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June 9, 2010
The Foundation Stone
There is quite a lot of good and productive chat going on in different quarters about how to improve public libraries and quickly.
Of course everyone is worried about 'the deficit' but in some ways that is focussing minds on what needs to be done.
This blog is not the first place to observe that everything in the library world is difficult so long as policy about libraries is made in the Arts Ministry and the funding and management of local councils, who run libraries, is managed from the Department of Communities and Local Government.
Any analysis of the correct action has to address this problem first. In these days where coalitions, which were unheard of only a few months ago, are providing effective and strong solutions, it seems that the foundation stone of a new cathedral of public libraries means a strong purposeful coalition between Ministers in the DCMS (Department of Culture, Media and Sport) and Ministers in the DCLG (Department of Communities and Local Government).
I have no way of knowing whom the right personailities are and where the responsibilities lie, but Ed Vaizey is the person in the DCMS -- and my firm belief is that step one is for Ed to make a strong robust working coalition with a minister in the DCLG. In this way policy can then come to councils through the DCLG and be placed in a proper order of priority. This will be a miraculous transformation from the current and historic situation in which policy has come from the DCMS and no one in local government has taken a blind bit of notice.
Posted by Perkins at June 9, 2010 8:40 PM