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March 21, 2008
A Bankrupt Public Library Service
In a discussion this afternoon a local councillor cabinet member with portfolio responsibility for public libraries, for which she is paid, told me she was afraid to tackle the fundamental issues of her library service in case that provoked a strike.
This is not an uncommon view of councillors.
On the other hand the officers in charge of public library services tell me they are afraid to face the issues of public libraries because they anticipate that their councillors will not wish to handle the questions that will arise, especially if the public get to hear about them.
So the two groups of people who could solve the problems of the public library service don't want to because they are afraid of and unable to manage the staff issues that are involved.
In the case of improving libraries the main problems to tackle to run a better library service within the same budget are
1. to spend more money on books and prroperty maintenance
2. to spend less money on staff
3. to redeploy remaining staff time so that library opening hours are longer
In other words the matters that officer and councillors are terrified to face are about staff. The library service treats employment of people, even if they are not employed in the way good service requires, as a higher priority than providing the best service for the public.
That is a totally normal problem that any management operation faces-- the difference is that a non public funded body that failed to address it would just go bankrupt. The decline in public interest would lead fall in income, so that costs of employing people would exceed funds available to pay. Without public or any other subsidy, the operation would close. The public library service is a state subsidised totally bankrupt enterprise and a huge drain on the public purse; whenever it needs more money, it just takes it from taxpayers. And none of the people employed to face that and solve its problems has the courage to do so. It is just easier to keep taking the public's money
Does anyone seriously think we will have a public library service in 15 years time? Has no one in public service got the guts to do the job we elected and we pay them to do. Or is public service just about collecting large salaries, pensions, expenses and, no doubt, brown envelopes.
Shame on you all.
Posted by Perkins at March 21, 2008 8:19 PM
Comments
"Or is public service just about collecting large salaries, pensions, expenses and, no doubt, brown envelopes."
I strongly resent you comments. I worked in local governemnt for 25 years, my pension is tiny, I have never recieved expenses or 'brown envelopes' and my salary has never kept pace with salaries in the private sector.
To cast aspersions on all public servants is extremely unfair, do you have evidence to back up your comment?
Posted by: James at March 24, 2008 8:29 AM
Maybe you left too soon, James. You only have to look at the average cost of employing library staff shown in the CIPFA data to see the incredibly high expense involved-- and then at the advertisements for management salaries. The evidence is everywhere.
But the cost wasn't the main point I was making. The councillor to whom I was talking employs thirty people in her library service that are just not needed. The service would be just as good, if not better, if they weren't there. If you want evidence of the likely truth of that, just look at Hillingdon, where the staff kept saying that the service was so good, it could not be improved- and we have raised performance by 60% at no extra cost.
My central complaint is against the salary being paid to this councillor and her senior officers who take their money but refuse to do the job for which they are being paid.
Indeed it is time to stop whingeing and actually look at the evidence which is everywhere around you.
It is not unfair to cast aspersions at most of the public servants whom I have seen in operation while I have worked on public libraries. Their conduct is disgraceful, mostly, and privately most of them know it to be true.
Posted by: perkins at March 24, 2008 10:42 AM
Again you make accusations without evidence "Their conduct is disgaceful..." In what way?
Experience tells me that in order to improve a service you need to get the staff on side. By insulting all who work in libraries you come across as the enemy....no one wants to take advice from an enemy.
Posted by: James at March 25, 2008 7:50 AM
James
You have the arrogance of your colleagues. It is not my job to improve the service- it is the job of those who manage it. I have no interest or duty of care to people who work in public libraries-- it is they who should understand that they work for the public, not for themselves.
You only have to look at the decline in book collections and the use of them over 20 years to see the evidence of disgracefully poor management. That you can't see that and admit it places you with your associates, in blind denial of the obvious. Time and again, not just by me but by The Audit commission, by the Select Committee of the Houses of Parliament, in Parliament itself, even grudgingly by Ministers and their colleagues, the evidence of decline of the public libraries in this country has been spelled out. Yet you - and chief librarians everywhere, cannot realise and admit that it was your responsibility for letting this happen.. You cannot see that the public has paid more and more money for a poorer and poorer service. You cannot see where the management levers lie.
If you look at the entry for Philip Pettifor on the left hand side you will find all the reports and the evidence. If you read the reports about Hillingdon, you will see how easy it could have been to put things right. Yet you and your colleagues simply cannot see the dismal and shameful role you have played.
How often do you have to have it explained to you-- you are the problem. Stop defending and call for action. Why can't we repeat Hillingdon everywhere? Who cares that librarians hate the idea of being told what to do? It is a public service - not a service for librarians. Away with you.
Posted by: perkins at March 25, 2008 12:05 PM