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Libraries under siege
19.07.10 | Benedicte Page and Lauren Hewitt
Islington, Richmond, Cornwall and the Isle of Wight are the latest councils confirmed as planning or currently undertaking reviews of their library services.
This follows last week’s news that Lewisham is proposing to close five libraries while Cambridgeshire has embarked on a major cost-cutting review.
Islington will review its strategy later this year, with a staff restructure set for spring 2011. Executive member for regeneration Paul Convery said the review would “consider how best to continue providing high quality and sustainable library services in the borough with inevitably reduced resources over the next few years”.
Cornwall Council said a working committee would look at the future and vision for its service, with a “detailed review” over the coming year, analysing who does and doesn’t use the service. Public sector union Unison has been asked to participate.
Ian Dodds, Richmond Council’s head of culture, said it was reviewing library finances. He said: “We recognise our libraries are highly valued by residents, but we won’t make any final funding decisions until the review is complete.”
Meanwhile, Hampshire councillor Margaret Snaith-Tempia told local newspaper Portsmouth Today she “could not rule out” closures among the county’s 54 libraries as the service looks to save £1.3m from a budget of £18m. “Two years ago, I would have said we will never close a library, but as things are now, we can’t rule out the closure of some of our smaller ones,” she said.
Camden councillor Tulip Siddiq told a meeting of the council that she could make “no promises” over keeping Belsize Park and Chalk Farm libraries open, according to a Camden New Journal report.
Also this week, librarians were set to stage a second day of action in Southampton over plans to replace staff with volunteers.
Penguin General m.d. Joanna Prior said libraries had “never been more under siege” and publishers “shouldn’t just leave it to the librarians to fight”, with any industry lobbying needing to include libraries. She said: “What I think needs protecting is the knowledge and expertise of librarians. Talk about volunteers alarms me. That may work in Kensington and Chelsea but are you going to get helpful volunteers in a deprived area? Great librarians are like great booksellers, they are fantastically important.” Prior also said she was worried about book stock levels.
The Reading Agency director Miranda McKearney said cuts were definitely going to happen, “so how things are cut is really, really important, and that the cuts are made carefully over a period of time and strategically so that things are reshaped in a sensible way”.
She said the work to look at how regions can combine backroom functions to make savings was “absolutely critical”. She added: “What we’re worried about is that entrepreneurial development staff—so important to the reader development movement and the successes of that—are potentially at risk.”
But Bloomsbury executive director Richard Charkin said: “I’m not confident the cuts will happen in the right place.” Referring to the latest Chartered Institute of Public Finance & Accountancy library statistics, which showed an overall spend of £1.2bn on the service, but just £96m on books and newspapers, he said: “Looking at the £1.2bn rather than the £0.1bn is what matters. But it’s always easier to cut a purchase than to cut a person.”
Library campaigner Tim Coates said an estimated cut of £30m in the book spend on libraries was “perfectly reasonable” to expect, “although obviously one hopes not”.
TheBookseller
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Cutting libraries is akin to cutting all the trees down, one day we will have no air left to breathe.
This is cultural vandalism. Interestingly Barnet councillors have voted themselves a whopping rise and council chiefs in Hampshire are taking bonuses. Hypocrisy!
You bet.
Library users, the profession and campaigners are people whose tradition is to do things in a dignified, polite and reasonable way. Local authorities, the Culture Minister and the MLA have relied on public timidity. We do not rattle them. These are twiddling their thumbs whilst Rome burns, pausing occasionally to pluck a grape, then strike a match and chuck it idly onto the pyre. The big guns in the 'Arts' plead their cause, forgetting that those who attend their great venues were raised in a culture of books and libraries soon to be lost. "Tip your forelocks no longer to the discredited philistines" is my clarion call; "Unite ! most humble library user and the most powerful in Arts and Industry -- to rattle the philistines and turn this catastrophe around."
Islington libraries provide a fantastic service that makes one proud to live here. They encourage creativity and freedom of thought and ideas, whilst providing crucial services to the community such as free internet which aids people in finding employment and contact with others, and help for children with their homework and other interests which they would not get otherwise. The helpful and informative staff even volunteer to open one branch on a Sunday. Cutting this service would not only deprive the underprivileged, but to me would reflect in many ways all that is wrong with the way this country is run.
Actually the libraries in Islington are ghastly. They are run down, weary, shabby, bookless miseries that are rarely open when needed in a part of London that has more students per square bedsit than anywhere on the planet. They resemble a cross between a 1950's launderette and a charity shop. People who use them are made to feel like down and outs. Of course they shouldn't be closed, they should get a life and smarten themselves up. Everybody in Islington would use them if they felt they wouldn't catch something from going in. The problem with the people who manage the library service is that they are under such pressure to say how wonderful they are, they are incapable of seeing or telling the truth. There is a serious management problem and until it is resolved, it is unfair to ask the public to pay high wages to those in charge.
