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September 30, 2009
Campaigners save Wirral libraries
A long hard local and national campaign to save 11 libraries on The Wirral has achieved its goal. All eleven libraries have been saved in a U-turn decision by Wirral council.
That means of the fifteen libraries under threat in The Wirral and Swindon, we only lost one. That hurts, but it could have been worse.
Which council is next? Somerset, I think. They are hoping to close 3 in addition to the three they closed 2 years ago.
The full press release from Labour and the Lib Dems is below
LABOUR PARTY LEADERS OFFICE LIBERAL DEMOCRAT OFFICE
0151 691 8540 0151 691 8544
30th September 2009
Council Leader Steve Foulkes and Deputy Leader Simon Holbrook today announced that they will recommend that Wirral Council’s Cabinet (on 1st October) revokes their original decision to close 11 libraries and invest £20m in 13 new neighbourhood centres.
They have issued the following statement in support of the recommendation:
Speaking about the decision, Leader of the Council, Cllr Steve Foulkes, said:
“This is not a decision we have taken lightly.
We firmly believe that our initial decision to invest £20m in the modernisation of our library service and the creation of 13 Neighbourhood centres was the right decision for the future of Wirral.
The government itself is looking at a modernisation of library services and is carrying out a review of what these should look like in the future. There is a major debate now underway about the best way forward for libraries in a technological age, and a review of the current legislation governing libraries.
We do not want anything Wirral has done, or planned to do, to overshadow this debate, or create precedents which could cause real difficulties for other local authorities facing the same challenges as us. We have therefore decided to advise the Cabinet to revoke the decision to invest in 13 Neighbourhood Centres and to close 11 libraries.
This will give us the opportunity to work with the government and with our local government colleagues to meet the challenges of the future together.
We are also running out of time to find the £1m savings needed to balance this year’s budget as a consequence of not implementing any closures so far. This decision gives us the certainty necessary not just to balance this year’s budget, but to set the budget for future years as well in the best interests of Wirral’s Council Tax payers. It will also allow us to reassure staff who have been left in limbo for a long time waiting to hear how they would be affected by any re-organisation.
This does not mean that the challenge facing not only the library service but all our services in the current economic climate has gone away. It does mean that we can take the time to work constructively with the government and other local authorities, through the Local Government Association, to find the best possible way forward.”
Deputy Leader of the Council, Cllr Simon Holbrook said:
“We always knew that taking the difficult decision to close libraries would be unpopular with some residents. However, we still firmly believe that change is needed to ensure the long term future of library services in Wirral and bring our facilities into the 21st Century.
“It is clear that the library service in Wirral must change and we recognise the need to develop a broad consensus to deliver change. Wirral Council faces significant challenges – as do all local authorities across the country, not just for libraries but across the full range of services. We already know that between 2011 and 2014 this Council will have to find between £50m and £80m from its annual budget as a result of measures already announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Budget this year.
“This does not take into account the current national political debate taking place within all three major political parties about potential further restraint in public sector spending. There is no doubt that there are hard times ahead and that the situation is not likely to improve. There will be significant impacts on local services and very difficult decisions to be taken to continue to balance the council’s budget.
“In light of these challenges it is increasingly important that we work together with Wirrall residents, our partners and stakeholders to ensure that we deliver the best possible library service for the people of Wirral, without placing undue pressure on other front line services.
“In moving towards that goal, we will work to establish a new consensus which ensures sustainability for the library service. We will welcome constructive suggestions for addressing the significant challenges that lie ahead for us all.
“To this end, we are asking Government to work with us to support our delivery of a library service that will effectively meet the future needs of Wirral residents.”
ENDS.
Posted by Perkins at 7:48 PM | Comments (0)
September 29, 2009
Patsy Cornwallis West
Mr. Coates, I admire the work you are doing on behalf of libraries; it is truly an admirable cause. I am currently reading your book "Patsy: The Story of Mary Cornwallis West". What a fascinating life she led.
I was especially drawn to your book due to the fact that I acquired 2 cabinet cards of Patsy about 10 years ago, including one with Patsy and one of her daughters as a small child. I am probably writing to you on the wrong forum but I could not find another way to contact you. I found it interesting that I was drawn to her photo long before I knew anything at all about her. I wanted to thank you for your research and for the wonderful book and for sharing her story. If you ever want to see the photos, let me know! Thank you and keep up the hard work to save our libraries and the written word.
Thank you, Melissa. I am really grateful.. Tim
I am wondering which daughter: Patsy had two daughters and a son. One became the famous and beautiful Daisy, Princess of Pless and the other became The Duchess of Wesminster. Patsy's son George married Winston Churchill's mother, after the death of Lord Randolph Churchill. The whole family were amazing and not a little wicked. TC
Posted by Perkins at 9:22 AM | Comments (0)
September 28, 2009
DCMS sinks to a new Low !
