SPRING 2023 PRICE £2.00

No. 104 ISSN 0266-6065

PHOTO: SUFFOLK LIBRARIES

The Library Campaign

27 Old Gloucester Street, LONDON WC1N 3AX

For general enquiries: call 0845 450 5946
Please note, calls will cost 2p per minute, plus your telephone company’s access charge.

Alternatively, contact us by emailing [email protected]

www.librarycampaign.com

Twitter: @LibraryCampaign

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Registered charity (England & Wales) No. 1102634

Elected Officers

Laura Swaffield London

Andrew Coburn Essex

Members of the Executive Committee

Geoffrey Dron Bolton

Bob Goodrick London

The following organisations send representatives to attend steering group meetings:

Unison,

Chartered Institute of Library & Information Professionals (CILIP).

Save the date! 25 MARCH 2023 – 2pm

We’re having an OPEN MEETING for everyone interested in public libraries, whether or not they are Library Campaign members, at UNISON CENTRE, 130 EUSTON ROAD, LONDON, NW1 2AY.

GUEST SPEAKER: Isobel Hunter (Chief Executive, Libraries Connected) with LC’s analysis of the current library landscape, to start our discussions – including on the Sanderson inquiry into public libraries in England, which will foreshadow a new government Public Library Strategy in 2023
plus anything else you want to talk about! The venue is close to the train and tube stations at Euston and King’s Cross.

We hope to see as many people as possible face-to-face (over tea, coffee and biscuits) but…

YOU CAN ATTEND ONLINE

The meeting will be available using Microsoft Teams. You do not need to download Teams to attend online but you must register on Eventbrite and say that you want to attend via Teams. A link will be sent closer to the time of the meeting.

NEXT for Library Campaign members only – OUR AGM

We’ll be brief, but we’ll cover our recent activities, the accounts, elections of officers – and our trustee panel.

WANT TO GET INVOLVED?

We are looking for new members of our advisory panel (called trustees because we are a charity). We want your ideas, your experiences and your news, to keep us fully in touch and responsive to your needs. It doesn’t mean a lot of work. To find out more, see page 35.

BOOK VIA Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/annual-general-meeting-sanderson-inquiry-into-public-libraries-tickets-551496971287

News catch-up

January 2023

Make your library famous!

The project to give England’s libraries a much-needed ‘digital presence’ is gradually making progress. It now has a name – LibraryOn.

We hope 2023 will show visible results. And you can get in on the ground floor – if you have photos of your library.

The team (at the British Library) wants to stockpile some ‘high-quality images to use on the platform that demonstrate what the modern public library does and their impact.

For example:

• places where people can work, study and learn

• groups offering support, learning and companionship

• friendly interactions between staff and customers

• storytimes that children and carers enjoy together.

‘If you have pictures that fit the bill, please send them to us, including relevant information such as the name of the library and the setting. If they’re large files, you might want to send them in a zipped folder, use a file-sharing tool like WeTransfer or send us a link to an online photo album.

‘Please ensure you’ve secured all relevant permissions before submitting them, and include photo credits. Send to: [email protected], with the subject line ‘Library photos’.

November 2022

Libraries provide a happy ending…

In our spring 2022 magazine (no 102) we reported on a rather mysterious nationwide project. The one thing we knew was that libraries would be involved.

It had begun as Theresa May’s idea to celebrate the UK’s creative wonders in the post-Brexit world to come. It never did shake off its label as ‘The Festival of Brexit’, though it was never called that.

At the last minute it acquired the mystifying name ‘Unboxed’. It didn’t help. The verdict now is that it was a poor way to spend £120m.

Participation didn’t quite reach its… ahem… ‘stretch target’ of 66 million worldwide. 2.8 million is the latest official figure.

Published comment has ranged from unconvinced to downright scathing.

But wait!

The big success was the libraries! Fifteen services staged the high tech Unboxed mix of virtual reality experiences and outdoor guided trails telling local stories.

The Reading Agency reports ‘exceptionally high footfall, with many authorities experiencing visitor numbers not seen prior to the Covid pandemic’.

‘Of the high percentage of new visitors, 67% said they thought they were now more likely to visit the library as a result of experiencing StoryTrails.’

Protect partner Professor James Bennett says: ‘StoryTrails has provided thousands with their first taste of immersive storytelling: and they loved it! 91% rated our 3D local map experience 4* or 5*.

‘Most libraries reported a two- or three-fold increase in footfall, reconnecting visitors to their local library spaces which are such crucial centres of storytelling in our communities.’

Proof yet again that libraries are a uniquely trusted venue for new experiences. And that library staff are well able to learn new skills and adapt to almost anything…

December 2022

UK or Ukraine – libraries matter

It’s seldom easy to get the mainstream press to cover library stories.

The Guardian is better than most. And it has started off December with – we hope – a message that can’t be brushed aside.

A Guardian leader on Saturday 3 December spelled out the seriousness of the current situation. It refers to the mass closures during ‘austerity’ up to 2019. It links this to the loss of a quarter of their funding. This point is often overlooked in clever-dick analyses that see any decline as proof of libraries’ ‘irrelevance’.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/dec/04/the-guardian-view-on-local-libraries-a-resource-that-must-be-protected

Then it brings us sharply up to date: ‘It has taken the catastrophic cost of living crisis of the last few months to reassert the claim of the 3,000 surviving outlets to be the beating heart of their communities: places where people can go not only to find books, information and internet access, but also to play, meet up and keep warm.’

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/oct/12/martin-lewis-libraries-winter-warm-banks

Arts Council England, it notes, is getting the point. Improved funding for selected leading services is ‘a step change’. But that is still peanuts, rising from £1.5m to just £4.1m.

And it’s not the point. The Guardian quotes the recent select committee’s call for proper basic government funding for all libraries, as we reported last month.

And it adds: ‘Responsibility for core costs remains with local authorities, and this is where the real anxieties lie, as councils struggle to balance the books in the face of yet more cuts…

‘It is vital that the government steps up. The cost of not doing so is unimaginable.’

A longer, darker, story appeared on Sunday 4 December in the Observer, the Guardian’s sister paper. It’s about Ukraine.

Our Library Campaigner magazine got there first, with a feature on Ukraine’s heroic librarians in our last issue (no 103, page 15). Kate Thompson focused mainly on their humanitarian work – sheltering, comforting and equipping local people.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/dec/04/our-mission-is-crucial-meet-the-warrior-librarians-of-ukraine

https://librarycampaign.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/103-COMPLETE.pdf

But the Observer looks at even deeper issues. Russia, right from the start, has deliberately bombed and ransacked archives, state records and cultural collections. Including records of its own activities, now and in the past. The aim is simple – to destroy Ukraine’s national memory, and its national identity.

Everyone should read this account of Ukraine’s impressive fightback.

The people know what is at stake. Do we in the UK realise just how much libraries matter?

Does the government?

November 2022

Not new is good news

Sighs of relief all round this week when the government announced – it is not changing the libraries minister! It’s still Lord Parkinson. (Apologies to those who caught up with Liz Truss’s short-lived appointment / allocation of the library brief to someone else.)

Over the years, libraries ministers have changed almost as rapidly as Prime Ministers in the past few weeks. Each time, DCMS civil servants and library bodies have patiently taken them on visits, talked to them and taught them what libraries do. They usually need it.

So it’s good not to have to start all over again. Libraries Connected trustee Ayub Khan told an LC webinar: ‘He’s been pragmatic and thoughtful, shown a genuine interest. I’m really, really pleased.’

UPDATE:

The re-shuffle in February left Lord Parkinson in place. Good!

The Secretary of State is (usually) far less important for libraries day-to-day. But, just for the record, Michelle Donelan was appointed on 6 September 2022 to replace the controversial Nadine Dorries. She had several previous ministerial posts in education, including just two days as Secretary of State for Education during the turbulent times of July 2022.

But now she’s moved to the new Department for Science, Innovation & Technology – taking with her the ‘digital’ bit of the DCMS, including the contentious online safety bill.

The slimmed-down DCMS is to ‘re-focus on the creative industries’.

