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March 16, 2008
Efficiency
When Mrs Hodge spoke to chief librarians about innovative methods in public libraries, she said that the money for them should come from improved efficiency between councils.
Chief librarians tend to believe that 'efficiency' means staff cuts and is something that is imposed upon them by their council. So when Mrs Hodge said what she did, she was not suggesting that the Chief Librarians should do something to seek efficiency-- what she meant was that 'someone else, some other undefined officer, in the council' should seek cuts of some kind. For a chief librarian that means 'take cover'
So efficiency is not a management action, it is a well practiced game of hide and seek. The council wins a few skirmishes, but by and large most of the library service will survive. The book fund may suffer, a few libraries may close, opening hours may be cut, some library assistants will lose their jobs, but mostly, the 'professional' jobs will stay. Whenever the losses are tangeable, the cry will go up ' Save librarians' -- public libraries are in jeapardy because the profession is not respected.
The truth is, however, that efficiency means the exact opposite-- it means improving the front line and the core service while reducing the cost. And in order for that to happen, chief librarians have to participate actively and professionally in the pursuit of it. They must-- it is part of their professional role, the most important part.
While chief librarians believe that the active seeking of improved efficiency is something that somebody else does, the only outcome will be reduced efficiency.. Reduced efficiency will lead to poorer quality public libraries. Poorer quality libraries will lead to lack of use. Lack of use will lead to closure of the public library service. Closure of the public library service will lead to the end of a need for professional public librarians.
Is there one chief librarian in London who hear Mrs Hodge's speech and came away thinking 'she meant that I should do something about this' ? No, of course not. They all thought 'She didn't offer any money-- this is all someone else's problem'
About 30-40% of the money that funds public libraries is spent inefficiently-- it is a waste. The only people who can really tackle that without damaging the service are chief librarians. We all wish they would.
Posted by Perkins at March 16, 2008 1:02 PM
Comments
Last year there was NO cry of 'Save librarians' when Southwark Libraries made 21 librarians redundant. Has the service improved? Not that I've noticed.
Posted by: James at March 17, 2008 9:23 AM
Well whose job is it to improve the service? Why didn't they? It's not because of shortage of money, Southwark library service has masses of funding. I saw the chief librarian supporting the closure of Newington Reference library.
Posted by: perkins at March 17, 2008 10:12 AM