Like a fly on the inside of the window, nothing is more calculated to spoil a good cat's sleep than a press release from the DCMS, or the chums at the MLA, or even the interplanetary SCL on a Sunday afternoon.
Can you believe that Lady Hodge (formerly Mrs Mansion Polish) has announced the invention of a new system to send library books in the post in competition to Amazon ? Most councils already offer such a service and many have volunteers who do the job even more helpfully and cheaply than the postman. But evidently the highly paid Lord Snootys in the Department of Common Sense, forgot to tell Mrs Mansion Polish this. Nor, I suppose did they tell her about the billions of pounds and the number of years it took to make Amazon work properly- or of the number of large commercial operations that have sunk without trace trying to compete with it. I don't suppose they know about those things, nor care, so long as they have endless access to the public purse. Her pronouncements smack painfully of policy devised at a dinner party in Islington and make us wonder whatever happened to the Labour party of the people.
Perkins happens to know that the MLA (Bless!) have spent more than a year and many hundreds of pound notes trying to work out whether this service was needed and how it could work. One has to hope that their failure to report answers to these questions meant that they might stem the tide of wasted money... but no! It goes on regardless of recessions or poverty of the poor taxpayer.
Into the soup then steps Tony Durcan who tells us, in a thousand press releases, that the SCL (The Society for Closing Libraries) has asked libraries to allow people to come into their buildings even if they don't live in the area. He tells us on The Today programme, evading questions about why the library profession don't campaign to save libraries, that this is not a new idea, it has always been the case that libraries are free to all and that if you go on holiday, the local library will be pleased to look after you and lend you some books, as long as you bring them back. It is not news at all. So what were his press releases for? (and who paid for them?)
However Mike Rosen, who is an old friend of Perkins, was much more interesting and reminded the nation that libraries are where children (and adults) can get books for nothing. He's good-- and would make a decent Chair of the MLA, in our view, from the sofa.
It's conference week this week, so we have to expect more of the same, I'm afraid.
Posted by Perkins at 3:34 PM | Comments (1)
September 26, 2009
The Department of Culture, Media and Support
From Swindon
"In South Swindon we have in our Labour MP, Anne Snelgrove, someone who is interested, approachable and hard working. I have recently written to thank her for all her efforts to support our threatened libraries. However, beyond her (in the echelons of DCMS et al), in spite of her endeavours, it appears that no-one seems to give a hoot. It does not make sense. Why does DCMS not listen to an elected representative? What is DCMS for exactly? Perkins, please explain."
Goodness only knows, Shirley. Perhaps they will explain themselves
Posted by Perkins at 7:49 PM | Comments (0)
London Libraries Change Programme
I am so appalled by the way this programme is being conducted, I offer, here, the method that should be being used.
There are two points from which to start. Firstly, we have to say what improvements and changes the public will find to be helpful. Secondly, there are only certain ways to make changes happen and we have to understand and use those.
Change in councils only happens if the Cabinet of the council wants it to. Therefore the first step in the change programme is to bring together councillors who have responsibility for the service and discuss with them the issues. The discussion should be about what the public wants to see change (and not what librarians think they ought to do.) If there is no consensus - then there has to be market research. From that group of councillors we should seek out some pathfinding councils who prepared to give priority to improvement and help them to do it. Councillors have got to learn that their officers, the chief librarians need direction and sometimes need to be told firmly what to do. Officers often say that things can't be done, or that they are too expensive, when this is not the case. Until councillors really grasp this, in public libraries, we will not make progress.
The project should not be about reports from consultants at all, or committees of librarians-- but should be about high level sensible, well informed discussion among those councillors whom the public pay to provide the service and actions to make those changes. That is what the Minister, or the Mayor, should have been encouraging and facilitating. It needed either one or both of them to get involved, instead of riding bicycles and sanctioning masses of money for what amount to tea parties.
For this programme to work, someone had to be in charge of it. At present there is no one.
Too many times this blog has called foul on a project or an initiative and all those involved have moaned miserably about Perkins behaviour, yet one year later that project has failed and disappeared: Better Stock Better Libraries; the LLDA; Love Libraries; The 24 hour library; Framework; Regional offices of the MLA; Blueprint-- to name but a few .. LLCP is heading exactly the same way as all these. In fact it may well already have arrived there. It is probably in the over- filled dustbin of Government stupidity already.
Prove me wrong. Communicate progress. If you can.