The new SoS (for now) is Lucy Frazer. A lawyer, she has had several fairly short-lived posts, including justice, the Treasury, transport and most recently just four months in housing…

She has no record of huge (political) interest in culture, but has tweeted that DCMS is ‘such a critical department in Whitehall, and the home of some of the most exciting and fastest growing parts of the UK economy – so can’t wait to get stuck in.’

Finally, from January 2023, the Commons DCMS committee has a new ‘acting chair’ in the shape of Damian Green MP, already a member of the committee. This is while the previous chair deals with certain ‘allegations’…

November 2022

Levelling how?

A well-timed boost to libraries - tying them very firmly in to the levelling up agenda (what’s left of it) – from the Parliamentary select committee for culture*.

It endorses libraries as ‘an important part of a community’s infrastructure for people who are digitally excluded or who live in deprived neighbourhoods’ – but also for quality of life, flourishing local high streets and as ‘engines for entrepreneurship, economic growth and job creation’.

And it actually asks for proper funding. (Grim footnote: ‘Evidence to our inquiry posited that, for every £1 spent on library services in 2009–10, 58p was spent in 2017–18: an even sharper decline than spending on culture and heritage in the round.’)

Here again, no change is good news. Michael Gove is back in the saddle as secretary of state for levelling up. Whatever one might think of him in general, it’s good not to have to start all over again with a new boy. And the starter work he supervised was mostly well thought of. The one agreed flaw – lack of proper, stable funding…

* https://committees.parliament.uk/work/1744/reimagining-where-we-live-cultural-placemaking-and-the-levelling-up-agenda/publications

August 2022

Make a date with the Laureate!

Does your library’s name or location in the UK (village, town or city, but not street) begin with the letters E, F, G or Welsh Ff or Ng? If so, you can ask the Poet Laureate, Simon Armitage, to visit you on his next library tour: March 20–25, 2023.

Simon plans to give free readings in libraries for one week each spring, ‘from the flagship libraries of the big cities to smaller or mobile libraries serving rural areas… from A to Z, wherever the invitations take me’.

His ten-year journey will involve local communities, poets, high school students and/or writers’ groups in activities around the visit and in the audience. Each visit will also be live-streamed for an online audience.

Simon adds: ‘I also want to find a way of including alphabet letters from other languages spoken in these islands such as Welsh, Urdu or Chinese, and to involve communities where English might not be the first language.’ Ideas welcome.

He launched his tour in 2021 in Ashby-de-la-Zouch (A to Z in one go, as librarians suggested!), with C–D in 2022.

UPDATE:

Starting on 17 March, the poet will deliver readings at libraries in Exeter (17 March), Glastonbury (20 March), Eastbourne (21 March), Fakenham, Norfolk (22 March), Gladstone’s Library in Flintshire (23 March) and Ellesmere Port (23 March).

Most of these sessions will include performances by fellow poets. All are live events, free but you need to book.

Simon says: ‘I want to celebrate the physical space of libraries and take my work back into places that have given me so much…

‘My experience of reading and writing began in the village library where I grew up, then in the nearby town library, then in libraries at various places of study and teaching. For many people they are an invaluable aspect of everyday life, giving access not just to books but to services, learning, conversation and creative thinking.

‘I want to pay my respects to these unique institutions. By planning readings up to a decade in advance I’m being optimistic about the future of our libraries, and challenging those authorities who would consider closing them down.

‘It would have been easy to stream these events from my office or garden shed, but at a time when libraries are under threat and have been out of bounds during the pandemic, reading from inside their physical structures feels like an act of solidarity – with books, with poetry, and with communities.’

Details and booking: https://www.simonarmitage.com/how-to-book-e-to-g-libraries-tour-2023

Brixton library, London

September 2022

SURPRISE! A NEW LIBRARY STRATEGY!

Well! There is to be ‘a new public libraries strategy due in 2023… to make sure [they] are providing the best possible service for their communities’.

Whatever that means, it will be based on work by a new ‘advisory panel’ led by one Baroness Sanderson. Her job will be to act as an ‘independent chair’ and ‘provide a fresh, challenging and impartial perspective on libraries to help formulate innovative new policy ideas’.

It’s not yet known who will be on this panel. TLC has been quick to urge that it should include library users.

In a hastily-sent email to the Baroness, we said: ‘We believe that library users and supporters have a lot to contribute to any review of the service at national level, as well as whatever contribution they may make locally.

‘Their perspective will be different from most, if not all, of the library bodies and others who have in the past been part of this sort of panel / review.’

Baroness Sanderson is billed as ‘an experienced former journalist [for the Mail on Sunday] and government adviser [to Theresa May] who joined the government benches in the House of Lords in 2019’.

Meanwhile, we must go by what she has so far said: ‘I’m thrilled to be taking up this new role.

‘Libraries play such an important part in our lives, be that instilling a love of reading in childhood or encouraging economic, social and mental wellbeing throughout adulthood and into old age.

‘Too often undervalued, they are one of the most critical forms of social infrastructure we have and I look forward to working alongside the experts, and listening to a wide range of voices, so that we may help develop ideas as to how we may promote and protect our libraries into the future.’

The government claims there has only been one previous national strategy, in 2016. TLC would say there have been quite a few, under different names. If you want to check up on the 2016 version, it’s all there in the back issues of our magazine on our website: issues no 93 and 94.

More details: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/baroness-sanderson-to-help-develop-new-public-libraries-strategy

October 2022

LIBRARIES REVIEW GETS GOING

Busy taking notes, here’s Baroness Sanderson on a fact-finding tour.

She is, you’ll remember, chair of a panel working on ‘a new public libraries strategy’, as we reported on this website on 5 September.

We gather that the library sector was keen to get this set up before any big changes took place in the political world. How right they were!

‘As someone from outside the sector,’ she says, ‘I have a lot to learn and a lot of people to meet but my first priority was to visit frontline library staff and volunteers – to see for myself the work that they do and to understand the challenges they face.’

Her first tour included Wimbledon, Woodford, Yeovil, Taunton, Sutton and the Deepings volunteer-run library in Lincs.

‘Readiness to adapt, while working with the local community to address their specific needs, has been central to every library branch I’ve visited,’ she reports, ‘whatever their size, location or management structure …

‘They should be recognised as one of the most valuable community assets we have … I feel privileged to work with the sector to help develop ideas as to how we may protect them into the future and widen the understanding of what they do – across government departments and more widely through society.’

Hear hear to all of that!

For her full report, go to: https://dcmslibraries.blog.gov.uk/2022/10/13/stamford-to-sutton-and-beyond-visiting-library-branches-across-england

January 2023

WE BEGIN WITH ...

... a save the date call: MARCH 25, when we will be holding a public meeting and our AGM

There will be the facility to participate online – but it will be an in-person event as well! We will be delighted if you can make it. Full details will be announced in next month’s newsletter.

We’d like to see as many people as possible in London. The venue will be the UNISON Centre on Euston Road – a short walk from Euston, Kings Cross and St Pancras stations and several tube / bus stops.

We will start with an open meeting (i.e. you don’t need to be a Library Campaign member to attend) on a topic of current interest in public libraries – the Sanderson review for the 2023 public libraries strategy. We are planning to invite a guest speaker with insight ...

... and we hope TLC members will stay on for the AGM.

A new libraries strategy for 2023!

Fact-finding in Yeovil

Liz, Baroness Sanderson, was appointed in September but was delayed in getting started, not least by the death of the Queen. Her priority, sensibly, was to visit a lot of libraries. She met Friends and users as well as staff.

So – what’s it all about? Her role is not to write the official national strategy; she will have ‘nothing to do with it’.

But she will feed in her findings, gather as many views/examples as possible, and generally ‘take a fresh look’. If she gains insights that aren’t strictly part of her brief, she will pass them on anyway.

The work will be structured around the headings already developed by the national Ambition project in 2016. This came as a huge relief to us. The last thing anyone needs is yet another ‘review’, starting from scratch and spending ages sorting out the basics.

Liz, as yet, has no clear view of what public libraries need. Quite rightly. She is not making up her mind until she has heard from everyone.

Ideas

She is certainly not short of ideas, but all are strictly provisional and open to change as she learns more.

She is already pretty well-informed. Few matters we suggested were completely new to her.

To find out more, she is holding ‘round tables’ with as many relevant organisations as possible – including CILIP, The Reading Agency, the British Library, publishers, library staff and, of course, The Library Campaign.

