| best-selling writer of psychological thrillers – now shortlisted for this year’s Dagger in the Library award from the Crime Writers’ Association (pic below.) We already know her as a supporter of libraries, who will have insightful answers to your questions. We’ll then move on to discussing your concerns, and what The Library Campaign is up to, with a short AGM, finishing at 3.30pm. (We have vacancies for trustees. If you want to know more, contact us at thelibrarycampaign@gmail.com).Please register here – if you plan to attend online you must do so to receive the link.  GENERAL ELECTIONAfter we had decided what to put in this newsletter Rishi Sunak announced the general election and we can’t let that go unnoticed. We urge everyone to put their candidates on the spot by asking them:· Do they know that it is a statutory responsibility on local authorities to provide a public library service?· Will they campaign to get proper funding for libraries?· What else will they do (or have they done) to support the public library service?Of course if your library or service us under threat you can be more specific. The deadline for registering to vote is midnight on Tuesday 18 June. We hope that most of our readers are aware of the need for photo ID and the limited number of acceptable forms of ID. You can do others a favour by pointing them at the relevant bit of the Government website. Young people are often the ones who don’t have ID and they may also be affected by the fact that the election will be in college holidays so they may need to register for a postal vote. This also applies to anyone planning a holiday in early July! The deadline for that is 17:00 hrs on Wednesday 19 June. Note – on the image below do not try to use the web address. This poster was published by CILIP for the 2019 General Election.  CONSULTATIONS GRIND ON…If you live in Wrexham, hurry and fill in an over-hasty survey (launched 13 May, deadline 10 June) on “how important the library and its services are to you. We would also like to hear your views on what we do best and what we might do better”. Might it also cover “what cuts we can make in future”? More realistic deadlines, in August, for two more consultations. Pembrokeshire is holding public meetings and focus groups all through June, plus a survey. Here there’s little doubt about the purpose: “We need to reduce our budget while making sure that we focus services where they are needed most. We need your help in making sure that we have an up-to-date understanding of your needs…” And no doubt at all about plans in Havering. It is consulting on a strategy that means closing four of its 10 libraries – to save just £350,000 at the very most. It has already had a £54m loan from government to save it from going bust. The council acknowledges that “Our libraries and staff provide a fantastic service to residents, they are places where all ages and communities can come together for, study, activities, support and wellbeing… helping residents in becoming less lonely and connecting others digitally via free internet access.” Yet it also argues: “We believe a smaller number of libraries means we can also provide better buildings and facilities to residents with the limited money we have.”But the one recent quote to focus on is this one: “All councils will go bust over the next two years. It’s just a matter of when,” a Local Government Association spokesperson recently told the Guardian. VIOLENCE AGAINST STAFF AND BUILDINGS We have seen a number of recent reports about violence towards library staff and attacks on buildings. In Essex, the County Council Cabinet Member has said that staff may get body cameras after recent incidents of vandalism and abuse.At Blyth South Beach (Northumberland) and Newark (Nottinghamshire – below) buildings have been damaged. This has resulted in closure or, in the case of Newark, a delay to reopening after a four month closure for planned maintenance work.This may all just be a sign of the times we live in. All these incidents were noteworthy enough to be covered by the BBC and / or local press. Libraries Connected have put on to their website a document prepared by Kent libraries on de-escalation training to help staff respond this kind of incident. Let’s hope all library authorities are using it, or similar documents of their own.  CHARGING FOR SELF-SERVICE! Essex campaigners recently fought off a plan by the Council to charge people for putting their own reservations for books using the library website. A flurry of emails to councillors of all parties resulted in the plan being withdrawn by the Cabinet Member at a full Council meeting. It is likely that there will be a plan B but in the meantime it would be helpful to know what other people’s experience is. The original proposal in Essex cited a number of other shire countries in the East and South East of England which already charge for self-service reservations but we know that many – probably most – don’t. The Essex rationale was based on the work in getting the book off the shelves and transporting it to where it is wanted but also that 18% (or maybe 26%, as different figures were quoted) of all reservations are not collected. That may have something to so with the time it takes for them to arrive, especially as the spend on new books has gone