Posted by Perkins at 9:39 AM | Comments (0)
September 23, 2009
SYRUP sponge
Interesting to look at the SYRUP annual public libraries conference agenda-- more remarkable for what is not there
- no mention of the Lyn Brown All Party Group report, which was trailed last year
- no mention of the John Dolan/ Ayub Khan theory about what public libraries are about
- no publishers talking about the issues of copyright and ebooks and Google.
- no mention of the Wirral Inquiry
- no mention of the subject on everyone's agenda which is how to preserve your job, sorry, how to preserve the service to the public, if the libraries budget gets cut by 15%
- no mention of the London Libraries Change Programme- which could have been a model for the cooperative working between councils that one feels is so much needed
- And a minister, Mrs Mansion Polish, who poured scorn on the hard work in Hillingdon, without even knowing what it was, appears to be going to talk about the long lost DCMS libraries review (before the Charteris inquiry is published, having said they wouldn't do that).
(and still no one asking how have Hillingdon and now Tower Hamlets have managed to achieve such a substantial growth in book lending without spending any extra public money)
Ah well-- at least Roy Clare, who like Lord Raglan after the battle of Balaklava has not been seen or heard of for many months, is billed for an appearance. Perkins might just poddle along to listen. Or will the dogs be on the gate again like last year?
It's all right for those who will get a night or two in a hotel in Bristol at someone else's expense-- that is called spongeing... SYRUP spongeing.... in which you eat your pudding and avoid the issues.
It goes without saying that the PLA - the public libraries annual conference, is closed to the public. After all, what do they know.
Posted by Perkins at 9:35 PM | Comments (1)
September 22, 2009
Failure of Government
The story this morning is that the DCMS won't publish the Sue Charteris report on the Wirral 'because the ministers can't face that can of worms during the political conference season'
How pathetic. They don't care in the least that this means that Wirral council has been overspending its budget since April, and that taxpayers funds will have to be found to pay for the expenditure.
Events described endlessly on this blog over several years have shown that the DCMS is incapable of responsible management of the public library service. It is not satisfactory that such a department could be allowed to drift on from one Government to the next, whenever the election comes. There has to be a radical change in the approach of the administration: if the duties are to remain with the Department of Culture, someone needs to reorganise the role and the process. The Culture Select Committee needs to step up and do its job.
At the same time news is going around that Craig Westwood, long time incumbent of the libraries seat in the department, has left. His track record has been recorded here.
Posted by Perkins at 8:24 AM | Comments (1)
September 19, 2009
No one is in charge
This week I was able to talk to some of the consultants working on the London Libraries Change Programme and also to keep up a dialogue with some of the people on the Board, whom I know.
It is a terrible muddle. The consultants think they have been given the wrong brief, but declare that their work could not be bettered. The members of the board think that the consultants are not being adventurous and not being sufficiently radical in their approach.
I have already said what I think and all these conversations confirmed it. The project has no direction. It has no ambition. No one has thought how change will come about, or what it ought to be. The whole thing is a terrible mess.
No one is accountable, no one is in charge and the only thing that will certainly happen is that a large amount of money will be spent.
To be honest, the whole thing is a disgrace and I found myself describing the MLA to some senior Tories as a total menace when they work in the field of public libraries. They are supposed to be running this project.
I wish they would put up some kind of meaningful defence, but they seem to think it is ok to refuse to speak and to remain hidden. This is doubly odd because the first line of the Cultural Improvement programme for libraries calls for improved communication. Some hope!
Posted by Perkins at 3:07 PM | Comments (1)
September 10, 2009
10 more library reports in the next 2 months
Instead of managing the library service properly as we should we support and fund an expensive industry of people who write reports about it. In the next 2 months we can anticipate
1. The DCMS report on its review of the public library service which has been in progress since July 2008
2. The Sue Charteris report into whether The Wirral should shut 11 libraries.
3. The All Party Parliamentary Group report on the national operation of the public library service
4. A consultants' report on standardisation of the supply chain in London boroughs
5. A consultants' report on Library workforce benchmarking
6. A consultants' report on Inter Library Loans
7. A further report from the London Libraries Change Programme.
8. A report from SYRUP on what they think public libraries are for. (!)
9. A report from the MLA on why they are unable to comply with the Freedom of Information Act. (and probably a report by the Information commission on why the MLA should).
10. The Local Government Ombudsman's report into the activities of Swindon Council over the conduct of its libraries.
Don't we look forward to it all? - and at the same time poor local councils are said to be faced with the hardest budget round for years and would like a bit of help and a few answers about how to cope with that and hang on to their public libraries and improve their book stock. None of the above reports is likely to tell them those things.