TLC will be doing its own further research into what Friends and users think, including at our meeting on 25 March.

There are, for efficiency, just two standing members of the round tables – the Local Government Association and Libraries Connected (representing the heads of local library services). She is impressed by what the latter has achieved in the short time since it was given proper funding.

She is also very happy with the libraries minister, Lord Parkinson:

‘He really is passionate about libraries. He has always had a library card and used it, wherever he was.’

The round table meetings will finish around May. Her report is due out sometime ‘in the summer’. She promises it won’t be as long as Ambition…

One thing she is clear about: she doesn’t want to recommend anything that adds to local authorities’ burden, but aims to ease it.

Funding

She is also honest about something else: ‘I would love to recommend more funding, but that’s not within my remit.’ In other words the government is not going to do that, whatever she thinks or says, and it may detract from other, more positive, ideas.

We did agree on a number of things. The information gathered by CIPFA is not being properly used. Libraries have strengths that can also be weaknesses: their dual status as both local and national; the fact that they do anything for anyone – not an easy message for a conventional marketing approach.

And we agreed that libraries badly need better publicity. Ideally this would be at a national level – if local councils would buy into it instead of ploughing their own furrow.

People often simply don’t know what is available. Liz admitted that libraries’ e-book offer had been news to her! She thinks it is better than certain commercial offers…

So, does she ‘get’ what libraries are about? A quote from her first blog as she toured libraries gives us reason to believe that she does: ‘Too often undervalued, they are one of the most critical forms of social infrastructure we have.’

Tea with Liz
in the Lords

Baroness Sanderson.

Misinformation matters

The creation of reliable information is important – but so is its delivery to where it is needed. While schools aim to work on this with children, there are few means to reach adults. This should be a priority area. We will focus on this angle rather than on the sources of information.

Public libraries and librarians are constantly cited as uniquely trusted. No other institution or profession (except perhaps the NHS) has anything like this reputation.

They are also uniquely accessible. Although 12 years of local government austerity have led to over 800 closures, the remainder still form a national network of walk-in centres with branches in every locality – where people already expect to find information. Information from an unbiased source with no hidden agenda of any kind.

Trained staff

Professional and trained library staff may be asked directly to provide information, or may be asked to help a library user trying to do their own research. The object might be anything from basic information on local services to complex health issues or academic research papers. Obviously, this creates many day-to-day opportunities to steer people in the right direction, on matters that concern them.

Many people are entirely reliant on public libraries for internet access, and many need help and support in using it. Again, this creates many natural opportunities to ensure reliable information is obtained, and to teach some information assessment skills.

Specialist reference librarians are a particularly valuable resource – both in helping individual library users and in compiling relevant information for identified local needs.

We need hardly add that there has been a sharp decline in both general and specialist posts for professional librarians in the past 12 years. Nor has it been easy to expand and update the skills of those that remain.

Of equal concern is the creation of some 500 volunteer-run “community managed libraries” by many local authorities. These are labelled “libraries”, often with nothing to distinguish them from professional council-run libraries, and will be used and trusted as libraries – but they are highly unlikely to have anyone on site with any kind of qualification. It is unclear what ethical standards or vetting procedures might be in place. This is of very obvious concern.

Public libraries, properly funded, can contribute hugely to the prevention of misinformation, and the supply of reliable information. The main restrictions are funding and staff training.

Proactive

Libraries are already being proactive in this area. There are obvious outlets where misinformation can be brought into the discussion, such as coding clubs, IT skills courses, interest clubs, reading groups and special sessions on specific topics.

Some libraries provide training to users in how to use the internet, including safeguarding and scam spotting. Others have partnered with outside organisations such as banks.

There is great scope for adding to this provision.

For example, Reading Well is a nationwide scheme that promotes collections of books on selected physical and mental health topics. These have all been selected by relevant experts, including the National Academies. Non-users of libraries can be referred to them by GPs etc.

One of the national library bodies could be commissioned to create and share lists of useful websites, in a similar way.

Local services are well placed to spot local groups and relevant topics for exploration on a more personal level. Library users and local Friends groups could be a valuable means of picking up ideas on both.

Focused activity

To demonstrate the huge range of focused activity among existing library provision, we refer you to an Arts Council England report: Libraries welcome everyone: Six stories of diversity and inclusion from libraries in England (it lists far more than six initiatives) https://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication/libraries-welcome-everyone-six-stories-diversity-and-inclusion-libraries-england

The library professional bodies are already well on top of the issues.They have been working collaboratively on solutions for some time via the Media and Information Literacy Alliance (MILA), co-sponsored by CILIP and the CILIP Information Literacy Group. We have no doubt that they will be sending their own evidence.

Campaign catch-up

DERBY

Derby City is proposing to cut over £100,000 from books and other ‘resources’, plus a £55,000 cut by ending all funding and support to its fleet of ‘community managed libraries’ (ie, usually volunteer run), carrying with it another £107,000 cut in the staff that served CMLs.

All this, it chirps, will enable ‘wider community opportunities, locality working and asset efficiencies to be explored’. If these were not forthcoming in the heady days when these CMLs were first set up to ‘save libraries’, we wonder if they will pop up now. Latest news is that the council has found £415,000 to keep them open for about a year, while it goes on searching.

The figures show just how much it has cost one council to support these supposed money-savers. The real cost and viability of CMLs has never been properly researched…

ESSEX

Way back in 2019, SOLE (Save Our Libraries Essex) formed to fight an awful plan that could have closed all but 15 of the county’s 74 libraries. They had to cover a huge area, a lot of libraries – and carry on through lockdown. But public support was demonstrated everywhere, including by a march of almost 1,000 people.

The council wisely gave in. It promised to keep all 74 branches open – but hoped to get as many as possible run by ‘the community’. SOLE said this was no solution. It produced a paper explaining why (still very useful – find it in TLC’s magazine no 98). As plans and councillors came and went, it produced its own list of basic requirements.

Now, finally, real progress! On 14 January, SOLE asked the council’s deputy leader a clear question: ‘Are you currently seeking, or will you accept, offers from voluntary groups to take over and run our currently professionally run libraries?’ The answer: no. SOLE comments: ‘This is the reassurance we have been seeking for some time.

‘A closure by stealth plan cancelled!’ But it will go on watching.

BRISTOL

Some campaigns work rather faster… Late last November, Bristol floated the possibility of moving the Central Library out of its iconic, splendidly sited, Grade I listed building. By mid-December, there were over 4,000 signatures on petitions and all-party furious opposition.

By 11 January, the idea was ‘off the table’. Coincidentally, there was soon to be a by-election in the ward where the library is sited…

HENDON

Hendon, in north London, is an example of a growing trend – where a library is not threatened directly to save money or ‘modernise the service’ (ha ha), but is collateral damage carelessly caused by some awful mega-development.

So the battle may be about planning law, not library law. It’s new territory. Save Hendon has been showing the way since 2021. An early focus of its excellent campaign against a massive ‘Hendon hub’ was the listed library. This was to be gutted, turned into a business centre for Middlesex University and replaced by an obscure glass box dwarfed by student housing blocks.

Save Hendon harnessed public support for the library and 100% opposition to all the hub’s planning applications. Meanwhile, a local resident started a judicial review (JR) process challenging the legal status of the whole plan. The underlying issue was the council’s determination to proceed with minimal scrutiny or consultation.

While the JR churned on through 2022, local elections changed Barnet council from Tory to Labour. The new council asked to pause the JR, then withdrew the planning document altogether. So, no JR but a point won. That story can only now be told, as the legal costs have finally been settled (Barnet has to pay most of them).

The chance was lost to test the hub concept in court. But all the delays have saved the library (so far). The overall fight continues, with Save Hendon still playing its part.

NOTTINGHAM

It’s been a cliff-hanger, but at last it’s official – Nottingham will not close three libraries to save money. It all started with a new Central Library being built in a new town centre, with its fit-out costs to be met by selling the old site. Covid, and some deals collapsing, left the library service with no such income – and savings of £233,000 a year to make. Losing three branches was part of the proposed solution.

