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March 26, 2009
Strange relationships
One of the reasons why the public library service falters and is failing is the strange nature of the working relationship between 'officers' and 'councillors' in local government.
Far from being united in the common cause of providing an efficient, high standard public service, each of the parties in this arrangement has an agenda of its own, more concerned with their survival and the advancement of the body to which they belong. The pursuit of success of the local Conservative Party and the growth and expansion of a council Communities and Leisure Department are two big wheels that sometimes cross the same path but only rarely point in the same direction. Careful intelligent thought about the real concerns facing public libraries is rarely on the menu.
Add to this the professional duck and dive of the library managers, one or two levels removed, whose concern is to attend lots of conferences, hold on for the pension, and perhaps get an MBE - and the recipe is one for high appeasement and high salaries, and little public interest or interest in the public, who are best kept out of the whole affair.
Officers know that councillors will change at any moment, and therefore only have partially to be listened to, and councillors know that however they try to direct the activities of their highly paid officers, they are normally unable or unwilling themselves to take on the management responsibilities that are required. Sometimes there is Victorian master- servant formality; sometimes there is Marxist Leninist woolly jumperism,.The relationships are fascinating because they differ from council to council and person to person, but they are more the stuff of a Don Camillo story, than of the pursuit of health and efficiency
This year brings more council elections and a new wave of councillors walking cheerily into the blind school in which this whole concoction simmers lightly and smells greatly
A quite normal conversation goes along the lines 'The Director and his officers have written a dreadful ill considered report, which addresses none of the issues'
'Yes, but it is on time and ticks the government boxes. and we need them. They are nice people. Don't make a fuss' Which contrasts mightily with the instant huge abuse which is readily thrown at opposition politicians (who are far more innocent), or even worse, the disdain and disgust which will be piled on honest young local newspaper staff- or the derision which is applied to an earnest and relentless local campaigner, the latter two of whom are always better informed, more honest and more democratic, than officers and councillors will ever be
Not 'Yes Minister', but 'Yes, Councillor'
Good stories ought to make good libraries, but not in this case!
Is there a book in this? Blog readers are given early notice that I am about to hand my book on Aldeburgh to its wonderful publishers. -- hope for publication in September
Posted by Perkins at March 26, 2009 9:17 AM