Posted by Perkins at 7:49 AM | Comments (3)
September 9, 2009
From Pat McMahon
I am a librarian, County Librarian in Galway in Ireland. There is so much in the The Good Library Blog that resonates with me. Some of the best ideas about libraries these days are coming from outside our professional associations, and I include the Library Association of Ireland in that.
Having a "sparkling and enticing selection of titles in [our] window which proved irresistible" is one of the most important things a public library can do. As is "Mozart playing softly in the background and rows of...books in excellent condition."
Every library should have the "the promise of discovery."
But the kind of language used in the posts and comments here are rarely heard in library seminars or meetings.
Thanks,
Pat McMahon,
County Librarian,
Galway.
Posted by Perkins at 5:54 PM | Comments (0)
£300,000 and counting
Those of us with memories that go back three years remember clearly the MLA /Price Waterhouse Cooper affair which came to a disastrous end after £1m was spent on consultants writing reports about 'The public library supply chain' . The outcome of that work was that little sensible was said and nothing sensible was done. Many officers of the MLA lost their jobs - but no explanation was ever provided and it is beginning to seem that no lessons were learned.
Two of those lessons should have been A. We won't change the public library service by writing reports about it, and B. Don't do the same thing again.
The 'Capital Ambition' project for 'Cultural Improvement' in London includes a project called the 'London Libraries Change' Programme. I cannot put it better than the MLA put it on their own website.
Astute readers of this page will note the folllowing:
1. This programme started in 2008 and is therefore approaching its second anniversary
2. It identified 'communication' as a 'practical priority' - as one of those who keeps an eye out for such communications, I have seen none.
3. At no point does their appear to have been any attempt to solicit the views of the public on such improvements as they would like to see.
4. Nor, apart from a few of the senior people one sees on library committees everywhere, has their been any discussion with ordinary staff- particularly those who work day-to-day with the public, to hear their views.
5. The priorities that the Board of the project have set bear no relation to the issues that one would have anticipated that either the public, or the front liners would have identified or even a finance director in a council should have set. Frankly, who cares about 'Benchmarking of Staff'-- and who believes that that is going to lead to an improvement, and how?
6. It would have been really interesting to hear the views of Londoners on their public libraries but in the absence of doing that one can be fairly certain that among the main improvements which they would have sought would have been A opening hours, B the state of the buildings, C. The stock of reading material, particularly books and D. the knowledge of front line staff.
7. The priorities identified by the Board of the project address absolutlely none of these-- withoout any explanations
8. There has been no communication
9. The expenditure on consultants already exceeds £300,000 (Phase 1 cost £75,000 and phase 2 has a budget of £249,000)
10. There are no improvements.
Ring the Alarm Bells? -- yes do
For no consultant's fee at all, I offer this advice: With cabinet structures in local government the only place that can set priorities to change the way services are run is in that cabinet room. Only if the portfolio holder and the leader of the council decide that among the many things a council should be doing, that improvement to libraries is important will it take place.
Therefore the arguments and considerations that would lead to change and improvement need to be the subject of detailed and well informed discussion amongst those councillors. In the case of London wide change, that means bringing together a group of portfolio holders and probably some leaders, in order to discuss what it would take to persuade them to make changes and what those changes should be.
None of that is happening in this project. There is a distant endorsement of 'chief executives' but it appears to me that that is irrelevant to the work that is being done; it won't make any difference.
I would put Councillor Higgins, of Hillingdon in charge of the whole project, if it is to stand a chance of achieving anything.
But all these things, it seems to me and many others, were obvious when 'Better Stock Better Libraries' came crashing down-- so why it this happening all over again? Why are the MLA, who seem to be in charge walking cheerfully towards the same cliff edge down which so many of their friends and colleagues have already tumbled?
To the 30 or so reports of the last decade, this project will add at least another 4, that will prove to have been a waste of time and a lot of money.
The extent of wasted time was reinforced by an MLA advertisement for courses on 'workforce development' advertised this week, which concentrated on ' Gaining the support you deserve' saying
"This session will demonstrate how a planned approach to advocacy, intended to influence the right people, in the right way, at the right time can put your organisation in a much stronger position. It will support a range of activities including negotiating difficult budget decisions, riding out the economic storm, and taking advantage of funding opportunities. Advocacy is an essential element of marketing and communications: it is about systematically identifying stakeholders and building bridges to get their support, which may make the difference between success and failure."
Nothing here about identifiying what the public wants and doing it better- as a way of persuading people that you are doing a worthwhile job. Does nobody see that the 'Stakeholders' are not government departments and agencies and other departments of councils-- they are the public.
It is time that senior responsible governemt officers realised that their job is not to keep 'taking advantage of funding opportunities' - but to the best job they can with the huge amounts of tax payers money they have already been given.
Posted by Perkins at 8:52 AM | Comments (0)