We have to thank Save Nottingham Libraries, who united authors and public in a strong campaign. We also thank the library management, who arranged a (Zoom) meeting where we outlined our concerns before sending our evidence to the consultation. Then it made changes that reduced the required saving to just £79,000. Closing three branches to save this paltry sum was just too ridiculous an idea to survive. We have yet to evaluate the ‘staff restructure’ that achieved this…

WIRRAL

Wirral’s library service has the distinction of being the only one ever to be subject to a full enquiry under the 1964 Act (in 2009, when Andy Burnham was DCMS Secretary of State). Its drastic closure plans were held to be in breach of the law – and hastily withdrawn. The case is still cited by the DCMS as guidance to follow (it’s all explained on our website: https://librarycampaign.com/beyond-the-council).

Yet last year the council announced similar drastic cuts. The only real difference was that it hoped to turn over many libraries to ‘the community’. It didn’t go well. Only two local groups managed to produce a viable business case. Nine libraries closed late last year.

The council went on trying to find takers for them. And contemplated closing or re-siting even more…

Meanwhile public opposition exploded, notably via the very active Friends of Wallasey Central Library. After much to-ing and fro-ing, a dramatic council meeting in February proposed to keep nine libraries open after all, and avoid moving the two libraries in Birkenhead and Wallasey.

CROYDON

Croydon’s dire financial state is well known, with new horrors still being discovered. No surprise, then, that its much-contested previous plan to prevent library closures by inviting in ‘the community’ has been replaced by a grim statement from the Mayor that even that can’t be guaranteed.

Now a survey is asking locals to rank nine services in order of their importance: support for elderly and vulnerable adults; services for children, young people and families, and education; rubbish and recycling collection; keeping streets safe and clean; housing services and homelessness prevention; libraries and culture; parks and open spaces; leisure and sports facilities; economic growth, job creation and regeneration.

Tricky point for library supporters: libraries, of course, make a solid contribution to almost all these areas!

CARDIFF

Wholesale closures are not currently on the menu in Cardiff – probably because the council remembers the huge row in 2015 that forced it to reverse plans to close seven libraries. Instead, it’s offering a choice of savings to affect all libraries: fewer staff and more volunteers; closing on Saturday afternoons; closing one day a week; finding savings “elsewhere”.

A strong campaign is arguing that these seemingly limited cuts could lead directly to complete closures in future. Cardiff People’s Assembly argues: ‘Cardiff Council proposals to slash library opening times and recruit more unpaid volunteers is a classic technique.

‘Opening hours are cut, the service is run down, use falls as residents find their local library is not open when they want and does not have what they want, this is then used as an excuse to close libraries.’

HACKNEY

Here the fight (against staff cuts and more) is led by Unison. And it has a way to go yet...

PEACEHAVEN AND REDDITCH

These two towns – one in East Sussex, one in Worcestershire – are keeping us busy. In each case, a flourishing local library is seen as being in the way of a big shopping centre development.

In each case, the development is being handled at town/borough council level. But the library is the responsibility of the county council – the official library authority.

In each case, there are plans to re-site the library. But they are either reassuring but very much open to query (Worcs) – or would mean a library far smaller than the current one (East Sussex).

In each case, local Friends groups have done admirable detective work uncovering the flaws – and arguing for something better.

TLC is closely involved in both cases. Watch this space!

Engines for entrepreneurs!

Politicians of all parties have announced their ambition for Britain to be the best place in the world to start and grow a business. There is remarkable consensus that if the UK economy is to recover and grow after recent economic shocks, we must drive innovation and make the most of entrepreneurial potential.

Public libraries are central to realising this ambition. Through Business & IP Centres and other localised services, the library network has become one of the country’s most effective and accessible sources of support for new and growing businesses.

As the DCMS (Department for Culture, Media & Sport) Commons committee recently put it, libraries act as ‘engines for entrepreneurship, economic growth and job creation’.1

Libraries are welcoming, non-judgmental spaces – and most of their business services are completely free. It’s understandable that first-time entrepreneurs can feel more comfortable seeking advice from a library than from a bank, trade association or consultant.

That’s why the businesses that libraries support are more likely to be run by women and people from ethnic minority backgrounds.

As they focus on building a more resilient, dynamic and inclusive economy, local and national decision-makers have much to learn from public libraries and the many thousands of businesses that have benefited from their support.

Our new survey2 shows that:

• Almost every library service (98%) offers some form of specialist support to entrepreneurs, startups and SMEs. This makes the national library network one of the leading providers of services to new and growing businesses.

• Almost three-quarters (73%) offer one-to-one personalised business advice, including coaching and mentoring.

• Three-quarters (75%) offer specialist advice on intellectual property, helping entrepreneurs protect their business ideas.

• Over four-fifths (84%) of library services give free access to leading business databases, significantly reducing the time and cost of developing a business plan.

• More than three-quarters (77%) provide networking opportunities, helping entrepreneurs build strong business relationships and find new clients.

• Three-quarters (75%) provide free workshops, seminars and training for those starting or growing a business.

1 House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Reimagining where we live: cultural placemaking and the levelling up agenda, November 2022 (HC 155)

2 https://www.librariesconnected.org.uk/news/libraries-vital-new-and-growing-businesses-briefing-reveals
The briefing includes examples of local library business services, and quotes from users.

Digital demands

Lorensbergs carries out research every year to explore how library needs and usage are changing. The 2022 survey was answered by 80 library authorities, and some took part in discussion workshops.

As libraries continue to provide vital space and resources for work, skills development and study, we look at their technology investment plans for the year ahead.

This year the findings also highlight the achievements of libraries in regaining footfall – and the initiatives and efforts that are meeting greatest success.

Key findings include:

• Library PCs remain essential to job-seeking. In 75% of libraries, users access computers and receive staff help to find new jobs on all or most days.

• Around half of libraries are seeing an increase in requests for digital skills support, with almost all others seeing steady demand. Around 50% give time and resources every day to helping users develop their digital skills.

• With the cost of living crisis biting hard, PC access in libraries is essential. Over half of libraries help users save money on all or most days.

• Every week, new business ideas are progressed in nearly 40% of libraries with the help of computers and staff.

• On all or most days, staff and PC access in over 70% of libraries support users with social inclusion, benefit applications and homework.

• Demand for wireless printing in the library continues to rise. Over half of libraries are investing in this service in 2023. Top benefits are reported as greater convenience, better support for BYOD (bring your own device) users, a more modern library, and attracting new types of users.

• Over 50% of transactions in libraries take place via self-service. More than half of libraries aim to reach 75% or more by 2024, freeing up staff for other services. A third of libraries plan to invest in kiosks or open access/unstaffed library models in 2023.

• Nearly 30% of libraries are planning a PC refresh this year, investing in modern library services and digital inclusivity.

• Average footfall has reached nearly 70% of pre-Covid levels, up from around 50% at end of 2021. Successes in regaining footfall include both resuming previously popular activities and trying new initiatives. Publicity and social media, promoting the community aspect of what libraries provide, are achieving results.

Although lockdowns finished in early 2022, it is still early days returning to normal services for many libraries. Staffing levels and user behaviour are both still very different compared to before the pandemic.

New staff, or those in new roles, are still finding their feet. Many users are only just starting to venture back. These are just two of many challenges.

Footfall recovery is lagging behind other statistics: book issues and PC hours are increasing. However, these increases are driven by users borrowing more books or staying longer – not more users coming in.

Libraries are trying a range of approaches, from bringing back previously popular or important services, to trying new initiatives.

Some instances have brought in large numbers of users. However, these might be difficult to repeat. They have tended to be beyond the libraries’ control or influence – for example, helping with council tax rebates or refugee influxes.

Libraries are working hard providing critical support but this doesn’t always translate into much greater footfall. Some important services given to the most needy are difficult to scale up. Staffing issues appear to be a universal problem at present – for example, coaching or advice sessions that are usually delivered one to one, such as IT support.

Some libraries are committing to a certain number of hours of delivered sessions, and working hard to fulfil these as far as possible. It often isn’t sufficient to meet demand.

Not all users are prepared to wait for the help required. They want their IT questions answered right away. One authority reported that help with bus pass and blue badge applications had a waiting list of two to three weeks.

Here we see the importance of improving staffing levels, increasing volunteer recruitment and retention, and building new partnerships that support the library’s work.

