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March 30, 2010
Perkins in the paper
Perkins is in The Times today ... page 56
Posted by Perkins at 9:47 AM | Comments (0)
March 29, 2010
Message for the Society of Chief Librarians
In your new manifesto you say that there are 34 million library visitors in the UK.
I wondered where that figure comes from; According to the (still unpublished) CIPFA data there were 325 million library visits last year and the 'Active Membership' was 12 million people
Your figure for the rise in lending of 1.3% came from here... (although you credited the Bookseller- who did say it came from here)
Posted by Perkins at 11:32 AM | Comments (0)
Brighton Jubilee Library
This is from Mr Thomas Crapper in Brighton
Is there a campaign group for the Brighton Jubilee library? After the library was given over yesterday for an ear-splitting performance by a drum and bass group, there needs to be one. People who complained about the noise were told it was council policy and there was nothing the staff could do
(I have an email address for this gentleman)
Posted by Perkins at 10:04 AM | Comments (4)
March 27, 2010
Public Library Book collections have been halved in 15 years
The CIPFA table for 1995-6 shows that the 'total book stock' in UK public libraries was 124 million books
The corresponding table for 2008-9 will show a 'total book stock' of 95 million books.
However libraries no longer carry out proper and diligent annual audits of their stock (as they used to and as they should). So this figure of 95 million is an estimate largely based on what their computer systems tell them they have. As any retailer will quickly tell you, there are a lot of reasons why computer stock control systems overestimate stock levels- theft and non returned loans, being the obvious ones.
It is no surprise at all to hear that in those councils where, for example, a new tagging system is being installed, that the actual stock is less than the computer estimate by 40%.
This would mean that instead of 95 million books, a proper audit would reveal that the stock of books is now only 57 million.
Any management would tell you that it is really important to have a proper reliable figure-- otherwise we have no idea what to buy in order to restore the service to its proper state.
As there any discussion of these vital issues in the Hodge review? No, of course not. Could this fall and the lack of stock be an explanation for the fall in use of libraries? Ask the man on the Clapham omnibus. It's obvious
Posted by Perkins at 11:27 AM | Comments (2)
March 26, 2010
The Arts Council calls for books to be removed from libraries
The Arts Council has funded a cheery new website which has come to Perkins attention this afternoon with these ludicrous ideas
"if libraries were less full of stock, what new and exciting things could you do with the freed-up space that would actually give new reasons to visit?
...the world is changing at what seems an ever increasing speed. We can’t just be nostalgic. We must focus on the needs of our current and potential customers and re-invent libraries so they are valued as essential cultural and learning centres for modern communities"
Oh really. So whose theory is this one then? Perkins does not agree. This notion is dead wrong.
"Current and potential customers" want more books, not less.
Why is Perkins so sure? Because every time we have stocked a library properly the use of it goes up dramatically. Nostalgic my eye: tell Joanna Rowling she is ancient history.
Of all the Arts industries in this country (and probably the whole world) none has more, impact, a wider reach, makes more contribution to social well being, inclusion and harmony, than that of writing and publishing. If you can't see that, you shouldn't be in the Arts business.
I think the brainless ill-considered culture management manifest in this web article is deeply destructive and needs exposing. This gentlemen thinks he is being gently feely full of nice harmless ideas. I don't - I see a battle that has to be fought and has to be won.
Posted by Perkins at 7:15 PM | Comments (6)
March 24, 2010
Doom! - unless we act now
No Perkins hasn't suddenly taken up research into global warming, it's still public libraries that worry her.
The figures issued by the DCMS for library usage called NI 9, have really really shocked.
They show that between December 2006 and December 2009 the percentage of the population using the public library service fell from 49.5% to 37.6%.. That is to say by 12% in just three years. Unless that pattern is stopped the use will be nil in just 12 years. Simple arithmetic
That corresponds exactly to the forecast made by the Audit Commission research department who said. in 2002, that, unless there is a radical change in approach the service would be finished in 20 years-- ie by 2022.