While I agree with Ms Prior that the idea of volunteers running public libraries is alarming. I would disagree with the comment about finding helpful people in deprived areas. As a qualified librarian, now a bookseller who has lived most of their life in inner city London, I know that the right people are already there. They are called library staff and are mostly made up of local people. My concern is that they should continue to be paid for this work.
What I also find alarming about Ms Prior's comment is the implication that books and book knowledge is only for posh people. In my opinion this kind of attitude can turn people off books as effectively as a locked library door.
While I agree with Ms Prior that the idea of volunteers running public libraries is alarming. I would disagree with the comment about finding helpful people in deprived areas. As a qualified librarian, now a bookseller who has lived most of their life in inner city London, I know that the right people are already there. They are called library staff and are mostly made up of local people. My concern is that they should continue to be paid for this work.
What I also find alarming about Ms Prior's comment is the implication that books and book knowledge is only for posh people. In my opinion this kind of attitude can turn people off books as effectively as a locked library door.
In the prevailing climate of austerity it is easy to become resigned and to accept cuts which at other times might have been contested with greater vigour. It is likely that some councils will seize the opportunity to carry out slash-and-burn policies for ideological or self-serving reasons.
Barnet Council in north London, which rejoices in the moniker Easy Council, and which not long back lost
Cutting libraries is akin to cutting all the trees down, one day we will have no air left to breathe.
This is cultural vandalism. Interestingly Barnet councillors have voted themselves a whopping rise and council chiefs in Hampshire are taking bonuses. Hypocrisy!
You bet.
Library users, the profession and campaigners are people whose tradition is to do things in a dignified, polite and reasonable way. Local authorities, the Culture Minister and the MLA have relied on public timidity. We do not rattle them. These are twiddling their thumbs whilst Rome burns, pausing occasionally to pluck a grape, then strike a match and chuck it idly onto the pyre. The big guns in the 'Arts' plead their cause, forgetting that those who attend their great venues were raised in a culture of books and libraries soon to be lost. "Tip your forelocks no longer to the discredited philistines" is my clarion call; "Unite ! most humble library user and the most powerful in Arts and Industry -- to rattle the philistines and turn this catastrophe around."
Islington libraries provide a fantastic service that makes one proud to live here. They encourage creativity and freedom of thought and ideas, whilst providing crucial services to the community such as free internet which aids people in finding employment and contact with others, and help for children with their homework and other interests which they would not get otherwise. The helpful and informative staff even volunteer to open one branch on a Sunday. Cutting this service would not only deprive the underprivileged, but to me would reflect in many ways all that is wrong with the way this country is run.
Actually the libraries in Islington are ghastly. They are run down, weary, shabby, bookless miseries that are rarely open when needed in a part of London that has more students per square bedsit than anywhere on the planet. They resemble a cross between a 1950's launderette and a charity shop. People who use them are made to feel like down and outs. Of course they shouldn't be closed, they should get a life and smarten themselves up. Everybody in Islington would use them if they felt they wouldn't catch something from going in. The problem with the people who manage the library service is that they are under such pressure to say how wonderful they are, they are incapable of seeing or telling the truth. There is a serious management problem and until it is resolved, it is unfair to ask the public to pay high wages to those in charge.
While I agree with Ms Prior that the idea of volunteers running public libraries is alarming. I would disagree with the comment about finding helpful people in deprived areas. As a qualified librarian, now a bookseller who has lived most of their life in inner city London, I know that the right people are already there. They are called library staff and are mostly made up of local people. My concern is that they should continue to be paid for this work.
What I also find alarming about Ms Prior's comment is the implication that books and book knowledge is only for posh people. In my opinion this kind of attitude can turn people off books as effectively as a locked library door.
While I agree with Ms Prior that the idea of volunteers running public libraries is alarming. I would disagree with the comment about finding helpful people in deprived areas. As a qualified librarian, now a bookseller who has lived most of their life in inner city London, I know that the right people are already there. They are called library staff and are mostly made up of local people. My concern is that they should continue to be paid for this work.
What I also find alarming about Ms Prior's comment is the implication that books and book knowledge is only for posh people. In my opinion this kind of attitude can turn people off books as effectively as a locked library door.
In the prevailing climate of austerity it is easy to become resigned and to accept cuts which at other times might have been contested with greater vigour. It is likely that some councils will seize the opportunity to carry out slash-and-burn policies for ideological or self-serving reasons.
Barnet Council in north London, which rejoices in the moniker Easy Council, and which not long back lost