Two things have clearly helped libraries succeed. First, close working with the council or other parties (eg, charities) ensures users are signposted to libraries, while staff are better able to recognise and meet their needs.

Second, libraries aim to build on what might be a user’s one-off interaction with them and encourage them to use their other services. One-time users are very welcome, but it’s return visits that help build better footfall levels and social capital over time.

In general, participants described a lot of work and communications taking place across a range of initiatives. However, understanding what makes the most difference isn’t easy.

Libraries are still experimenting, and many have exciting new plans that are yet to be carried out. It’s too soon to say with confidence what’s been a success in every case. So libraries continue to persevere, making sure they’ve covered enough bases with the necessary investment to reach a return to former footfall levels.

Talking of tech… 2023 looks to be the year that England’s libraries finally get the online shop window they’ve been crying out for for years.

During lockdown, for instance, libraries devised a fantastic array of online services. Thousands of people found them almost despite their not-very-good local authority websites.

In normal times, too, it would be good to have a single online shop window. Something easy to find, showing what libraries do and leading people to their own local service.

Wales, after all, has done this for years – in two languages! (http://https://libraries.wales and https://llyfrgelloedd.cymru)

A huge project for England has been grinding on – very, very thoroughly – for years. It’s now masterminded by a team at the British Library, and was boosted by £3.4m from Arts Council England back in 2021.

Up to now it’s been called the ‘Single Digital Presence’. Now it has a catchier, less sinister name – LibraryON. And a logo.

Website

And a website is finally being developed. In March, a beta version will be available. It will start testing with a small number of people.

The content will include ‘emotive stories about public libraries, what they offer and how they are relevant to individuals and communities’ in order to ‘inspire and motivate people to engage with and visit their local library’.

Also starting in March, local libraries will be able to bid for a total of £1.1m in grants. LibraryON says: ‘It will fund initiatives that make it easier for the public to find, discover, explore and access the range of services libraries offer.

‘Projects could include upgrading existing websites or online offers and services, or piloting something brand new.’

Meanwhile, LibraryON has been hosting online ‘drop-in sessions’ for library staff to feed in their views and ideas. Three of us from TLC attended the first, and found they had plenty to say…

The hope is to have a big launch to coincide with Libraries Week in October. Fingers crossed!

You can keep up with the news here:

• https://libraryon.org

• https://www.bl.uk/projects/library-on

• [email protected] to join the mailing list

TELL US MORE!

We want to know more about our members, our non-members and library Friends groups in general.
What are you doing? How can TLC help?

You’re busy. So to make it as easy as possible, we have put as much as we can into tick-box form.

But if you want to tell us more, we’d be delighted!

If you want more space, please email [email protected],
or write to The Library Campaign, 127 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AX

1. ARE YOU A MEMBER OF THE LIBRARY CAMPAIGN? Q Yes Q No IF NO, GO TO QUESTION 6

2. Can we have your preferred email address? (We may already have it but we would like to be sure.
Please fill it in here – and consider subscribing to our monthly e-newsletter).

Email address

Q Please subscribe me to the newsletter (I can cancel this at any time)

3. When/why did you join?

4. What benefits of TLC membership do you value?

Q My subscription helps support public libraries

Q Source of information

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Q TLC will be there if I ever need information/advice on libraries

Q Website

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Q Conferences / meetings (live)

Q Conferences / meetings (on Zoom)

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5. What else would you like TLC to do or provide?

6. ARE YOU A MEMBER OF A LIBRARY FRIENDS GROUP? (including local campaign groups etc)

Q Yes Q No

7. When/why did you join?

8. Name of group

9. Name of library

10. Name of local council

11. Are you part of an umbrella group of Friends (or other) groups?
eg, one bringing together all the groups in one local authority.

Q Yes Q No

Name of umbrella group

Do you have good relations with:
12. Q local staff? 13. Q local library management 14. Q Head of Service? 15. Q the council?

16. Do you have regular/occasional meetings with any of these?

Q Yes Q No Q Other

17. Do you have input into the library’s work, e.g. choosing stock, planning, jointly running events?

Q Yes Q No

Please give a few details

18. Does your Friends group have a constitution? Q Yes Q No

19. Does it have a formalised structure, e.g. as a charity or CIC?

Q Yes (please give details)

Q No

20. What does the group do, or has it done in the past?

Q Campaign to save a library or prevent cuts (e.g. to opening hours)

Q Say things the library staff are not allowed to say

Q Provide feedback/ideas on the service

Q Help publicise the service: personal contacts/social media/other

Q Raise funds/ examples of things you have bought

Q Run talks

Q Run craft or other fairs

Q Run reading group

Q Run other groups

Q Film club

Q Exhibitions

Q Local history research

Q Gardening

Q Volunteer to support staff e.g. computer buddies/ meet & greet/home deliveries

Q Take over the running of the library to prevent closure

Q Other

Please give some brief details if you have time

21. Do you have a website? Q Yes Q No

22. Please give us the address so we can list it on the TLC website www.librarycampaign.com

23. Which social media does your Friends Group use?

Q Facebook page Q Newsletter Q Twitter Q Instagram Q TikTok Q SnapChat

Q Other online presence (please give details)

24. If appropriate, please give us details of your social media pages so that we can follow you and list you on our
website.

What problems do you have as a Friends group? Please score from 1 (no problem) to 7 (big problem)

25. Not enough time ........

26. Not enough money ........

27. Hard to find officers (chair, secretary, treasurer etc) ........

28. Not enough members ........

29. Library service does not welcome our input ........

30. Councillors do not value libraries ........

31. Hard to get local press to take an interest ........

31a. Other. Please state

32. Is there something you do really well, or a success you are proud of, or a story you’d like to tell,
or something else that other groups might like to know about?

Please give brief details

33. Would you be interested in occasionally advising other groups? Q Yes Q No

What experience/skills could you pass on?

34. Is there anything your group would like, to help support their work?

Q Funding

Q National publicity

Q Contact with other groups

Q More information about

Q Other

Please give us your name and a contact address (post or email)

TO POST, FOLD ALONG THE DOTTED LINES, TUCK ONE SIDE INSIDE THE OTHER, AND (PLEASE!) ADD A STAMP

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Private Eye and public libraries

Private Eye lunches are something of a legend. They’re where the editor and celebrity, Ian Hislop, hosts a bunch of invited guests, normally politicians and national reporters, for a three course meal in a nice pub in Soho.

They go on for quite a long time – 1pm to 4pm not being unusual – and are used for gossip, information-seeking and having a good time. Who attends them, other than the Private Eye staff, is a confidential affair. It’s fine to out oneself, as this article shows, but not to say who else was there.

This is because people may be there without their employer’s knowledge, and of course one would hate others to find out who gave some particularly tasty piece of news to the magazine.

Censoring

I’m lucky enough that my recent lunch there was not my first. That was in 2015, when library cuts were brutal and people at the meal were learning that, gosh, social media can be biased and that library staff are sometimes replaced by volunteers. More innocent times.

This time round, that sort of thing is rather taken for granted. But, as before, libraries were still an important part of the discussion. This was pretty good going considering there were 12 other people there, including a couple I recognised off the telly.

The general feeling was that public libraries are incredibly important institutions where people can go in for free and be sure of being given books and information that are, say, not made up by a certain former ex-US president.

The importance of ‘warm libraries’, where libraries welcome anyone to come in and get warm, was also appreciated.

Interestingly, though, a major topic of conversation was who decides what books are being bought. This is something of a huge thing in the USA at the moment. Library after library is facing challenges over the titles on the shelves, including anything which may be seen to criticise Christianity or promote anything LGBT or anything about race.

Florida school libraries are facing panic at the moment because every challenged book has to be taken off the shelf – and they are getting hundreds of challenges. Librarians in North Dakota face the possibility of 30 days in prison if they refuse to take off a banned book. And, yes, they have banned books in the USA.

Those that think such things could never happen here are deluding themselves. People who think that censoring (although of course the word ‘censor’ is rarely used) library shelves is a good idea exist in Britain too. And they have access to the same social media and how-to-ban-books webpages that Americans use.

I know from my contacts that there are increasing challenges in this country already, although thankfully few. But a sign that it can happen here is the related matter of vocal, and potentially violent, protests against drag queen story times. They were quite a factor in Britain last summer and are sadly still continuing.