The three things they highlighted that would reverse the trend were restoration of the book stocks, longer opening hours and better buildings. They deduced that from an analysis of the available market researxch. The report is called "Building Better Libraries" by Michael Carpenter and Ingrid Koehle and nobody in the library world took a blind bit of notice.
Perkins was booed for repeating the prediction in a report called "Who's in Charge?" (www.amazon.co.uk) in 2004- but she was right, too
Gerald Kaufman underscored these same things in his select committee report, which has been ignored.
Carpenter and Koehle were completely right. Unless we now restore the book collections to where they were in early nineties - ie we buy 30 million extra books; we undertake a rapid programme to improve buildings and we open most libraries late in the evenings every day, the library service will be finished. Nothing to do with funding- though cuts will hasten the end- it is just entirely the fault of the management. ~Sorry chaps - although most of those responsible will be in the sun on fat pensions paid for by the rest of us. But your legacy is a demolition site.. if you care.
The end is nigh. I don't see any of the urgency that is needed in the Hodge review. That is its big problem. The answer doesn't lie in PLR for "e-books" or even Starbucks I'm afraid.
Posted by Perkins at 11:10 PM | Comments (5)
March 23, 2010
Capital
At the time of the Kaufman review in 2004/5 the Audit Commission had published a report in which they said that the poor state of library buildings was a key factor in the decline of use of libraries.
Gerald Kaufman consequently recommended that an estimate be prepared for the renewal of buildings and that the DCMS should identify where funds would come from.
There was a survey carried out and various figures produced- and the consensus was that if only we could find £600m we could do a restoration job and solve the problem. Everyone laughed and forgot the whole thing. There was no way of finding £600m. ..although the lottery stumped up £100m for 'special community projects'
However the latest CIPFA figures will reveal that in the last 5 years we have in fact spent over £450m. That means that if there had been coordinated sensible action we could, within a six year timetable have nearly completed the whole job. Instead of that we have spent most of the money on a handful of fancy presige projects, some of which people are now desperately trying to forget.
What a waste. Lack of leadership means waste of money. It is worth sorting this problem out
Why was there no discussion about the state of library buildings in the Hodge review? Why? Why? Why?
Posted by Perkins at 10:20 PM | Comments (0)
March 22, 2010
Perkins pounces
Perkins has made the national headlines because she has pounced on the Ministry Mouse.
Once again Shirley Burnham is right. I can understand what she says-- why can't the officials and ministers do the same?
Posted by Perkins at 8:36 PM | Comments (1)
Disastrous collapse in library use
The government nowadays has only one indicator which reports on the operation of the public library sector (in return for the £1.2bn each year that we spend)
It is famously called NI9 and it only asks of the population - 'Did you go in a library in the last 12 months for any reason?"
The most recent figures were issued last week (without a press release or fanfare of any kind)- because they describe a total failure of policy and function.
They read -- % of the population who visited a library in the past 12 months
June 2006 - 49.6%
September 2006 - 49/0%
December 2006 - 49.5%
March 2007 - 48.9%
June 2007 - 48.0%
September 2007 - 47.8%
December 2007 - 47.1%
March 2009 - 39.7%
June 2009 - 38.9%
September 2009 - 38.5%
December 2009 - 37.6%
These figures confirm a fall in visitor numbers shown in the most recent CIPFA data and show that all the attenmpts that have been made to widen use of the service by divsersification away from its core of books, reading and information, have been utterly destructive. They need to be reversed and quickly, otherwise any funder would be right to question the value of the service.
I have never seen the case for action more clearly than in these figures
Posted by Perkins at 12:20 PM | Comments (8)
March 19, 2010
Rip off councils
This years CIPFA figures (for 2008-9) will reveal all kinds of horrors, but for starters here are the councils in which the council central overhead recharged to the library service is more than a quarter of the library budget .. This figure does not include the overhead and management cost that is actuually inside the library service. This is just the 'corporate' overhead.
