MARCH 2026 |
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| Welcome to our round up of March’s UK libraries news! |
LIBRARY SPENDING FALLS – CIPFA |
‘Library spending fails to keep pace with increased visitor numbers’ was the headline on the annual report on public libraries by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA). Every year they ask all library services to report on a number of different statistics, and then collate the results. This year less than half the services replied. This may make the outcomes less useful, especially as some are different to the previous year’s respondents, so comparisons must also be treated carefully. And they include Scotland as well as England and Wales. Nonetheless CIPFA concludes that ‘Library visits increased across Great Britain last year, but spending on services has barely moved while paid staffing levels declined.’ They give a reduction in paid staff for the previous year of 1.1% while volunteer numbers rose by 5% (see also the UNISON report below.) CIPFA’s Senior Policy Manager Joanne Pitt is quoted as saying: ‘Rising demand alongside a modest spending uplift and falling paid staff numbers presents real sustainability challenges. Libraries are delivering more with limited financial growth. ‘Volunteers provide invaluable support, but they are not a substitute for sustained investment in skilled staff and long-term funding certainty if services are to remain resilient.’ We couldn’t agree with her more! Unfortunately the full report costs a lot of money but the press release which is linked above has more than enough information. |
 UNISON’S DAMNING REPORTEarlier this year UNISON (the union that represents most public library staff) sent Freedom of Information requests to all library services about opening hours and staffing. The results have now been published and are a damning indictment of the state of the public library nation. Staff employed in libraries has fallen by nearly 50% since 2010 and opening hours have fallen by 22%. And that includes an increase to over 200,000 unstaffed hours (up from 13,000.) |
UNISON said: ‘Library staff do far more than lend books. Their services also include running early-years sessions, supporting homework clubs, helping people get online and assisting with benefit applications. Many of these services cannot operate when libraries are unstaffed. ‘Almost every council has reduced its library workforce, while cuts have increased workloads, stress and reports of anti-social behaviour directed at staff. For many library employees, pay has also fallen in real terms since 2010/11.’ The full report can found here. The picture is of UNISON’s new General Secretary, Andrea Egan (left) at a meeting in Parliament to launch the report |
| TOP OF THE WOLD TO YOU |
 Something dramatically different – East Riding Libraries has got together with Mikron Theatre to create a travelling play about the area’s history. Called Top of the Wold, it’s designed to be ‘laugh-out-loud’ and celebrates ‘eccentric community culture’. It looks great. Writer Maeve Larkin has toured around researching and interviewing people. Community groups have got involved in all kinds of ways, from helping write the the script, to learning the original songs featured in the play, to knitting displays for their libraries. The local tour is just starting. Next comes a wider one. Sheffield and Portsmouth are on the list, but few details are available as yet. Catch up here. |
PIPE DOWN, PETERBOROUGH Congratulations to the people of Peterborough, especially brilliant campaigner Jennie Storey. She tells us that her own library at Woodston, plus another three, all scheduled to be sold off, are finally safe. For some years, at least… You may remember that the council’s plan was revealed only when Jennie spotted the four libraries on a list of ‘assets for disposal’ on the council’s website. It proved impossible to find out anything more for a very long time. A single line in the budget showed that something was up, but nothing concrete. At one point, closing seven out of ten libraries was mooted! Now much more is known. Peterborough commissioned a library needs assessment, as it should have done in the first place. It reported in January this year. We’re quite sure that’s down to the unrelenting two-year local campaign (with a little help from us). What it found was shocking. The town’s spend on libraries is ‘by far the lowest in the comparator group. ‘Peterborough’s spend on the library service per 1,000 population was £3,643 compared to a group average of £9,049. Peterborough’s spending was only 40% of the average for the group and was less than 60% of the spend in the next lowest spending authority.’ Let’s hope the council has no more bright ideas for a good while. |
