The Good Library Blog

I, too, have read through the report - so far as something written in such strange language can be read.

And the phrase that came to mind was Roy Campbell's "where's the bloody horse?"

He wasn't looking for the Westerns shelf, but making a plea for essentials.

In a library that could include the Westerns section. Or Crime, or Biography, History, Biology...

I continue to be amazed that offcialdom does not realise it is all so easy. Provide plenty of books and good opening hours, and, bit by bit, libraries will win back the many readers who, despairing of finding what they want, have given up on libraries as a prime resource.

One can't help feeling that for 20 years or more the library service and those who manage it have been solving the wrong problem-- they have presumed that interest in reading books has been declining and that therefore libraries need to do other things.

It's just not true-- but by acting in this way and seeking to divert their focus from ordinary publications they have ruined the reputation of public libraries for carrying a comprehensive range of books to read.

Christopher is completely right.

And even if there had been a problem of declining interest in reading, the job that public libraries should have undertaken was to increase their focus on written work, not to decrease it.

It has been a collective lunacy.

If Patrick Conway, in his wise old age, had said what Karen Cunnigham has had the courage to say-- 'We made a mistake and we must restore the old balance to books" - then he would have written a report that had some use and merit and would have been worthy of the attention of the minister which he so craves.

Conway's report is horse manure. Another pseudo-professional piece of pants which proves only that CILIP has gone completely up its own rear end and might as well stay there. I spent years skip-reading an LA Record sagging at the endpieces with turgid rubbish like this while being talked down to by ICT-obsessed robot ant people and I've had it. I first learnt librarianship by physically putting together a rare books library, I've always feared that all the craft and knowledge I gathered would be wasted, and it's happening. Two years ago I was cleaning toilets, no doubt while Mr Conway was preparing drafts for this report, the best place for which is in the toilet.

In fact, I now think CILIP has all the wisdom and sagacity displayed by the Judean Popular Front in Monty Python's Life of Brian, and is about as much use!

Syrup and SCL join forces

Well what do we make of this latest library report, by Conway ex Durham libraries?

As a colleague of an American friend of mine said when he saw it (this is an American public librarian), ‘how many reports on public libraries does it take in the UK?’ One might well ask!

And what about this one? Well when assessing a report and its usefulness, validity etc, one is interested in who did it, why it was done and how it was done, will it have any effect and is it useful, believable and robust.

Well the stable this horse ran from was Syrup, and what was their intention? Well I guess it has back fired as the report is pretty damning on what authorities think about library staff and the usefulness of the professional standards.

Syrup is also struggling with an ever increasing drop in its membership, and a justification for its existence is difficult. The report goes so far as to suggest we look at other sectors for guidance on how we restructure the professional training we expect of 21st Century library staff. Email lists and discussion groups have had many comments from qualified librarians about uselessness of their chartership and Syrup itself and many staff have been saying this for a long long time. Those libraries who have appointed staff with skills in retail, front of house management, customer care and service, marketing and promotion have been scorned, even though these actions seem to have been successful in many authorities.

Scorn from various quarters has also been thrown on names of services, such as Ideas Stores and Discovery Centres. Well to a point I agree ‘what’s in a name?" A lot of the argument seems to be that in the wider world to attract new customers or revitalise a service or product new names are often a device used.

Hampshire seems to have hit home with its Discovery Centres, despised by so many, but attracting NEW audiences, and those hard to reach audiences, at a time when figures of loans etc continue to decline in our traditional library. Likewise Ideas Stores have increased use of the library and have some very able and dynamic non professional librarians in key posts. Now I know Perkins will be distressed over this and stop purring, but Discovery Centres and idea Stores may be a way of attracting people to reading, we have to try something and it is good that some authorities are prepared to try and tolerate the bashing they get.

Who were the horses and riders? - well predominantly that silent self satisfied group going under the collective name of the Society of Chief Librarians. A very closed sort of shop, for many years dominated by men, with no outreach or communication to the sector at large. At a gathering not so many years ago, a group of middle library managers knew nothing about them. What a pretentious name as well, Society of.....

And who did they consult, The Work Foundation? The Local Government Association. The Rowntree Foundation, no a social type of think tank, Demos, very good in its field, but is its field the right one?. Its main and very major contribution to the field of librarianship was the report by Leadbeater some 6 or so years ago, ‘Overdue’ which tells you all you need to know and more about the problems faced by public libraries was, of course, ignored by SCL and Syrup and is not metioned in this report.