For help of comparison, charities and commercial operators would not normally be happy if this figure rose over 3%.
The UK average for libraries is 13.1% - which is ridiculous enough. Here are the worst councils
Camden 36.1%
Lambeth 34.2%
Westminster 27.8%
Croydon 46.0%
Oldham 29.6%
Gateshead 37.0%
North East Lincolnshire 33.3%
Southampton 39.5%
Lincolnshire 37.0%
Oxfordshire 25.9%
Surrey 43.4%
Clackmannanshire 28.8%
Who is in Charge? no one, my lud . In the whole country only Perkins looks at these figures.
Posted by Perkins at 10:05 AM | Comments (4)
March 18, 2010
Syrup and cakes
I was reading SYRUP's manifesto for public libraries and drawn to this paragraph
8. CILIP’s “What Makes a Good Library Service?” says that, in order for local councils to meet the requirements of the Act, and other, key legal requirements, a local library service must:
• Serve both adults and children
• Be available to everyone and meet any special needs required by members of the local community
• Encourage participation and full use of the service
• Provide materials in sufficient number, range and quality to meet general and specific requirements of those in the community
• Provide value for money, working in partnership with other authorities and agencies
• In addition the Act provides supervisory powers for the Secretary of State and specific empowerment for partnership working”.
I remember last October when this statement first came out and its writers were jolly pleased with themselves and I just thought this could be a description of a state owned cake shop. It doesn't say what a library is. Why can't they see that?
A library is a collection of books and other things to read - for goodness sake.
It is because CILIP (and the SCL) will not say that BOOKS ARE IMPORTANT that councillors around the country have allowed the book collections in public libraries to dwindle. If only they would realise. It is their job. That is their role in our society (as it is also the role of the Minister responsible for libraries)
-Bill Gates says that computers are important
-The man from Apple says that Iphones are important
-The man from Cadbury's says that chocolate is important
-Johnnie Walker says that Whisky is important
-What does a librarian say?
Posted by Perkins at 10:51 PM | Comments (8)
How to waste money
It seems that Mrs Hodge's public library review is in a very tight race and being rushed through before the 'pre-election period' brings down the portcullis on 'ministerial political statements' before the election . Ministers are not supposed to issue major plans at this time, but to confine themselves to matters of national day to day importance. However, in finest DCMS style!! ....
Before Mrs Hodge proposes a wholesale reorganisation of library authorities let us dwell on this quotation from an Audit Office review of the Govrernment itself in the past 5 years, published this morning
The report says: "The value for money of central government reorganisations cannot be demonstrated given the vague objectives of most such reorganisations, the lack of business cases, the failure to track costs and the absence of mechanisms to identify benefits and make sure they materialise.
"Overall, the value for money picture is unsatisfactory and the costs are far from negligible."
The reorganisations have cost £780m and the report observed that it was impossible to demonstrate that they had given any value for money at all!
That wastage is on top of the money they fritter away doing their day jobs.
So much for Government initiatives. Then they tell us they are short of money and we have to lose our public services.
Get rid of them all.
Posted by Perkins at 9:02 AM | Comments (1)
March 16, 2010
Consultation-- what consultation?
On Newsnight last night Margaret Hodge announced her intention to include the number of library authorities in England as an issue in the review which she still hopes to publish next week..
There are currently 151 and as anyone can readily tell a proposal to reduce this number will affect all kinds of things, not least many management jobs and how the new authorities will be accountable to the public.
Nor is it clear just which of many problems such an action would be intended to solve.
When Minister Andrew Burnham announced this review in October 2008 he said the research would be finished by December 2008 and there would then be a period of consultation on any proposals that were made.
It is now March 2010 and so far there have been neither proposals nor consultation upon them.