Then there was the Private Eye gossip. My goodness me. You know all that stuff about how politicians can’t be trusted? Well, if half of what I heard during that meal was true then wowzers, it’s worse than that.

As Prince Harry’s book had just come out, there was a lot of talk about that as well. Books still have power to dominate conversations, it seems.

That book has long waiting lists in public libraries up and down the country, meaning that anyone can read it. The same way as they can read about other current events, biographies, adventure stories and whodunnits. Libraries are rather wonderful that way. I tell you what, though, I heard something about a certain author that has put me off them for life.

Contacts

Why was I invited to the lunch? Well, Jane who works at the Eye does their ‘Library News’ bits and uses my website (www.publiclibrariesnews.com) on a regular basis. So I guess this was in the way of thanks.

She even showed me the Private Eye offices afterwards – think small crowded townhouse full of computers, books, very intelligent people and cartoons – which was rather amazing.

So, thank you, Library Campaign, for agreeing to pay my travel from the North West to London to attend. I hope I put forward the case for libraries around the table sufficiently, while enjoying the food. And I hope I made more contacts there, who hopefully know they can contact me in future if they need anything about the sector.

Fighting for public libraries is a long-term affair – I’ve been doing it most of my life. This strikes me as a nice little something that may help on the way.

Public library services are really important things. It’s great that just occasionally they get the attention they deserve.

High school library, Florida, 2023: all these books were removed after a complaint by just one man.

It’s important to keep libraries in the public eye. Hence the advice we give local Friends groups on our website (https://librarycampaign.com/communicate and https://librarycampaign.com/media-tips).

It’s certainly part of TLC’s job. Sometimes it’s easy. One success came via writer Kate Thompson, whose library stories have featured in our magazine twice.

Helping the campaign to save Bethnal Green library had got her interested in the man who had paid for it – the library philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. She got the Daily Express interested in a feature.

We briefed her on some details. She also wanted some recent history. So we told her about the fight by the Friends of Carnegie Library in Lambeth to save their library (twice). Result – almost two full pages in a major national newspaper on 21 November 2022. With a headline that is all too topical these days…

Sometimes it’s not so easy. Before Christmas, TalkTalk published a survey showing increased use of library workspaces by small businesses. Would we comment, asked the PR agency? Of course. The result can be seen on page 16.

Then they asked would we be willing to be filmed if any broadcast media took the bait? Sure. Laura Swaffield can get to most London media studios quite easily. Then – could we arrange for the filming to be in a library? Probably tomorrow?

Cue a mad afternoon contacting Lambeth’s head of service, Lambeth’s publicity department and the head librarian at Brixton library. All said yes, bless them – they have a good story to tell.

Tomorrow dawned. The PR agency said THREE broadcasters had shown interest – but all had cried off. So it was all in vain. The piece did appear, however, in some local papers, HR Review and, rather pleasingly, the Daily Mail. Libraries Connected liked our quote so much, they emailed congratulations…

Helping the press is all part of a day’s work for TLC

Vision for the future

Over two million people in the UK live with sight loss. Many others have problems dealing with print, for instance through dyslexia. Libraries can – and should – cater for them. Friends groups could help spread the word about what’s available, and maybe even raise funds for some useful equipment. Now is a good time to find out more – RNIB (Royal National Institute of Blind People) is investing in a major programme of engagement with libraries. Lara Marshall explains.

RNIB has recently put lots of funding into community engagement in line with their new strategy. In May 2022, they recruited me as their first UK Library Engagement Manager.

My role, salary and expenses are funded through a legacy payment to the RNIB Library. The fundraising team are trying to raise more money to keep me on.

My job is to empower library services to provide the best service they can for BPS (blind and partially sighted) users. I will visit libraries all over the UK, and would like to work with Friends groups.

I am developing a comprehensive offer to public libraries. The starting point is to enrich and support things already in place. It makes sense to partner up with the work that’s already been done and build on successes.

Libraries already provide accessible stock in the form of e-audio, e-books, physical talking books and large print.

Many take part in Hi-Vis Fortnight every June, to promote their own and others’ BPS services. (https://readingsight.org.uk/hivis-2023-1-14-june-2023).

And there is an agreed Vision & Print Impaired People’s Promise. This has been developed by RNIB, Libraries Connected and the Share the Vision umbrella group of BPS organisations.

It is part of the Libraries Connected suite of Universal Offers. So all public libraries should use it as a checklist to ensure they are covering the basics. Outstanding services are highlighted in the Libraries Connected awards. See box.

BPS people should also connect in to the other Universal Library Offers:

Reading – Link to the RNIB Library recommendations for audio, braille and large print for libraries. Ensure that all BPS customers find the most appropriate service for their reading needs and can make full use of the public library service.

Health and Wellbeing – Talks, info stands and groups promoting eye health. This is vitally important: half of the people living with sight loss could have avoided it through routine eye examinations.

Culture and Creativity – Make this fully accessible in all library settings, via staff training and accessible buildings. Encourage groups such as reading groups, coffee mornings, talks by BPS authors.

For inspiration see the Crick Crack Club and its Storytelling in the Dark project (https://crickcrackclub.com).

Information and Digital – Tech for life hubs, RNIB accessible products, product demonstrations. ‘2nd life’ products for vulnerable BPS who don’t have internet access or any digital products. Work with library digital champions.

Children’s Promise – RNIB Bookshare gives access to educational books and literature in all accessible formats. RNIB is planning to provide resources and toolkits for accessible story and rhyme times.

Other partnerships will be developed with The Library Campaign and Share the Vision, with library services directly (local authorities, community libraries), with local groups and societies for people with sight loss, prison libraries, The Reading Agency, the British Library, the Arts Council and the Wellcome Collection.

On its website, Share The Vision has great general guidance on making buildings accessible (https://readingsight.org.uk). We will build on this by visiting and advising on accessibility for general use, event use, signage, lighting, etc.

RNIB will produce an official list of recommendations, and will offer accreditation as a ‘Visibly Better Building’.

Information and signposting will be mainly delivered through a Sharepoint website, where there will be general information, a bridge to the Share the Vision website, links to local RNIB regional contacts and ideas for displays, events and awareness days.

Any questions? [email protected]

What RNIB already offers (all free of charge!)

Training

• National Health England and RNIB have curated a four-module Visual Awareness course (we hope to join this with the VPIPP training already available in the Libraries Connected online learning pool)

• In-person visual awareness courses

• Regular online webinars

Technical assistance and expertise

• RNIB regional officers in the tech for life team aim to create ‘tech hubs’ for blind and partially sighted people in the community.

• Free training for volunteers and library staff to upskill them on assistive technology.

• An UX team at RNIB can check websites and give accreditation if they are accessibly friendly.

• RNIB is in conversation with LibraryON (see page 16) to make sure it’s as accessible as possible.

The RNIB Library and Newsagent Service

RNIB Library has over 36,000 unabridged audiobooks and over 10,000 titles in braille. It is the largest library of its kind in the UK. It has 50,000 talking book customers and 3,000 braille customers across UK. Its specialist music library has the largest selection of accessible music outside the USA. The full catalogue of titles can be searched online at www.rniblibrary.com.

RNIB Newsagent is a subscription service, which delivers more than 200 popular and best-selling publications, in a format to suit the customer: USB, Daisy CD, PDFs by email, braille, giant print.

Libraries Connected: Universal Offers Calendar 2023

The Libraries Connected calendar has been revamped for 2023, with events streamlined into ‘major’ and ‘other’. If you fancy a bigger (A3) poster, you can download one. Better still – the LC’s online version now lets you click through for information on each one. Very welcome! We researched this information in our magazines no 101 and 102. https://www.librariesconnected.org.uk/page/universal-library-offers-calendar

Northamptonshire – five years of transition

Where to begin? Or rather, when to begin? This is an incredible tale of libraries in my home county of Northamptonshire, which were put at risk back in 2017.

Before then, some individual branches had been threatened with closures, and the threats had nearly all been successfully repelled over a period of many years – but the statutory library system, with 36 fixed service points, had seemed reasonably secure.

Were there warning signs that this was about to unravel? Not really. However, Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) had moved to a new ‘Library Plus’ model in 2016. Libraries were also, somewhat strangely, subsumed into one of its outsourced ‘Next Generation’ companies, First for Wellbeing2
(a health-dominated social enterprise, since wound up).

