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November 7, 2008
The Ministers, Andy Burnham and Barbara Follett, are not listening
The themes of most library campaign groups are
- Don't close libraries
- Put more books in them to make them useful
- Opening hours should be longer
- Modernise the buildings and the equipment
- Experienced professional staff are needed at the front line
- These are the elements that require proper funding.
So a 'review' of libraries for these people would address these issues. Book issues and visits have declined quite dramatically over a decade so the need is serious and fairly urgent.
On the other hand the view expressed in the world of senior librarians is "Satisfaction levels are high. Libraries always score very well in council surveys of the public. There is no problem with the service we give. If anything preoccupation with books has meant that libraries appear dull to a generation interested in other media. Libraries", they say, "have many issues of facing the future with proper funding; we are not properly appreciated by Government and many councils, but our existing customers are happy".
But the headings to be addressed in the recently announced Ministerial Review of Libraries are
- "Digital Services and Information literacy"
- "A skilled and responsive library workforce"
- "Capturing (a measure of) Impact"
- "A community- led service"
- "Funding Innovation"
These are three views which are miles apart in their statement of the questions facing public libraries, they seem actually to be avoiding contact with each other and one cannot be sure that if one were to ask a councillor who is responsible for running the service whether his or her list would not be quite different again. Reducing cost and improving value for money would probably be the first two items. Front line staff in libraries will certainly have a different (but important) list again (there is too much management that doesn't listen to us, might well be what they would say).
There is much call for leadership. The first job of such a leader would be to express the problems that need to be solved in a way that everyone recognises and understands. We most certainly don't have that at present. Burnham's list is not a list that the public would understand at all. One wonders from where it originates?
And where the proposed solution of allowing people to talk in libraries comes from, in all this, goodness knows. Out on the streets the accusation is that the Burnham review is not listening to anyone except a very closed circle and neither are Andy Burnham and Barbara Follett. Even more worrying is the attempt it appears to be making to review public libraries without an analysis of the needs of the public at large. Consultation after the event, is not the same thing at all.
Posted by Perkins at November 7, 2008 8:33 AM
Comments
There has been an enthusiastic reaction by readers to news that the can make comments upon the shape of the draft Library Plan for Brighton and Hove which has been deferred for two months after a muddle over the consultation date.
Readers did not know of this Plan until their attention was drawn to it. This makes one wonder how libraries will acquire "marketing" skills if the Plan itself is not publicised. Of course, ample stocks of books and longer opening hours create the word of mouth which no amount of "marketing" can rival.
Posted by: Christopher Hawtree at November 8, 2008 3:30 PM