Government departments seem to get confused between market research, which is a professional attempt to understand what people think, and consultation, which is asking them to say how they would be affected by a specific action. In this review there has been neither.
(and incidentally either the DCMS or the BBC got their figures wrong again on their graphics. There were 300 million book loans last year, not 300 thousand. That's the kind of ministerial blunder that makes you invade the wrong country in search of an oil field- or a message that sends the light brigade up the wrong valley)
Posted by Perkins at 11:07 AM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2010
Whatever happened to SYRUP?
Searching back through this blog I came across this entry from 2006. It occurred to me that SYRUP is totally silent on all fronts at the moment. There is a lot of uffle going on about what a new government should do, what an old government should do, what a libraries agency should do, and the normal endless stuff about closures, falling stocks, community libraries. London libraries etc. Yet SYRUP is totally silent. That's what Chris Armstrong was saying four years ago. Ah well.
I'm sure Richard Charkin and I were only quoting from the evidence used first by the Audit Commission, then by the Culture Select Committee and then by the MLA. Apart from CIPFA there are no other sources. It is hard to understand what role the public library group of SYRUP see themselves playing. Perhaps someone else can explain it here. Or they could just stay silent as ever. What I have often asked is 'who pays for them to have offices and conferences?' As long as there is no taxpayers money, one can't gripe. But nor does one have to listen to them when they claim to be playing some important role.
The truth is that they are in a good position to do things, but apart from talking to each other they just seem not to bother. I am not saying that professional librarians aren't important in public libraries. I am saying that SYRUP have lost the spoon. I suppose Bob McKee will get cross again, but honestly, why doesn't he talk?
But then while the rest of us work all hours to try and find out what councils are doing and are concerned to fight closures and reductions in the service he says himself he is
"just too knackered to fire up my blog and engage my brain when I get home in the evenings, preferring instead to slump in front of the footy on the telly with a glass of something refreshing...
Well there you go.
Posted by Perkins at 11:07 PM | Comments (1)
March 8, 2010
We have lost 1000 libraries worth of books
A chief librarian challenges me with "Nonsense" saying "What libraries are getting rid of their books?"
Across the country in the past 10 years, according to their own figures provided to CIPFA, councils have reduced the stock of books for lending by 17m - a fall of nearly 20%.
These councils have reduced their stocks by large amounts
Greenwich by 149,000
Islington by 116,000
Lewisham by 147,000
Southwark by 112,000
Wandsworth by 217,000
Barnet by 396,000 (almost half)
Bexley by 155,000
Brent by 283,000
Bromley by 243,000
Croydon by 189,000
Enfield by 111,000
Haringey by 185,000
Manchester by 122,000
Stockport by 105,000
Tameside by 162,000
Liverpool by 138,000
Sefton by 100,000
Wirral by 142,000
Gateshead by 171,000 (exactly half the stock)
North Tyneside by 134,000
Dudley by 220,000
Sandwell by 168,000
Solihull by 162,000
Walsall by 256,000
Bristol by 118,000
Nottingham by 227,000
Redcar by 146,000 (almost half the stock)
Southampton by 131,000
Buckinghamshire by 142,000
Cambridgeshire by 253,000
Cornwall by 192,000
Cumbria by 203,000
Devon by 281,000
Dorset by 126,000
East Sussex by 116,000
Essex by 499,000
Hampshire by 410,000
Hertfordshire by 272,000
Kent by 613,000
Lancashire by 375,000
Northamptonshire by 368,000
Somerset by 168,000
Staffordshire by 195,000
Suffolk by 171,000
Surrey by 590,000
Warwickshire by 104,000
West Sussex by 242,000
Cardiff by 106,000
Carmarthenshire by 253,000
Swansea by 183,000
Aberdeen by 173,000
Clackmannanshire by 127,000 (more than half)
Edinburgh by 144,000
Fife by 222,000
Perth by 174,000 (almost half)
Renfrewshire by 133,000
South Lanarkshire by 229,000
West Dunbartonshire by 171,000 (exactly half)
and by other amounts in 110 councils
Stock of books for lending has increased, according to these figures in just
Wesminster
Hillingdon
Bury
Sheffield
Blackpool
Brighton
Halton
Portsmouth
Slough
Telford
Warrington
Windsor
Derbyshire
Norfolk
Oxfordshire
Shropshire
Bridgend
Ceredigion
Torfaen
Aberdeenshire
East Lothian
Glasgow (by a third)
Midlothian
North Ayrshire
Borders
Stirling
Orkney
Shetland
Northern Ireland
A small community library holds 10- 20,000 books. We may not have lost so many buildings, but by goodness we have lost the equivalent of 1000 libraries worth of books.
