Bolton Council to close a third of its libraries

Labour-run Bolton Council is pressing ahead with closing a third of its libraries. Five out of 15 are being closed. At a Council meeting last night a Conservative proposal to find alternative ways of saving the £200,000 was rejected.

For the Conservatives, Cllr David Greenhalgh said:

"From the consultation ending, then it going to the executive, the scrutiny committee and here, this has been done with undue haste and has not given the right impression to communities out there who have been fighting to keep their libraries open."

Closing libraries is a bad way to save money, as is only emptying the dustbins fortnightly, or slashing funding for the voluntary sector. Bolton is keen to embrace all of these options.

They have combined fortnightly bin collection with poor recycling rates. They think monthly collections are the way ahead.

Public libraries should include e libraries

Glyn Gaskarth says more councils should follow Surrey's example in offering books that can be downloaded at home

Local authorities are closing public libraries. 250 of the 4,500 public libraries in the UK are estimated to be earmarked for closure in the current public spending cuts. We are doing this to save money. The impact is often a reduction in service. Instead of simply dismantling the existing public libraries network through attrition we need to reform libraries to make them work for all citizens. One option is for us to divert part of the savings we achieve to build local e library networks.

Building an e library network may require the closure of additional public libraries to release the funds to pay for developing this new service. Local politicians need to be willing to show courage and argue for this. E books are not that revolutionary an idea. Kindle is one of Amazons best selling products. Hundreds of thousands of books are available at the click of a button. Local citizens should be able to order books online and have them delivered to their home, place of work or electronic devices such as their home computer or e readers like the kindle.

An e library collection could provide citizens with access to a wider range of books at a time convenient for them. We could develop this in cooperation with a private company such as amazon. A number of councils could group together to share the costs. Access to the platform could be provided to other councils for a charge to allow the initial members to recoup costs. Advertising on the site could be sold to private providers to subsidise the operation costs. Members could order books for purchase from the site to earn revenue to subsidise the service.

Volunteers taking over a library is different to closing a library

Maintaining libraries while Council spending is cut is an important test of the Big Society.

Gloucestershire County Council is seeking to keep libraries open with Big Community Offer. One business case likely to get the green light is the bid from Painswick Parish Council and Community Library in Painswick (CLIP).

Peter Corley said:

"We aim to develop a community library for the 21st century as the core of a wide range of services to be developed to meet the needs of Painswick and the surrounding areas.

"We have formed a group of trustees which includes professional librarians and people with a wide range of relevant experience in business, marketing, charity administration, law and the public sector.

"We have received an enormous amount of support from the community."

What are libraries for?

Glyn Gaskarth says libraries should be pleasant places that serve coffee to readers - but this will not be enough to make them self financing

I loved Borders bookstore. Every Sunday I would gather up a collection of political magazines, buy a coffee, sit and read. I did not buy these books and magazines; I read them in the store. The mystery of why Borders went bankrupt is solved. Borders provided a warm, relaxing and inviting place to read for people like me. It did not provide profit for its owners. This is how most Britons would like their local library service to operate but how can councils fund this?

I treated Borders as a library. It assumed the role of a library for many middle class people. We find the idea of a library attractive. We want an extensive collection of books (though preferably 'free'), available on demand, provided by helpful and informed staff, housed in some modern inviting civic building. Some libraries work like this but many do not.

The modern English library is often very different to that of our dreams. Real libraries are often cold, dark, dirty and un-inviting. The customer base for libraries mostly consists of school children who are required to go, vagrants who visit to keep warm and older residents who want to socialise on the cheap. Static libraries open when workers start work and close before they leave work. Mobile library services are becoming rarer. Libraries hours of opening often suit staff more than potential library users.They are an institution looking for a role.

Shared back office costs saves libraries

Three flagship London boroughs are set to combine their library services as part of a groundbreaking move to secure the future of public libraries in the capital.

Westminster, Hammersmith & Fulham and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea councils have drawn up proposals to combine library services, saving taxpayers more than £1million a year and ensuring all of their 21 public libraries remain safe from closure.

Council leaders are next week set to go ahead with the plans which will mean, once fully implemented, residents will gain access to around 1 million books, hundreds of entertainment and cultural events and scores of weekly skills and education classes.

The move means that a one year old, living to the average life expectancy of 81, would need to read at least 26 books every day for the rest of their lives if they wanted to get through the whole Tri-Borough collection. The new arrangements will boost the drive to improve literacy in the capital through increased access to children’s libraries and specialised services such as regular homework clubs.