And what did they test? Well they chose their top ten (and I am amazed no one else told them to stuff it apart from Hillingdon and to an extent Gloucester), those areas where management had the courage to consider alternatives to branch libraries and to try to do something about underperforming staff. Evidentllt these were the library services where the disaffected staff themselves, and some so called ‘friends of the library’ had allegedly complained to Syrup. So- not the top 10 worst libraries in the UK, but those with the managers who were doing that, managing.

I suppose the geographical mix made some nice away days for the author, but the scores these authorities had gained and the plans the majority had in place made the conclusions rather pathetic as they seemed to already have it sussed in those authorities, it was Syrup who did so badly.

What surprised me that at a time when the green agenda, recycling, price of fuel etc is uppermost in societies mind, no mention has been made of the green agenda the public library offers to an authority and the country., books on loan are recyclable (nothing from libraries in the press about the Faber scheme to do on demand printing for 50 requests for out of print books)., public libraries are full of out of print books (not marketed or promoted of course), and what about inter library loans and the ability to further recycling. Also of course local libraries save fuel by being on the doorstep. This is a band wagon all senior library staff, including the author and steering group of this report and Syrup, have failed (again) to start or join.

I n this report we have 10 libraries targeted by some retired and elderly male chief librarians, criticising both 10 libraries who are not performing that badly,; one chief who is a psychologist (I would have thought this is a particularly good profession and knowledge to have if you are managing a load of librarians); and several of the others in which the chiefs or Departmental heads are not librarians. Management which comes not from a profession has not stopped non medical staff playing a role in the running the NHS

What do you need to run a good organisation, any organisation? Good leadership, good premises, good staff and adequate funds that are properly spent. So where have SCL been all these years. Well I suppose reading the plethora of reports that have been churned out (and many of them from 25 plus years ago have been quoted in the report), and none of them acted upon by the so called leaders of the field the SCL. What reports have SCL commissioned or written themselves? How long does this sector continue to read and ignore reports. It is clear from the response of the DCMS they are not interested, so what may we ask is the point?

There was, a couple of years ago, a report on the age group we need to get to use libraries, if they are to survive. The Define report, this did, as Perkins wishes, talk to users. It was an excellent report full of good research, good information and sensible recommendations, what have SCL, Syrup and MLA done with this? Nothing!!

And to mention MLA, what is it now for or up to? It is amazing how much money it must have spent in the past few years with its total of more than 100 staff around the country, the current redundancy bill that must be huge and its present statement on what it is now for and how it is going to do it which is totally incomprehensible. I (in fact we all) should despair.

The other sad thing about the Conway stuff is he admits he didn’t have time to talk to users, for God’s sake why not? What were the time constraints? We haven’t made progress for donkey’s years so why not take the major component of the future success of public libraries into account, i.e. the current users, and the potential users. Why not ask the new users of Discovery Centres why they are now attracted to them and will they continue to use them. Why did the report author not take account of current reports (some noted in this response to Perkins), why was the report written? Will Syrup or Conway revisit these libraries that have been targeted? In fact the report may back fire and these 10 become Jimmy Savills’s Top Ten and achieve their own notoriety,

I do remember, within the last 10 years, at a seminar Patrick Conway totally writing off the need for the internet and that it had no use in Durham , he had a very good reference service. Is this someone who can contribute to the debate on the future of a modern public library service?

What can/should be done. Well one is tempted to say give up. If this is the best we can do to galvanise the future I despair. BUT I know there are bright young librarians out there, let’s give them space, time, opportunity, advancement, get them at the table of the Society of Chief Librarians, let’s make that SCL the 21st Century Librarians Group and get these younger vibrant and switched on librarians a space to do their thing and move us forward. MLA, Syrup, you could do something worthwhile there!

Let’s watch this space and see even more dust gather as nothing is done! Let’s give Perkins something to purr about!

BB

I enjoyed reading BB's comments, but just one point I'd like to take up: about Discovery Centres. The Discovery Centre in Gosport, Hampshire, may well be pulling 'new' audiences through the doors, and bringing people in who would not have otherwise thought of visiting a library, but the test of whether the concept works is what these people are doing once they're inside. If they are not reading, or borrowing material to read, what is the point of them being there? A library is about literacy - it's not designed to be a community centre to hang out with your mates. And by the same token, the lack of books and the perceived threat-level (real or imaginary) from young yobs has driven away a large slice of the book-reading public who used to be loyal library users. That's not social inclusion: it's just swapping one set of customers for a different set.