Posted by Perkins at 8:21 AM | Comments (13)
March 7, 2010
UK Library book lending goes up: Libraries are in fashion again.
A scoop for Perkins who can reveal that the national public library data for 2008-9 will probably show that there was an increase in book lending for the first time for twenty years.
The rise is small, but is to be contrasted with the 3% fall that we have witnessed year after year. The figures, which are very late being published, include the first few months of the recession in which various councils reported anecdotally that they were seeing an increase.
The provisional data shows that book lending increased in 125 of the 200 UK library authorities
Most of all this shows that books are not history and that decline in book lending is not inevitable or necessary. If public libraries provide what people want, then they are a wonderful service. This is good news at long last. Let's hope we can make the growth continue. Libraries are fashionable again.
The figures also appear to show a further dramatic rise in the cost of council overheads and also that library authorities continue to increase spending on computers and systems and decrease spending on books. All these things, in Perkins view, are wrong and need to be corrected.
Posted by Perkins at 8:46 AM | Comments (5)
March 5, 2010
Perkins' view of the library service in your council
The annual "CIPFA" data for public libraries is about to be published.
If you would like Perkins' view of the service provided by your council as it appears from the data they publish, it can be obtained by making a donation to this blog of £60.
If you make that donation I will send back to you my summary of what the council has said in recent years and my own personal view of the performance and the issues it raises.
You will discover whether your council has exceptionally high overhead costs, how much of the funding is spent on books, whether book lending figures have gone up or down, and some sensible comparisons against other places.
The donations button is in the right hand tramline and if you give an email address and a contact, the information will be sent back to that address as soon as it can be done.
Posted by Perkins at 1:05 PM | Comments (0)
The MLA (again)
When the current management of the MLA took over, nearly three years ago, they said they would provide new focus on the public library service, that they would research the subject and work on the basis of evidence and that they would report every six months on the progress they made.
We waited, some with optimism.
The evidence base that they needed to create was of two kinds, as was pointed out to them at the time. The first is about current and past performance and costs, not of library authorities, but of indivdual libraries. The second is about the public and how and why they use public libraries and why they don't.
If they had done these, as they promised, they would then have had some useful material with which to engage local councils- as they also promised. It would help a local council to make an improvement plan if it was able to work with this kind of evidence and make useful comparisons and analysis. They could then identify what they needed to do and their priorities. It would have been a basis for a constructive relationship, which has been long sought.
That information and help in understanding it, would also have been a help to those councillors who hold libraries in their portfolio. The MLA promised they would do that, too, especially for new councillors who come to the porfolio unprepared.
They have done none of these things. Particularly they haven't reported either to their own board or to the public as they promised they would. It is such reporting that provides the internal pressure in organisations to stick to the path agreed. Not to report at all is very poor management.
Instead we have "Daisy Dooz - Make a Noise in a Library." And a whole set of handouts of public money on consultancy projects which had nothing to do with what they had promised they would achieve. One would like to see a list of their project expenditures. It will reveal enormous sums as will the expenditure on new staff-- having made great redundancies when they took over.