Libraries should serve coffee - and keep the profit

Cllr Henry Higgins, the Cabinet Member for Culture Sport & Leisure on Hillingdon Council, writes on how the the library revolution in his borough continues after winning National Award for Library Innovation

A lot has been written and spoken about the Library service offered by the London Borough of Hillingdon. We’re very proud of the achievement of cutting costs by 20% whilst tripling the use of the service.

It started in 2007 with people throwing their hands in the air in horror at the thought of bringing in shop fitters instead of the usual contractors to brighten up and open out the floor of the Library. They tutted when we announced we would introduce Starbucks coffee (sold at 30% cheaper than the high street price) and they scoffed when we said that we would create a partnership with Apple to bring in Mac computers and new comfortable seating so students would come into the Library after school and college.

We were convinced that if we were to deliver the council’s vision of “Putting Residents First” the Libraries had to be central to our thinking, but we knew the same old tired revamping formula wouldn’t work. In a changing digital age our Libraries need to adapt, to modernise and develop to attract a new generation of
customer but still remain true to their communities and to serve the residents that continued to use them.

Libraries: The alternative approach of Brent and Bucks

Catching up with some magazine reading I read a couple of pieces that illustrate the contrasting approach of local councils towards library closures.

Toby Young writes in The Spectator (£) about the Kensal Rise Library in Queen’s Park which Labour-run Brent Council is proposing to close - blaming central Government cuts..

Toby says:

This cynical ploy is particularly inexcusable in the case of the Kensal Rise Library because there’s a well-organised group of local volunteers in Queen’s Park who’ve offered to take it over.

As part of its ‘consultation’ over the future of this and the five other libraries in the borough threatened with closure, Brent Council invited various local groups to submit proposals as to how they might be saved. The Friends of Kensal Rise Library, a group that includes numerous successful authors as well as lawyers, accountants and businessmen, submitted an 11-page plan detailing how they would reduce the running costs through a combination of fundraising and volunteering. Under their proposal, the cost to the council of running the library for three years would be £163,670, a reduction of its current running costs by two thirds and less than the annual salary of Brent’s chief executive.

Councillor in charge of libraries had his fine waived

Cllr Nigel Ayre, is a Lib Dem councillor on York and as Executive Member for Leisure has responsibility for libraries. He recently ran up a fine of £22.80 - but has had it waived by the Council's head of libraries and heritage.

The Press, a local paper in York, reports:

Coun Nigel Ayre, executive member for leisure, was excused paying the fine after experiencing “extremely poor customer service”, said Fiona Williams, City of York Council’s head of libraries and heritage.

Coun Ayre said he did not know the fine was being waived and never spoke to staff about it, and Ms Williams insisted he had not been given special treatment.

Wandsworth's Big Society Library project

Cllr Sarah McDermott, Wandsworth’s Executive Member for the Environment and Culture says Big Society thinking has saved York Gardens Library

We know that these are challenging times for all involved with local government, but now is also a time of tremendous opportunity. Necessity forces innovation.

We need to create communities with ‘oomph’ – neighbourhoods where local residents are in charge of their own destiny, who feel that they can club together, get involved and shape the world around them.

There is a danger that tackling the dire state of the public finances defines all we do. If we are not going to let our opponents dominate the terms of debate then Conservatives in local government must respond to the challenge. Last week Wandsworth Council took a step closer towards that with the approval for a Big Society pilot project at York Gardens Library.

The project will still see the Council provide a small number of trained professional library staff, but will also tap into a significant bank of volunteers and take up offers of help and support from a local private school foundation that wants to contribute more to its surrounding neighbourhoods. Letting of surplus space to an adjacent school and housing teachers’ resources will bring in vital income.

How to cut library spending without cutting libraries

    

 

Tim Coates, the ex boss of Waterstones, visited the Isle of Wight on Tuesday to meet Conservative councillors and local residents to advise them on how to achieve substantial cuts in their library budget without closing any libraries or cutting library opening hours.

There is more detail on the approach he takes his blog.

Mr Coates did not charge the Isle of Wight Council for his advice.

Yesterday we learnt that Sir Steve Bullock, the elected Labour Mayor of Lewisham is proposing to close five of his borough's 11 libraries.

Shouldn't Sir Steve invite Mr Coates to come and visit him first?