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October 20, 2008
DCMS review of public libraries
Confirmation has been received that, for the DCMS review of public libraries
- There will be no one responsible for running the public library service on the review board; there are no councillors nor directors of council departments, nor heads of cultural services; there are no ministers and no elected people at all. There is no one who is speaks for library users, nor even for the staff who operate libraries, nor librarians. There is no reader or author or publisher. There is, for example, no senior figure with experience of delivering multi- site service to the public either commercial or from government. There is no one who simply speaks for the public. The members of the steering group are all people who earn their living by staying in favour with the Minister
- There is no consultation with the public prior to writing the review and no attempt to obtain their views.
Does all this matter? Yes it matters a huge amount. This is a £1.2bn public operation of which the core service has declined dramatically in usefulness in the past 10 years. Book lending to adults is down by 45% in that time. There is a large coherent public voice crying out that the fundamental books, reading and study that should be being offered are not being- and that voice will not be heard in this review.
The people who will be heard and who are on the so-called 'board' of the review are
Claudia Kenyatta (Deputy Director, Culture, DCMS) (Chair),
Roy Clare (chief executive of the MLA),
Mike Thorne (Chair of the Minister's advisory council on libraries and vice chancellor of the 'University of Eastern England')
Jill Finney (Strategic Marketing Director Briotish Library),
Paul Raynes (Local Government Association manager),
Frances MacLeod (DCMS) and
Craig Westwood (DCMS)
In my edition of the story by Hans Christian Anderson the advisers to the Emperor all told him that his new clothes were the finest in the world. It took a small black cat to tell him he was a fool with nothing on. No one else dared. But when the cat did point out the daftness of the matter, everyone laughed and the Emperor got cross.
Posted by Perkins at October 20, 2008 8:31 PM