That is why they have failed on their own project. The aim was ok- but the delivery has been non-existent. There was a job to do, but they didn't do it. Shut them down. We have to change.
Sadly, we have to start again- and this time we need to do what we say we will, but quickly because the public have paid several times over already.
Posted by Perkins at 8:43 AM | Comments (5)
March 4, 2010
Uncivil service
I had a message yesterday from someone who knows about these things advising me that people in the MLA, DCMS and LGA were 'briefing' councils against me and saying that they should not work with me. The person suggested that an FOI request to these bodies would reveal the evidence.
If you saw the BBC film "Inside Out West" on Monday evening you will have seen how the Hillingdon project is thriving. "This library had 300 visits each week, now it has 3,000" said Councillor Higgins, proudly, and rightly so. The project was initiated nearly 4 years ago and it has addressed successfully almost all the problems of public libraries around the country. And the people are very nice. Council and officers in Hillingdon and the staff in the libraries, have all done a wonderful job.
This is an example of the kind of work I do that the civil servants are trying to stop. I have no idea why. Instead of explaining themselves they pass sneaky messages like 7 year olds in the classroom. It has happened many times and been going on for years. I have often known it was happening, but only seen written down once this time last year when Roy Clare and his senior officers at the MLA were caught like naughty school boys and had to admit it and say sorry. That was shocking to see and I don't understand why they are still in their posts. Honourable people would have resigned.
By now we should have done 10 Hillingdon projects and the library service in councils around the country would be thriving and everybody would be wanting to give libraries funds, as Hillingdon council find themselves doing, instead of taking them away. They know how important they are to local communities, you only have to go in any day and see: there is no need for a Social Think Tank to report.
But instead of that we find highly paid officials 'briefing' councils not to get involved, and not to go on the same path on which Councillor Higgins dances his merry jig.
These people should be ashamed of themselves. There should be no place for them in our civil service. They should all be in jail. They aren't interested in public libraries, but only in their own careers. They are contemptible and if they want to brief against me in secret, like the senior MLA executives did last year in Swindon, then they deserve each others' company and nothing else. That will be horrible enough.
Posted by Perkins at 8:30 AM | Comments (4)
March 2, 2010
The Case for Charitable Trusts for public libraries
This is from one of our correspondents (Mr Apollo)--
"Charitable Trusts
The concept of library services operating within charitable trusts has been tried and tested, but an individual library service lacks the business characteristics needed to make a viable trust. Pulling several together, ideally with some related cultural business, would solve that problem.
Charitable trusts can collect and apply for funding from a huge range of sources closed to local authorities. They are free to decide which if any services they 'buy' from their parent councils. They are able to claim huge discounts on rates that councils have to pay on library buildings; simply moving libraries into a charitable trust can free up huge sums to be redirected into service delivery.
Typically, a trust will be managed by a board including both representatives of the funding organisation (the council) and the local community. It will have a multi-year funding agreement, linking payment to clear performance targets.
Shared services
The concept of shared services, in which two or more councils cooperate in the delivery of services, isn't new either although most elected members can't bring themselves to surrender sovereignty.
The shared service model brings economies of scale, particularly in management and in backroom functions, and allows neighbouring authorities to deliver services efficiently across a wider area rather than worrying about who owns and who provides what. Applying this to libraries allows staff, bookstock, mobile libraries, reference services erc., to be pooled.
Putting both models together seems to me to be not only the best way forward but probably the only way for libraries to weather the coming financial chill. There is no new money on the horizon and it is unrealistic to expect libraries to get priority when there isn't enough money to maintain adequate services for vulnerable children and adults.
Posted by Perkins at 9:01 AM | Comments (4)
Shirley Burnham spells it out
On the radio --- 51 minutes into this broadcast on BBC Radio Swindon
And on Television on the BBC West programme "Inside Out"
Posted by Perkins at 8:52 AM | Comments (0)