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'Six weeks to save the library sector', campaigners warn
16.12.10 | Benedicte Page
Campaigners have warned that there are just “six weeks to save the public library service” with more than 330 libraries now at risk of closure.
It is estimated around 1,000 libraries will be threatened with closure next year, out of 4,500 nationally. Campaigner Desmond Clarke said there were six weeks to save the service before councils finalise their budgets in February.
Publishers Association chief Richard Mollet said the library sector was facing “a real crisis”, adding: “We hope that government is listening to the plight of libraries, and that it recognises the role they play in promoting literacy and supporting local communities. Local representation will be the key to demonstrating the importance and value libraries have for their individual communities.”
An “extremely concerned” Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Booksellers Association, said: “If these 300 libraries close, communities will definitely be adversely affected. Library closures will be bad for education; bad especially for the less affluent; and bad for jobs.”
Culture minister Ed Vaizey wrote to all local authority leaders last week, telling them he wanted to “emphasise the importance” he places on compliance with their statutory duty to provide a “comprehensive and efficient” library service under the Public Libraries & Museums Act, 1964. He referred leaders to the Future Libraries Programme for inspiration.
But Oxfordshire, Lewisham and Cornwall, which are among the 10 councils chosen to lead the Future Libraries Programme, have all recently announced major library closures and Desmond Clarke has described the programme as “a classic case of fiddling while Rome burns”.
Campaigners also called the proposed 50% cutbacks to some services “disproportionate”, given that communities secretary Eric Pickles this week capped council cuts at 8.9%.
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Everybody in this campaign understands that local councils need to cut their budgets, sometimes dramatically, but we also know that these reductions in funding did not have to lead to a decimation of the public library service. If only those responsible in the DCMS and the MLA had behaved sensibly in June insteead of behaving as if they and only they knew what to do, we would not be in this terrible terrible situation. Desmond is right, as he so often is. Eric Pickles, in one sentence last week, laid out what should have been done - there are vast overhead costs that could and even can be cut instead of closing the libraries themselves. I'm afraid there are two people at whose office doors this crisis lies and it will take someone in the Prime Minister's office or Number 10, to sort them out quickly. Unless they do they have a needless - but irritatingly large- electoral and public relations problem on their hands in local councils and constituencies, which never should have happened.
We have long complained of lack of leadership in the library sector. What we are seeing now is a wholesale dismantling of library services in large areas of the country. If 1,000 libraries are cut from the network of 4,500 this is a devastating blow to the concept of a universal service free at the point of use. Localism means passing the buck down to councils and hoping national government won't take flak for the damage. Well over 1,000 authors, illustrators, publishers, librarians, screenwriters, teachers, agents and general readers signed the Open Letter against library closures. Ed Vaizey's reply effectively said that economic constraints override the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act. This must be challenged by an ever-growing popular protest.
I am absolutely not against all library closures but this - well, this is ridiculous.
I am counting daily library closures on my blog and there's no sign of it abating. Yesterday, Somerset announced closures that would have caused national headlines and scandal a year ago. The day before Conwy announced they were going to close more than half of their libraries. No comment from Mr Pickles or Mr Vaizey or Mr Clare. The 330 libraries figure quoted in the article above was accurate yesterday morning - but it is now 353. The day before, the count went up by 15. And so it goes on.
This could be the end of public libraries. Up to 1000 this year, more next year, more the year after - there are only 4500 to begin with. Talk about floodgates opening. The scary thing is the council decisions for next year are made in February so there is very little time to act. And there's Christmas in between.
The support of authors and booksellers is greatly appreciated. The Campaign for the Book and the BookSeller have been great in their support. Unfortunately, there is otherwise no real organisation to plan action against the cuts. CILIP have put in promising start but their major campaigners are few and are, anyway, volunteers with day jobs. Public librarians are generally too scared of their jobs to say anything or are under direct orders from their employers not to say anything. The MLA, if anything, seems to support library closures.
It's going to be an interesting six weeks.
http://publiclibrariesnews.blogspot.com/
In the context of central government having other priorities than the people who rely on local services, one is obliged to watch this forced cutting of budgets, transfixed as if attending a horror show. Just to add to the drama, it seems to have been officially confirmed by the Minister that DCMS has washed its hands of any responsibility for a national, comprehensive and efficient Library Service. At the very least that is not a legacy most would wish to leave behind them. There is still time -- but merely six weeks -- for fairness and respect for the Law to be demonstrated by these people. One sincerely hopes that a person of substance will emerge to save the day, or does that only happen in the movies ?
Don't worry. The person of substance has appeared!
Sadly, his name is Mikey and he has this dodgy website....
If the headline is correct , it's all over . The library sector never did anything good or bad in just 6 weeks , it takes much longer than that to organise a conference .
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