down over the years.DEMENTIA SUPPORT  A new collection of books on dementia – on display in local libraries – is the latest offering from the national Reading Well Books on Prescription scheme run by The Reading Agency. It’s the perfect example of the good things and good value that come from public services working together. Over 3.8m Reading Well books have been borrowed so far. The titles are chosen by a mix of professional experts and people with lived experience. No rubbish; no dangerous disinformation; no quack treatments. All free, of course. There are titles for people living with dementia, carers and family members – including young children. Many can be borrowed as e-books or audiobooks. The collection is available in English and Welsh. More information and downloadable leafletsWONDERFUL OR WORRYING?  The National Literacy Trust (NLT) is promoting books to young people by linking with BookTok. This is an offshoot of the ubiquitous TikTok, more usually a provider of daft video clips. Its blend of book reviews, discussions and creative content has made reading cool. And it has millions of followers worldwide (not just youngsters).Now “BookTok Bookshelves” will appear in 11 cities (Birmingham, Blackpool, Bradford, Doncaster, Manchester, Middlesborough, Newcastle, Nottingham, Peterborough, Stoke, Swindon) with around 100 books each. They will be in “areas which see a lot of children over 13, like youth clubs and community centres”. Not libraries, it seems. TikTok will pay for the books and shelves. Local NLT youth volunteers will choose the books and promote the campaign among peers. NLT will recruit and train around 50 extra youth volunteers.“We hope the BookTok Bookshelves will increase young people’s appetite for reading and therefore the demand for books, forming part of a reading ecosystem that includes schools, libraries and bookshops,” says NLT. It’s quite an attractive idea to kidnap unsuspecting youth who wouldn’t dream of going to a library. But it’s a sharp lesson for libraries themselves. Why don’t they attract all teens? Meanwhile, book retailers Waterstone’s, WHSmith and The Works have latched on, plugging BookTok recommendations on social media and even displays in physical bookshops. Does anyone know of a library doing the same? FACEBOOK ROUND UP  Birmingham based Friends and campaign groups have been as active as ever. The Erdington Lunar Society / Friends of Erdington library have launched a petition in support of their branch but are also organising a host of activities including talks and a live music event in place of their usual Music in Society session. In Stirchley they have been promoting local history events and photos to remind everyone what they may be missing, as well as running Awareness Walks for Libraries. The Friends of Ansdell library in Lytham St Anne’s are holding their AGM next week. Not something you need to travel to from afar but a reminder that having a formal AGM and constitution, officers etc can help in running a Friends Group. The Library Campaign can supply examples of constitutions if requested. And in Sandown (Isle of Wight) the library and Friends Group have a new take on the ‘unboxing’ idea which seems popular on social media. Instead of new iPhones or trainers, they show staff unpacking he latest delivery of books to the library. Presumably you have to be quick to snap them up as the first reader (and they do mention when there are waiting lists already) but at least you get some idea as to what they are buying and can presumably say ‘what about ..?’ Check our website pages with details of Friends Group Facebook groups – if yours is not there or incorrect let us know. Start here. AND FINALLY… UKRAINE APPEAL Libraries Connected (the organisation for chief public librarians) is running a crowdfunder to buy a decommissioned, fully serviced mobile library from an English council and deliver it to Ukraine. Watch their video here. With more than 600 public libraries and 2,000 school libraries damaged or destroyed by Russian troops, communities in the worst affected areas of Ukraine are unable to access a library at all. A mobile library would allow librarians to provide a service even when their static libraries have been destroyed or are dangerous to use. The Library Campaign has made a donation. If the appeal meets its target, the mobile library will be driven across Europe to the Ukraine border, where it will be handed over to Ukrainian library workers and taken into Ukraine. The mobile library will likely be used in the Donetsk, Kherson or Zaporizhzhia regions in the east of the country. The Library Campaign recently had an unexpected donation from a group of library people winding up their organisation. We have passed £200 of that to the appeal.The appeals runs until 5 June 2024 and donations can be made at https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/mobile-library-to-ukraine.  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. Copyright (C) *2023* *The Library Campaign*. * Registered Charity No: 1102634 * All rights reserved. *|You are subscribed to The Library Campaign Newsletter|* Our mailing address is: The Library Campaign27 Old Gloucester StreetLondon, WC1N 3AXUnited KingdomAdd us to your address bookWant to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe  |