LIBRARY OF THE YEAR One step nearer the final winner and all the ballyhoo on 11 May. Meanwhile we have eight library services as regional winners to congratulate. Cornwall helped Afghan families sent there as part of the national resettlement scheme. They shared multilingual and digital resources – and corrected some local misconceptions about the new arrivals. Hull ran ‘One Hull of a Read’, a pilot project that gave 4,000 children in Year 6 a copy of the same book to read and discuss (Helen Rutter’s The Boy with Big Decisions). It was a great way to engage those who were about to go to secondary school and might otherwise have slipped out of reading. Neath Port Talbot ran a whole Children’s BookFest – 23 appearances by authors, poets, storytellers and illustrators, in schools and theatres as well as libraries. Many families came to a library for the first time ‘in a part of the country that does not often see events like this’. City of Edinburgh pulled together Oxgangs Library, Saughton Prison Library and the mobile library for a ‘Secret Santa’ project. A Library Elf brought in gift-wrapped books for prisoners – ‘a simple but powerful act of empathy at a lonely time of year for many’. And good publicity for the prison library, now getting more visits! Southwark in London held a Books and Beyond open day at Canada Water library that attracted 2,000 people, backed up by a full publicity campaign. Loans and visits went up and stayed up – ‘when people discover libraries, they keep coming back’. Surprise! Warwickshire decided to encourage adults to read, not just children. Book Bingo cards listed ideas for books and genres to try, ‘backed up with incentives, staff support and author events’. Nearly two-thirds of the 1,000 recipients went on to borrow more books. West Sussex (a regional winner last year, too) made a big thing of its 100th birthday, looking forward as well as back. Events included a virtual reality experience, a centenary reading challenge and a showcase of 100 ‘library champions’. Twin Towns Library in County Donegal honoured a local blind 19th century writer with its Frances Browne Storytellers: Seeing Beyond Sight project. It invited blind and visually-impaired writers from across Ireland to submit work for an anthology that was published in large print, digital and Braille. |
KING’S LYNNA brand new library has opened in Norfolk at King’s Lynn. It’s in an old Argos building and replaces a Carnegie building that had been operating for over 120 years. Our sources say that it’s a very nice building (though there was one comment about it not having a cafe.)  |
The pictures we have seen show a building with a lot of light and plenty of books – including the historic book collection, which can now be visited via ‘bookable curated sessions’. Congratulations are due to Norfolk County Council as well as the borough council and neighbourhood board, which all contributed. |
LOOKING A GIFT HORSE IN THE MOUTH?A supporter of a small (local authority run) branch library in the north of England recently told us that the library survives on donations and local charity shops offering some of their books. On the other hand, at least one library service in the south will not take donations – full stop. Which leads us to wonder what the situation is elsewhere. Some well-meant donations are really not worth having. Elsewhere, people are infuriated to see recent, high quality books in good condition being turned down flat. One service argues that it doesn’t have the staff to sort and catalogue extra stock. Another reserves the right to choose what it wants and sell the rest. With bookfunds under pressure, the use of donations is not a surprise. But just how widespread is it, how does it work and what contribution are donations making to the books available? Let us know your experience. |
SUMER READING CHALLENGE |
 Spring might be on the way, so it’s a great time for Reading to host the beautiful manuscript of ‘Sumer is icumen in’ – thought to be the oldest English song with its music still surviving. It was created at Reading Abbey in the 13th century. It stayed there until Henry VIII had other ideas. And ended up in the British Library. The song has featured in The Wicker Man and…er, Bagpuss. |
As part of the BL’s Living Knowledge Network, Reading Libraries started a ‘conversation’ that has brought the book back on loan, as part of the British Library on Tour programme. It will go nicely with the opening of a new central library this summer (though it has to be shown in specialist conditions at the museum). Catch it before it flies away on 9 May. Lhude sing cuccu! |
KING’S AWARD PRESENTATION A few months ago we reported that the Friends of Pontesbury library in Shropshire were to receive the King’s Award for Voluntary Service. And now we have pictures of the presentation ceremony with the Lord Lieutenant doing the honours. |
