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Roy Clare

Roy Clare is chief executive of MLA.

Libraries are moving forwards

27.11.08

The picture Desmond Clarke presents could mislead readers of The Bookseller and may depress the many able professional people who are making great strides in developing the habit of providing excellent library services for all.
 
In my first year at the helm of MLA I have visited more than one hundred public libraries in more than fifty locations across the country. I am a regular speaker in public, promoting the services and benefits of our libraries.
 
In the course of official duties and a UK-wide fact-finding programme I have found encouraging evidence of some inspiring local leadership and some excellent local services. In almost all cases I have found committed staff and conscientious local authorities, trying to do their best within resources that are self-evidently being stretched in several ways.
 
There is plenty of evidence of innovation, strategic investment and really exciting new programmes and projects. High-profile leadership for libraries can be found in cities and counties almost everywhere. Just a few of the best examples in England can be found in Manchester, Leeds, Newcastle, Kent, Walsall (Bentley), Winchester, Essex, Norwich, Southend, York and a good many boroughs in London.
 
Leadership for library services is essentially a local issue. Elected members and their officers have to be synchronised and supportive of each other. Evidence-based decision-making can draw on ‘best practice’ examples elsewhere, but successful outcomes in specific places must mirror local needs and priorities and match the expectations of local consumers. There is no national template.
 
In addition, library services cannot exist in an isolated eco-system of their own. There is now an expectation that public libraries are integrated with other local provision. This approach is a cost-efficient way to add value and benefit and to improve the social return on very considerable investment by local government. In some places there is an accent on integrating with adult education; in others on combining with resources that promote well-being; elsewhere on skills and attainment.
 
Effective programmes are being run in public libraries for a wide range of local needs, from asylum-seekers and youth groups, to older users and people with literacy challenges; for people of all ages out of work, and for schools’ projects and for thousands of reading groups. In all cases there is a common desire to provide unique services centred on books, reading and information, for people of all backgrounds.
 
Key questions that face us all are: how can these inherently valuable and essential resources continue to be made available sustainably; and how can we ensure that the benefits are accessible to all people? What more can technology do, and how best should national government support local leadership? These and many other questions are being dealt with through the MLA’s published Action Plan and Andy Burnham’s DCMS review of libraries, which MLA and I are supporting strongly.
 
The ‘new MLA’ has invested in additional research and is bringing forward new capacities for improvement services, technical innovation, staff development and leadership training. The re-structuring of the body is largely complete, but even while developing our capabilities, we have been applying substantial energies continually throughout the past 12 months to help bring about a better service to library authorities wishing to innovate and develop.
 
There are no quick answers; solutions do not lie in hand-wringing . People would be better off visiting their local libraries, becoming members, engaging in their programmes by lobbying local councillors, and by supporting a hard-pressed workforce that is many cases doing notably progressive work.
 
I seek out signs of a willingness to embrace change and to develop new ways to reach the public. I have been impressed by the clear examples that show how much is being achieved. I am also realistic and focused on how much remains to be done to get the rest to match the best.
 
Public libraries are flourishing in many places, but we need actively to help others to do much more; potential benefits are widespread and impressive. But success is measured in many more complex ways than simply in terms of dubious statistics about supposed trends in book stocks and book issuing.
 
We will work with anyone who genuinely wishes to advance the cause and promote modern libraries for modern users.

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By Tim Coates

The 'dubious statistics' to which Roy Clare refers above are those published by CIPFA for the Government and for which his office is the government body responsible. Perhaps he should acquaint himself with them? For example those figures show in the case of the 27 libraries of Manchester, which he mentions: in 1996/7 there were 3.1m book loans, in 2006/7 there were 1.9m. That is a fall of 40% in loans per resident over the decade. In that time the number of books available to the public for lending also fell by 38%. The library service in Manchester at a cost of £29 per resident is one of the most expensive in the country and in the past ten years they have spent £8m on capital works. There is no shortage of funding in any sense. However just 4% of the total cost of the service is spent on books and, astonishingly, less than 1% is spent on books for children to read. The net effect on the libraries' contribution to reading in the city is, as a consequence, bound to be poor. In the case of Leeds, to which he also refers. the number of book loans per resident has fallen in the same time by 46%. And so the figures go on, revealing a sorry tale. I am not sure looking at these figures what 'supposed trend in book stocks and book issuing' can be ignored in the pursuit of the ' more complex' measures which Mr Clare does not dare to describe to readers of this organ. Nor I suspect, from my understanding, do the people of Leeds (from whence I come) and Manchester. These figures are damning of the performance of the library service in those cities and only a fool would say otherwise. I also visit many libraries around the country, but I find it helps to review these figures before I go, so that the obvious competence and enthusiasm of those one meets is placed in the proper context of how the council has been managing the service. I recommend Mr Clare and his friends in the ministry should do the same. Readers of the Bookseller do not need to be told of the distinguished history of either libraries or book shops in these two great cities of Manchester or Leeds. There is no way in which their citizens would wish to be served by a 'template' for libraries which is not the most literate in the world. They don't want libraries without books. Roy Clare's' MLA exists to help councils on behalf of the people who live in the area which they serve. It is they, sadly, those residents and taxpayers are depressed about the library service and that is the concern Desmond is obviously expressing. It is time Roy Clare listened to what Desmond Clarke tells him, for there is no doubt where the superior wisdom and experience in this field lies. Mr Clare is patronising about those of us who seek improvement and will only deal, he says, with those who 'genuinely wish to advance the cause of modern libraries and modern users'- implying that Desmond does not- and he would serve the cause of readers everywhere if he were to temper his tone in making such comments. They are unworthy. Frankly Mr Clare and Mr Burnham would do well, instead of constantly spurning his offer to help, to invite Desmond Clarke to join the ministerial review team. It would be a far better process if they were to do that.

30 Nov 08 11:00

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By JULIAN RIVERS

Totally 100% agree Tim . Who would invite you or Desmond in ,if you spoilt the party ? Ticking boxes is not management . Government could save money AND improve the service if real change was sought and implimented rather than protecting a hopeless position .

04 Dec 08 12:00

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