These proved to be part of the journey towards what happened in the autumn of 2017 and from thereon in.

First for Wellbeing was first incorporated in November 2015. Yet within two years the library service, which had been made part of its operations, was earmarked by NCC for ‘review’.

On a rather miserable October day in 2017, I met up with an old friend from our days as librarianship students in London. I told her that our local press had just broken the story that NCC was potentially going to shed 21 libraries from its statutory library system.

It was a good many years since I had worked in public libraries, so I had been taken aback by this sudden proposed change. I was unaware that so many councils had made many of their libraries go down the ‘community managed’ route if they were to have any chance of remaining open.

I wrote to my MP, Michael Ellis. His reply revealed that the alarming news about NCC’s budget problems was indeed likely to impact our libraries.

A school student had already gone to an NCC Cabinet meeting to challenge the potential proposals in September–October 2017. By the time the matter came to a full council meeting in November, there was evidence from many parts of the county of serious public disquiet at the prospect of libraries closing.

A large number of speakers from the public came to speak to councillors at that meeting (me included). Petitions were presented and the public gallery was packed. One lady spoke very movingly of the value of her local library for her as a carer of both an elderly mother and a disabled child.

All of our comments fell on deaf ears. Some councillors did not even have the courtesy to listen properly, preferring instead to look at their mobile phones.

Further evidence of strong public opinion was also heard at a lively public meeting in the St James area of Northampton. NCC had issued a consultation paper on libraries. The upshot of this meeting was the foundation of an ‘Option 4’ group that wanted the three options in the consultation to have a fourth ‘no change’ option added.

This was a forlorn hope. Although a committee was formed, the personal circumstances of its members meant that the Option 4 campaign was short-lived and unsuccessful.

The consultation period included the Christmas and New Year holidays. Like many another consultation, the whole exercise seemed unlikely to engender anything positive from the point of view of those who wanted to keep their local libraries open.

In December, I met with the lead campaigner from Option 4. I had already been in touch with Geoffrey Dron at The Library Campaign, and he had advised making an approach to DCMS (Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport). He did not feel that it was worth pursuing the prospect of a Judicial Review (JR).

[The Library Campaign’s views on DCMS and JR are set out on our website.3]

So, I agreed with Option 4 that they would investigate JR matters and I would concentrate on DCMS.

The library users of Northamptonshire must be forever grateful that the groundwork for a possible JR was laid at this point. Despite the documentation that I sent in to DCMS, no benefit was derived from that approach.

By January 2018, I realised that I needed to devote as much time as possible to contacting councillors, monitoring council papers and attending council meetings. The scrutiny meeting in that month saw me addressing the large number of councillors present. I told them their idea that in just one year they could succeed in transferring 21 libraries to ‘community management’ was simply unworkable.

I pointed out that neighbouring Leicestershire’s plans to transfer large numbers of their libraries to this model had allowed five years for the process. My comments had no effect whatsoever, although the councillors did listen properly.

NCC ploughed on with their budget for 2018-19. The press paid ever more attention to the fact that the council’s financial problems were far more serious than had at first appeared.

On a cold winter’s afternoon in late February 2018, I and others who wished to support our libraries attended an NCC Cabinet meeting. The room was full, with many councillors present in addition to Cabinet members.

One councillor later told me that auditors had just delivered a devastating report. The effect of that was felt immediately. The Cabinet member whose responsibilities included libraries told the meeting that all options in the libraries consultation were now off the table. NCC was instead making an ‘independent library offer’ to local communities.

In other words, the council was not prepared to do anything at all to keep the threatened libraries open.

The plan subsequently arrived at, should any community wish to run its own library, meant that certain items could be purchased from the council, in the form of bronze, silver, gold or platinum ‘packages’, running to several thousands of pounds a year. Such packages would include provision of some book stock, some training or staff support – but not provision of wi-fi, a library management system or a building.

We therefore started the next financial year (2018–19) facing very bleak prospects indeed for the 21 libraries under threat.

On 18 April, a group of us met for the first time. Some 15 of the 21 libraries were represented. It became clear that we needed to set up a formal organisation so that people could continue to meet and consider how best to meet the challenges ahead for their libraries.

The element of urgency meant that we chose to become a registered community benefit society and not a charity. Our registration as ‘The 21 Group Libraries Network’ (21GLN) was approved by the Financial Conduct Authority in June 2018.

I am sometimes asked about the identity of this organisation. The truth is that its profile has changed as circumstances have changed since its inception. The best description I can give is that it is a ‘self-help’ organisation.

Certainly in the early days our emphasis was on seeking to overturn the ‘independent library offer’ decision. The lead person involved in seeking a Judicial Review was supported by 21GLN. A strong case was made to Mrs Justice Yip at the High Court in Birmingham on 26–27 July 2018.

One community brought a separate case1 but the two were heard together. There seemed to be no advantage in not acting collectively.

On the first day of the hearing, three members of the public from the single community and seven of us connected with the collective case all attended court, together with one of our local democracy reporters.

On the second day five of us, all connected with the collective case, were present. It was an interesting and very valuable experience.

On 14 August 2018, Mrs Justice Yip’s judgement was handed down. Significant paragraphs include the following:

‘My provisional view is that the Cabinet decisions of 27 February 2018 and 13 March 2018 should be quashed. I do not believe it would be appropriate to refuse relief on materiality grounds. The flaws in the defendant’s decision making which I have identified are such that I consider that the whole question of library provision needs to be revisited by the defendant, paying attention to its legal obligations and all material considerations.

‘It appears that the defendant has already commenced some form of review as to what should happen with the libraries which were proposed to be taken out of statutory provision.

‘I make it clear that I am not deciding any issue as to the merits of any proposed library closures. This remains a matter for the Authority. I do recognise, as indeed the claimants indicated they did, that the defendant may still decide to take the same libraries out of the statutory service, provided that decision is reached lawfully.’

NCC did indeed revisit the ‘whole question of library provision’. It is necessary to understand the context in which this was done. In February 2018 and again in July, two Section 114 notices had been issued (effectively, a declaration that the council would not have enough funds to cover its projected expenditure).

There was much work to be done to improve the finances. The government had appointed two commissioners to oversee this.

One commissioner called the council’s finances ‘truly perilous’. It had been some 20 years since any local authority had issued a Section 114 notice. The BBC reported as follows4:

Shadow communities secretary Andrew Gwynne MP said: “Northamptonshire is a perfect storm of local mismanagement and the crushing pressures of austerity.

“Commissioners will have no option but to slash and burn local services but it’s the people of Northamptonshire that will be forced to pay the price for this neglect.”

THE ONLY WAY

Library supporters in Northamptonshire were left in a quandary. The community managed (CML) model had been mooted in the 2017–18 consultation, and then superseded by the ‘independent library offer’. Some communities were very keen to run CMLs – others not.

But, after months of upset, with NCC gaining not just national, but also international, notoriety for what had happened with its finances, it did appear that to accept the CML model was the only way forward when this was again offered.

In the revised plans a 22nd location was proposed for community management. But five locations were told that if their libraries did not succeed as CMLs, the local authority would return them to the full statutory system. I am referring to this as ‘protected status’.

One requested such a return very rapidly. The other four have become CMLs. In one of those places the library premises have been purchased by the organisation that now runs the library.

The town council in the location of the 22nd library, at Burton Latimer, also purchased the library premises and funds a full-time library manager and two part-time paid assistants.

If any one thing needs to be highlighted in this transition process, it is the fact that NCC refused to supply library premises. Volunteer and other organisations were forced to either buy or rent them for substantial sums unless (as in the cases of one parish council and one community centre) they already owned them, or they had been accorded protected status.

However, the idea that other organisations would pay the council in order to receive book stock, advice from community library coordinators, use of the library management system and a measure of IT support (as per the bronze etc packages) was abandoned. So that was a small but significant victory.

NCC staff scrutinised business plans, rejecting some and also requiring organisations to sign very detailed and lengthy service level agreements.

There were many hold-ups in the transition process, in particular because of the many issues concerning premises, with the need for much-neglected maintenance issues to be resolved before leases could be signed.