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ALL FOR AYANA  |
A Leicester mother found a beautiful way to commemorate the death of her young daughter in 2023. She got Arts Council funding (£14,500) to paint ‘Ayana’s mural’, all the way up the staircase at Leicester Central Library. The council chipped in £3,000. Local artist Peachzz ran a visual art and reading project with local children to design it. They named their favourite books to appear in it. And they came for storytelling and a celebration at the mural’s official launch on World Book Day. Some dressed as book characters, of course. |
TWO WEEKS Get your diaries. CILIP (the librarians’ association) has published the dates of its two official ‘weeks’ this year. Libraries Change Lives Week is CILIP’s big lobbying week, which this year will have a National Year of Reading theme – how libraries promote literacy and reading. It’s 1-7 June. Green Libraries Week’s focus will be on climate facts for a green future. It’s 21-28 October. Local library services vary in the extent they get involved in these weeks. But there are always national resources to dip into. |
FACEBOOKROUND UP |
Narberth Community Library is operated through a partnership between the Friends of Narberth Library, Narberth Town Council, and Pembrokeshire County Council. Their Facebook page posted a fun item showing recent “confessions’ from library staff. The most recent “confession” was a librarian who had kept a recently returned book aside for themselves as it “looked interesting”. The graphics were designed by the friends themselves and also serve to advertise their library. Friends of Guisborough Library (Redcar and Cleveland) have been posting about their upcoming craft session set for April 11th as well as another of their regular hosted talks with the latest being from Rosie Barnes who will “bring to life the fisherwives, painters, sailors and shopkeepers who lived in the village at the turn of the 20th century, and will be aided by objects borrowed from the Staithes Museum” We’re keen to find out more about talks hosted by Friends groups so please do get in touch if you’d like us to feature yours. Save Our Libraries Essex (SOLE) – have been asking for further feedback regarding the proposed charges for making reservations on library stock, which may affect their service users, and they note that they’ve welcomed many respondents’ opinions so far, whilst being open to further contributions. West Yorkshire’s Friends of Rastrick Library have announced that March 28th will be the next date of their photography group, with the theme being ‘Double exposure’. The group has also been organising fundraising events for their library with afternoons of coffee, tea, cake, and company, with the most recent session taking place this past week. Save Coventry Libraries hosted one of the author roadshow events, and they wrote on Facebook that” the main floor was buzzing with book lovers, great conversations, and plenty of signed books finding new homes!” The chair of their group, Nicky Downes – herself a local author – was in attendance, . Dudley Metropolitan Borough’s Friends of Cradley Library have posted about their writers’ group meeting and shared a photo of a collaborative poem from the group, all about their library. The poem is a skilful mnemonic of the phrase OUR LIBRARY. Wigan’s Friends of Standish Library posted a photo of what looked like a very busy quiz event. The theme of the quiz was the local history of Wigan. They have also been updating their followers on their role in the local Women’s Health community project, including an upcoming candle-painting event, which they stress is for all abilities and women aged 18 and over. |
| AND FINALLY… |
CHALABALLET |
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Timothée Chalamet provoked a hail of comments when he carelessly remarked that ‘nobody cares about’ opera or ballet. Perhaps the most effective one came from the New York Public Library. Its Library for the Performing Arts found (and put on Instagram) an archive clip of the actor aged six – in a ballet. Dressed as a cute little cupid, and looking much as one might expect a small boy to look in such circumstances. All is explained. |
| Please get in touch with us if your local library is under threat, you have a Friends group that you wish to promote or you would like advice about how to start a Friends group for your local library – currently under threat or not. Feel free to ask any questions about what Friends groups get up to. We have now created an archive of our previous newsletters, which you can view here – check it out if you haven’t already and share the link as it’s also a place for new subscribers to sign up. If you are new to getting our monthly newsletter this is a way to see what we’ve been getting across since we started this newsletter in Autumn 2022. |
