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May 2, 2010
Keep it simple
In the six months before the election there was quite a lot of activity from each of the three main political parties in England about public libraries.
The Liberal democrats faffed about at length and were unable to come up with any kind of plan at all.
The Labour Party had Mrs Hodge putting 'her own personal mark' on the Public Library Review which had been in progress for nearly two years.
And the Conservatives had Ed Vaizey out front repeating what he had learned over the past couple of years. Credit to him, too, he has taken a real interest in the subject.
In each case the policy view in the centre is important, because regardless of who wins in Westminster, it is still local councils who run local library services and if there is to be any kind of clear vision for improvement, it must come from Whitehall and it must be shared with local councillors. There is nowhere else from which leadership can come- and each party must give leadership to, and engage in discussion with, its own councillors.
If Perkins were to be put in charge of the library service she would want to see dramatic improvement in each and every library building over the next 4 years: better stock of reading material, longer hours and smarter, safer premises and equipment. She would like to see much more local autonomy in each individual library and staff trained, helped and paid to use that autonomy to bring improvement in the service. She would like to see big cuts in the structural costs of the public library service in order to make those changes in the service given to the public.
She believes there is no need to reduce the standard of the public library service anywhere, to meet any kind of budget pressure.
She believes substantial improvement is essential to provide the benefit that is needed for those groups in society who depend on the public library service now- particularly the young and families who need to read for their own sanity and civility and imagination and older people who depend on libraries for their personal access to authors and books in their own friendships and local community.
The changes needed to bring that improvement need to be pragmatic and simple, and the only party which seems to understand that, at present, are the Conservatives, but there is no reason why the others couldn't work in the same way. These are management issues, not ones of political ideology or professional or technological development. Nor are they questions which involve wider government agendas- they are just about running plain good public libraries.
Posted by Perkins at May 2, 2010 12:56 PM
Comments
On the front page of the latest CILIP Gazette, I thought that the libdems came across the best in terms of a considered and detailed response to the CILIP Manifesto. I was disappointed in Vaizey's contribution - like you I have been impressed with his engagement over the past 2 years or so.
Posted by: Sarah Bartlett at May 4, 2010 10:49 AM