At the time of writing there are still two libraries that are open but for which leases are to be signed, and one other that has yet to re-open as a CML.

At the end of the 2019–20 financial year the first stage in the demise of the county council commenced. The county now has two unitary authorities – North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire.

The Covid lockdown of March 2020 came just before the transition year, when ‘shadow’ authorities operated with Zoom meetings. Elections for the new unitary councillors were held in May 2021, so the new councils have now been in existence for under two years.

In one location, the library made its transition to CML (protected) status at the very start of April 2020, but could not open its doors to the public at all until Covid restrictions were lifted.

It is, however, worth noting that the CMLs were able to cope with continuing to provide books on a ‘click and collect’ basis – more easily, it seemed, than the council-staffed libraries.

There were concerns that the lockdown periods would lead to a reluctance of library users to return in person to their libraries, but many users seemed to welcome being able to chat with friendly volunteers. In some cases, they were able to receive a more personal service than when their libraries were a full part of the statutory system.

It would be fair to say that trying to start up a CML just before or after the pandemic struck, as well as at a time when one library authority was splitting into two, was undoubtedly fraught with difficulties. Difficulties existed in any case, because the need to engage with either buying or renting premises differed in the various communities.

For example, if your village’s parish council already owned the premises (and had been renting them to NCC) you did not need to worry.

If you were in a community where the library premises were/are owned by NCC or one of its successor councils, it was necessary to either buy or rent from the council.

But in trying to shed so many libraries all at once, there were insufficient staff in property (Place) departments to deal with all the negotiations in a timely fashion.

Rental leases have taken a very long time to be concluded, with some still outstanding.

In some locations, volunteer groups were prepared to run their libraries but until leases were signed, they had to do so under ‘Tenancy at Will’ arrangements, some of which are still in place. Furthermore, some library premises were in buildings owned by councils other than NCC (e.g., Northampton Borough Council) or even by commercial organisations.

One plan accepted by NCC failed to materialise after the Covid lockdowns. That library ultimately moved to the nearby community centre, where we hope it will be able to grow and flourish.

All other libraries have stayed in their original premises. Many communities were very much attached to the buildings: in some places these had been libraries for eight or nine decades or more.

Where community groups or lower-tier councils have now taken on their libraries, in a number of locations Section 106 money (from developers) has come to them. This has enabled them to improve those buildings. New kitchens have been acquired, small extensions built for storage, meetings or other purposes. In one place there are plans for major roof improvements as well as an extension.

The need to generate income in order to pay for leases, and also staff in some cases, means that the CMLs need to maximise space for meetings and events. Where shelving units were fixed, as many as possible have been fitted with wheels so that flexibility of space is enabled.

Better kitchens and refreshment facilities, special events such as film shows, craft sales, drama and magic shows, as well as sales of donated books or ones discarded from library stock, cake sales and the like are all helping to raise funds and successful grant applications have been made in some cases.

The evidence is that in this varied county, part rural, part urban, and now split into two separate unitary areas, individual communities have rallied to keep their libraries open. They have gained a sense of identity and purpose in making them as relevant as possible to the needs of those communities.

For us the whole process of challenging a library authority’s plans, agreeing to the community-managed model (in some cases very reluctantly) and making every effort to make the best of that has left us in an untypical position as library campaigners.

We are pleased that only two libraries have been lost (i.e., closed completely), although we would have much preferred to have seen all of them remain open in some way.

The situation with the now-defunct county council was both shocking and difficult for us. For anyone not living in Northamptonshire it was, and has often remained, almost impossible to ‘walk in our shoes’.

I am well aware that some campaigners may criticise our position in Northamptonshire. I can only say to our critics that you are/were watching from the sidelines. It really was necessary to have been there – in court, in the council chamber, in the many other meetings involved.

If, where you live, you currently find your libraries in a similar position of ‘review’ by the library authority, you have my sympathy. In making your challenges, I hope that something I have written here may be of use.

Notes

1 The Library Campaigner, Issue 96 (Autumn 2018) pp.8-9.

2 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/09857257/filing-history

3 https://librarycampaign.com/beyond-the-council

4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-44937892 Northamptonshire County Council bans spending again – BBC News

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE LIBRARIES?

Welcome information

Recent history

What Covid did to libraries

Suffolk’s new story

Suffolk libraries are leading the way in value-for-money research that would impress Scrooge himself. No ghosts are needed. Just facts.

We reported their first study in issue no 100.1 This looked at just three activity groups – and found they saved £8.04 for every £1 spent. That’s after every conceivable outlay is subtracted, right down to the tea and biscuits. Savings came from anything from learning support to reducing use of NHS services.

In 2020, there was research on the value of Suffolk’s telephone ‘lifeline’ during Covid lockdowns. This brought obvious benefits such as reduced loneliness and anxiety, feeling a sense of belonging and connection to the local community, and feeling cared about. In cash terms: £4.24 for every £1 spent.

Mind-crunching

Now there’s a new report2 that looks at just about everything the libraries do. Different aspects give different returns, but all save money. The overall average is £6.07.

But how do you translate the benefits we all feel into pounds and pence? The main content of the report explains in mind-crunching detail exactly how. It gets gets nul points for being a racy read. But it’s convincing.

The comparisons are fun to analyse (see BOX). Intriguingly, by far the biggest cash payback comes from the mere existence of libraries as a place to be, and a place for other groups and organisations to do their thing. Any calculable added cost is minimal – the libraries are there anyway.

The report says: ‘Service users greatly value libraries as a space to spend time with other people without an explicit agenda, means or purpose. Relationships are often forged on a more casual basis without there being very close ties, but are nevertheless very important for wellbeing.

‘The sense of wellbeing that stakeholders experience due to knowing librarians, meeting library regulars and others who live locally was profound, and contributes a further explanation as to why libraries are so important for wellbeing.

‘If Suffolk Libraries suddenly closed down, over £41m worth of social value outcomes experienced by members of the various local communities would be destroyed.

‘This work also provides outcomes to other stakeholders indirectly – not least state agencies. An example of this is value created for the NHS. In one year this amounts to £542,000 for reduced services, eg, fewer GP services, fewer outpatient visits, fewer mental health assessments.’

So, just existing as an accessible public space gives dazzling results. We all know that, but to see it in numbers is illuminating.

Below comes the value of specifically organised ‘groups, clubs and activities’ – still impressive at £7.96 for spending £1. Taking part gives a feeling of achievement, especially with creative work.

But that is just part of the benefit. People also feel that a regular activity ‘provides some useful structure and anticipation, which can help people to feel more motivated and at ease with their free time, leading to a greater quality of life. This is especially the case for older people…’

And, of course, it gets them into the library. To find all the other things it has to offer, from books to local gossip.

Below comes the core offer of libraries – lending stuff and giving information. At £5.69 it still scores well, because so many people make use of it all. As well as the obvious value of getting books they couldn’t otherwise afford, many appreciate the staff help in finding new reads that they wouldn’t have thought of themselves.

As for information, people get info on ‘all manner of things’, from bus times to NHS guidance ‘after a GP appointment’. This is ‘a valued part of the library experience for many stakeholders… Given the complexity and wide range of trustworthiness about other sources of information, the library was seen as especially trustworthy.

‘This helped stakeholders to feel relieved and reassured ... This is an outcome that has become more important as other services are being reduced or cut down due to budget pressures.’

And just a fraction below that is the value of Friends and volunteers, at £5.48.

Friends groups

Suffolk makes special use of Friends groups. Each library has one, to raise funds, help develop policy and co-plan activities.

They also rely heavily on volunteers - not to replace staff, let alone run the service, but to support the professional staff. The report says: ‘Volunteering has a hugely important role in helping the libraries to function smoothly.

‘There are many activities achieving important outcomes that would simply not take place without the crucial input of volunteers.

‘The noticeably skilled staff group can be justly proud of what is being achieved through this joint effort.

‘Investment in volunteering is relatively low so, as in many volunteering situations, the outcomes are very efficient.’

And, of course, it’s rewarding for the volunteers themselves.

References

1. https://librarycampaign.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/100-COMPLETE.pdf

2. https://www.suffolklibraries.co.uk/assets/pdf/impact/moore-kingston-smith-impact-report-jan-23.pdf

Photos: Suffolk libraries