  Welcome to our newsletter round up of November’s UK libraries news! THE ENFIELD THUNDERBOLT  We sent evidence to this London borough’s consultation on a shocker of a plan – to close EIGHT of its 16 libraries. Credit points: Enfield has done quite a lot of consulting, and work to identify which libraries are least used. Bad point: there is little info on the consultation feedback, but what there is showed strongest support for what’s offered in physical buildings, and for these being nearby, preferably within walking distance, yet a map of the proposed closures shows huge gaps, with no library for miles. Worst point: a fairly thorough Equality Impact Assessment lists very many people who will lose out. But the proposed ‘mitigations’ are a joke, with wild promises of individual ’sign-posting’ to alternatives – and even ‘familiarisation visits’ for every single person and group affected. Really? Above all, there’s no attempt to cost the human suffering – and the strain on other council services – from closing down access to the day-to-day info and support provided by local libraries. No council ever seems to do this. GOOD NEWS IN CHESHIRE  We have been reporting on the attempt by East Cheshire Council to cut the opening hours of four small libraries. Now a revised proposal will maintain the status quo, albeit with the financial assistance of local town or parish councils. The Friends of Bollington Library deserve much credit for a lively campaign to make sure local people could find, understand and fill in the council’s questionnaire. This included contacting the local press, a petition, a website and constantly updated public and private Facebook pages, plus demonstrations, and advice sessions at the library. They also supported their town council’s parallel process – encouraging a good public presence at the town council’s meeting and publicity for the town council’s own consultation to get locals to agree the extra cost (about £2 a month). Credit also to East Cheshire and the town council for accepting the results of their consultations! This should always happen, but doesn’t. The Friendss of Bollington Library have a private Facebook group here (you will have to ask to join.)  FOUR IS AN UNLUCKY NUMBER In Ealing, London, four libraries were handed to community groups in 2020. Now another four (one of them still under construction) are being listed for the same treatment. The council says: ‘The community groups would be given start-up funding to shape the services they want to offer in their local library. The buildings will continue to be maintained by the council. Books, online resources, computers for public use, training, IT equipment and support would also be provided by the council, but the libraries would be run by community groups and their volunteers.’ So the only saving would be through loss of staff. The Cabinet member cites the enthusiasm of the volunteers at the four already run this way and the range of activities they put on. But it does not seem to get the idea that a properly staffed library could do the same – and much more. Of these, Ealing plans to retain only, er… four. DOING THE ONS  A wonderful new tool from ONS (Office of National Statistics) – datasets on where libraries are. There are two, both covering England and Wales. First is number of libraries per area, further broken down into libraries per 100,000 population. Second is walking time to libraries. There are glorious opportunities here to compare services. Indeed, local media had a field day when the figures first appeared last month, churning out articles on whether their area’s provision was good or bad. And the library stats are just one part of a whole suite of info about access to amenities – from dentists to pubs, ATMs to parks, ‘community facilities’ to sports. Thought-provoking. SCOTLAND STARTS ORGANISING As we have said before, we do not formally act in Scotland. But we cannot avoid commenting on the recent spate of threats to libraries north of the Border. In Aberdeenshire (13), Moray (7) and Perth & Kinross (also 7), proposed cuts would close half of the 55 libraries across those authorities alone. These are not the first such proposals in Scotland, but coming more or less all at once they are even more alarming. In Aberdeenshire the announcement said that 13 libraries would close at the end of the year. The council (through a senior officer, not a councillor) had to apologise for the way it was done, with no community consultation. An apology is not enough. Scottish campaigners are in touch with us, and are working to co-ordinate responses and support each other. If you want to know more, tell us and we will pass on your details. PETER RICHARDSON  We were very sad to hear of the death of Peter Richardson in September. Peter was a longstanding Library Campaign supporter and campaigner for Lewisham libraries, with his wife Pat. They were particularly active in trying to stop the handover of several Lewisham libraries to a variety of ‘social enterprise’ groups some