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September 26, 2008
The Times
The Times has always regarded its letters page as one of the most important contributions to its quality. One might be justified in believing that the Letters Editor of The Times has been extremely unimpressed with those correspondents from the SCL and the MLA, in the past week, who have written to defend the 'diversification' of public libraries. To prove such a point of view tomorrow he publishes another letter, this time from a reader who lives in the area of and uses the notorious county library service in Hampshire.
Among the many flaws in the argument made by Roy Clare in his letter published this morning is the assumption that local authorities that operate public libraries in their area know how to listen to and understand the needs of their local residents. The letter from Havant this morning proves how wrong he is. (and how daft those who operate Hampshire County Library service have become)
Posted by Perkins at September 26, 2008 9:23 PM
Comments
Similar things are afoot in the Warwickshire Library and Information Service. A raft of unpopular charges have recently been introduced including charging children a £1 a throw for story times! Amazing! Whatever happened to social inclusion and encouraging the young to visit our libraries. After all, they are our future customers.
This is just the proverbial tip of the iceberg. The Transformation Panel, an anonymous, autonomous committee of faceless management have deemed that we’re not offering the people of Warwickshire the right kind of library service. Indeed, it seems that we “need to change to meet the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century”. How the Transformation Panel would know this is fairly perplexing as many of them haven’t set foot in a library since the late 80’s.
Unfortunately, it seems that to meet these “challenges and opportunities” there must be a cull of staffing. There are strong rumours of mass redundancy and staff having to apply for their own jobs, which is not a nice feeling for those that are potentially affected. Unsurprisingly during the last phase of transformation senior managers were conveniently “slotted in” to their roles, something which is certainly not going to happen to the rest of us.
Apparently “internal restructuring is necessary, as a first step, if we are to maximise opportunities and provide the services more people want, where and how they want them”. I’ve been a little daft then; obviously the people of Warwickshire want a dumbed-down, stripped-to-the-bone service that is top heavy with management.
That’s lucky as that’s what they’re going to get.
Posted by: A Librarian at September 27, 2008 7:24 PM