here is the same story again in the Daily Telegraph.
Somebody will soon ask the obvious question which is- "if the Ministers, the DCMS and the MLA are 'powerless to do anything about the lousy public library service' as they say, why do we keep paying them?"
Unlike those ministries which are 'not fit for purpose' - the DCMS is a ministry without a purpose.
Posted by Perkins at 7:02 PM | Comments (0)
Closing the libraries
Here is an article in today's Daily Mail--
Schools Secretary appeals for more reading (as 71 libraries close in one year)By LAURA CLARK
The latest literacy drive by ministers was ridiculed last night after it emerged public libraries are disappearing at the rate of almost one a week.
As Schools Secretary Ed Balls told parents to make reading with their children a New Year's resolution, official figures revealed a loss of 40 libraries in just a year.
Campaigners also complained about reductions in opening hours, staff cuts and book shortages.
Libraries minister Margaret Hodge was forced to admit in a Commons written answer that while 31 libraries had opened in 2006/07, 71 had closed, giving a net loss of 40 libraries.
Protestors are blaming Government pressure on local councils to make budget cuts.
There are also concerns that cash is being spent on DVDs, internet access and coffee shops at the expense of books, diverting the library service from its core function.
Cutbacks include proposals in Dudley, West Midlands, to shut five libraries.
Mrs Hodge stepped in to ensure the needs of the local communities were being met but failed to block the plans.
In Kent, 77 library staff have received letters warning they are at risk of redundancy while campaigners recently gathered in Southampton to protest against plans to cut opening hours at five libraries by an average of nine and a half hours a week.
Meanwhile libraries' total lending stock is declining. Between 2001 and 2005, the number of books available for loan dropped from 67,8278,912 to 62,614,052.
Officials at the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals said library staff numbers had dropped three per cent over the past decade.
Guy Daines, director of policy, added: "There's been an under-investment generally in public libraries. Not enough is spent on all types of resources including books.
"Not enough is spent on the buildings. There's a great deal to do in bringing the library estate up to standard."
Andrew Coborn, secretary of the Library Campaign, said: "Forty closures is not good and there have been more proposed since then."
The trend for libraries to close is understood to have begun prior to 2006. The loss of 40 in a year follows a previously-established pattern.
It emerged as Mr Balls declared that he wanted 2008 to be "the year of the book" and urged parents to make reading stories to their children as much a part of everyday routines as brushing teeth and having a bath.
The initiative is a desperate bid to reverse England's poor showing in international league tables of reading standards.
In just five years, our primary schools dropped from third to 19th in a table of 10-year-olds' reading skills and children spend less time reading for pleasure than previously.
Meanwhile an independent inquiry into primary education found that reading standards have barely improved since the 1950s.
Launching the reading initiative, Mr Balls said: "This year I'd like to encourage people to add a slightly different resolution to the list - one that will hopefully have a long-term impact on their lives and that of their children.
"If you can find five or 10 minutes to read with your child every night before bedtime it can make all the difference."
But critics said the campaign was blatantly undermined by library closures.
Shadow Schools Secretary Michael Gove said: "It is beyond ironic that when Ed Balls is calling for more children to read his government has presided over the closure of the libraries which disadvantaged families rely on for books.
"That's the problem with this Government - bluster, rhetoric and big claims but on the ground a failure to deliver."
In 2006, it emerged libraries were allocated £80million in National Lottery funding but could not spend any on books.
Instead, the money had to be pay for library buildings to be adapted to include services such as creches, mother and toddler groups, tai chi classes and adult education courses.
In her written answer, Mrs Hodge said: "Library reorganisations can result in better and wider access - for example to take account of where population shifts from one area to another, or where two small, part-time libraries are closed and strategically replaced with a larger new library open for longer hours."
A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said: "Decisions about the public library service are best taken by local authorities who are accountable to the users of the service."
Posted by Perkins at 11:45 AM | Comments (0)