years ago (not an unqualified success…).They fought valiantly to keep Manor House Library (their local) in local authority control. When that, too, was handed to another organisation they continued to support the library service, argue for its improvement, question the council and constantly monitor its performance. We delayed publishing this notice until after Peter’s funeral. This was well attended, and heard stories not just of his work for libraries and on land, but also of his career as a seafarer. Peter is pictured at a Lewisham protest outside the DCMS some years ago. LIBRARY OF THE YEAR The Bookseller Magazine has announced a new (or restored) category in its annual British Book Awards. There will be a ‘Library of the Year’ award, open only to statutory library services. Intended to ‘recognise the vital role of libraries in fostering reading and community engagement through their outreach and campaigns.’ ‘Libraries are at the heart of communities,’ said Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller and chair of the judges. ‘We want to shine a spotlight on the creativity of library staff in delivering reading innovation that is effectively engaging new communities of reading and library users, and encouraging greater interaction with books and library spaces both physically and digitally.’ Criteria for entry were to be announced in the autumn though we have not yet seen them. The award is sponsored by publisher Dorling Kindersley and run in conjunction with the Reading Agency. FACEBOOK ROUND UP  Our monthly Facebook round-up is mainly a catching with what the various Friends groups have been up to or are planning for the holiday season. It’s really wonderful getting a glimpse into all the creativity and thoughtfulness of the volunteer activities that passionate friends of libraries folk get up to and this inspires us to continue fighting for libraries across the UK into 2025 and beyond. The volunteers of Kettering’s Library Friends Group have been busy posting photos from the archives of their library from the 1960s and as early as the 1910s. They have also been writing brief descriptions of why each photo is important with one of their “Throwback Thursday” posts pointing out: “The caption on the postcard references Andrew Carnegie, the philanthropist who donated £8,500 to finance the library’s construction. Kettering Library is one of approximately 3,000 Carnegie Libraries around the world and was opened by Andrew Carnegie himself on the 7th May 1904, with around 10,000 people attending the ceremony.” Friends of Somerset’s Street Library will hold a Christmas craft evening session for adults. We wish people a merry time making their own holiday decorations and cards. Several other Friends groups have been advertising similar activity days and workshops, such as Wigan’s Standish Library whose craft session will double up as a coffee morning. Chorley Friends of Coppull Library will be hosting their Christmas fair this weekend featuring a tombola, craft fair, and refreshments for visitors including mince pies and all this is around their reading groups, adult learning sessions, and other friends groups related activities. North Northamptonshire’s Oundle Library in are getting wintry with their own season of cozy crime. Their reading group has been promoted on their Facebook page where they say that: “Oundle Crime is a disparate group of readers, who enjoy all the different genres of crime fiction. At their last meeting, they talked about so many books they’ve split this month’s blog into two parts. The first seven recommendations include the new Jack Reacher novel, a psychological thriller, classic mysteries, and a high-octane-political thriller.” As a busy friends group they are also preparing for their Christmas Sparkle event which features a visit to their library from Santa Claus – we knew he was literary. Friends of Shirehampton Library (Bristol) have been posting about the Facebook group which facilitates in-person meet-ups of Men in Sheds. This group of guys get together and use the tools and workshop to make things and teach each other new skills. A very handy community group! This friend group have also been promoting their local Climate Cafe as well as the upcoming old style Christmas Fayre. AND FINALLY… BREAKING BARRIERS Lord Parkinson was a popular libraries minister. Before his abrupt departure with the general election in July, he was supervising a flurry of activity in his department, and even changed his job title to include the word ‘libraries’ (that’s now gone again). Now we find he was getting research done into ‘barriers’ to library usage. With more to come.  The results so far are nothing new – e.g., the usual infuriating news that often people don’t use libraries because they know nothing about them. There are some points worth analysing, though. We’ll do so in the next issue of our magazine. And maybe there’s a chance that something might actually be done this time… 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. |
