Surrey Libraries Action Movement (SLAM)

A fantastic blog site created by Library campaigners in Surrey;

"We are a group of Surrey residents that are committed to the public provision of professionally staffed libraries.
SLAM came together in June 2011 to form a broad coalition against Surrey County Council’s plans to force 10 libraries to become Community Partnered Libraries (i.e. run and staffed by volunteers only)."

http://slamupdate.wordpress.com/

More news from Madrid!

Dear colleagues,

I inform you that yesterday 24th of May, all the public workers of Madrid City Council went out to the main streets of the City to protest again the "cuts" of services, rights, and salaries, not just in libraries. Ana Botella and her team earn more money that the Spanish Prime Minister and his ministers but they don't reduce their salaries, they prefer to reduce our.

You will have information about our campaign in the following link.

http://www.facebook.com/DefiendeMadridSabiasQue

Thanks a lot for your support

Guadalupe Uceta Pérez

Ayte. de Archivos y Bibliotecas

Hemeroteca Municipal de Madrid

Conde Duque 9-11

914800636

"Solvit Formidine Terras

Winckworth Sherwood!

As you may know Public Libraries are being closed down, hollowed out and divested! Apart from private library firms seemingly willing to take on long term contracts for a relatively small profit you wouldn't think that there was much money to be made out of the sector at the moment, well that's were you would be wrong!

Winckworth Sherwood, Solicitors and Parliamentary Agents, have according to their website  "wide-ranging expertise" in procurement, shared services and alternative delivery options, and acts for over 100 local authorities in relation to transfers of services."

One of the firms' partners, Joanna Bussell, recently posted a comment on the South Wales Evening Post website and on the Huddersfield Examiner site proposing that libraries should be handed over to charities! What she forgot to do is mention her interest in the subject, must have been an oversight?

"Joanna specialises in public/private projects and in particular public sector outsourcing. She also advises both central and local government on a wide range of initiatives with particular regard to improving public sector service delivery through innovative work with public, private and voluntary sector partners.
Joanna is widely acknowledged as one of the UK's leading experts in relation to leisure and culture outsourcing projects. Described as the "best in the business", she has particular expertise advising on the establishment of new 'not for profit' organisations to work in partnership with local authorities.
Joanna and her team are also at the forefront of the new “localism” agenda working with local and regional public sector bodies to deliver more efficient and effective services to local communities through joint working and shared services."

In fact I'm surprised that Joanna has time to take a 'personal' interest in Public Libraries, she has been very busy submitting evidence to the Parliamentary Inquiry into Library Closures and co-writing books!

Keep up the good work Joanna, but next time you post a comment please make sure you mention who you work for!

Civica pull out of Croydon/Wandsworth privatisation process

Civica, one of the shortlisted companies bidding for the Croydon\Wandsworth libraries contract has pulled out stating;
‘Having undertaken an internal risk assessment and considering the potential risk to the Civica brand of taking on a contract which is outside their core competence, they felt they could not take that risk and must withdraw’.
This has allowed a space in the process for an in-house bid from Wandsworth Council!

see the extract from the Council minutes below;

WANDSWORTH BOROUGH COUNCIL

FINANCE AND CORPORATE RESOURCES OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY COMMITTEE - 19TH APRIL 2012

9.            One of the shortlisted organisations, Civica UK Limited, subsequently withdrew from the procurement process stating that ‘Having undertaken an internal risk assessment and considering the potential risk to the Civica brand of taking on a contract which is outside their core competence, they felt they could not take that risk and must withdraw’.

10.        In accordance with the provisions of the MOU this matter was considered by the Joint Project Team and, following consideration of legal advice, a recommendation was made to the Joint Project Board that the 6th placed bidder, Wandsworth Council, be invited back into the process.  The principal reason for this recommendation was to maintain a credible level of competition upon which to base a contract award.

The No Future Libraries Programme!

"No future for you no future for me
No future no future for you"

The Sex Pistols

The 'No' Future Libraries Programme!

In the Autumn of 2010 Ed Vaizey hailed the conception of the Future Libraries Programme as "an ambitious change programme for libraries", the programme, initially launched in July 2010, was to be taken forward by the The Museums Libraries and Archive Council (MLA) and the LGA Group (Local Government Association Group) with "promises to build momentum on the ideas that have been generated and spread learning between library authorities to achieve cost savings, new partnerships and governance models, and to take advantage of digital opportunities. Central to the programme is the vision for library services to have greater connection with other local services and an ambition for services to be designed around the needs of the public, rather than based on organisational boundaries."

Ten areas where chosen;

• Northumberland with Durham
• Bolton, with Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford, Wigan
• Bradford
• Lincolnshire, with Rutland, Cambridgeshire, North East Lincs, Peterborough
• Suffolk
• Oxfordshire with Kent
• Herefordshire with Shropshire
• Cornwall with Devon, Plymouth, Torbay
• Lewisham with Bexley, Bromley, Croydon, Greenwich, Lambeth and Southwark
• Kensington & Chelsea with Hammersmith & Fulham

these areas would each be given a project and the overall feedback from each project suggested four models of change;

Shared services across council boundaries

Reviewing the location and distribution of service points

New provider models of delivery

Divesting library assets and services to community ownership and management.

The final programme report and the reports relating to the projects can be found at; http://www.idea.gov.uk/idk/core/page.do?pageId=22776393

Make of it what you will, all i'll say is that without exception every authority that participated in the programme has cut their library service, this includes library closures, cuts to opening hours, jobs and stock funds, volunteer run libraries and privatisation!

Oh! and i forgot to mention that 10's if not 1000's of pounds was spent on consultants such as Shared Intelligence the same lot being used by the Arts Council England on their 'Envisioning the library of the future' project!

Selling the Family Silver! (or a day at an Arts Council Libraries Consultation Worskshop)

'Envisioning the library of the future' - 16/5/12 - Swiss Cottage Library

I don't even try anymore to keep an open mind when attending these kind of events, i've got an uncanny knack for knowing exactly what agenda and direction these things will follow beforehand and I'm very rarely wrong!
So i wasn't disappointed when i saw the attendee list, Directors, Heads, Senior Managers, Senior Officers, Consultants, a few marketing types, a few volunteer types, a small handful of campaigners, a UNISON Official (thank god!) and a Cultural Champion! Very top heavy and loaded with marketeers and cutters!
Then i read the 'workshop notes' and my heart sank even further, 'consumers', 'future proofed libraries', 'new models for raising funds' and to top it all the 'library brand'!
The programme then started with an introduction by Helen Lax, East Regional Director Arts Council England, who within 5 minutes had already mentioned 'volunteers', 'commercial sector' and told us that we needed to look at 'how the citizen consumes culture'! For a brief moment i thought i might  have stumbled into a franchising event for a fast-food retail opportunity!
We then got a slick marketing style presentation from Ipsos Mori and Shared Intelligence of key socio-economic indicators and library trends, something that would have been better sent as a PowerPoint presentation to all attendees before the workshop! A key message from this part of the session was that "we're not futurologists"!
We were then split into colour coded groups to discuss 4 scenarios of how the UK might be in 2022 and were asked to discuss how libraries would take up certain challenges relating to the scenarios! My group chose the topics of 'partnerships' and 'changing staff roles' as wider issues and then every groups discussion topics, which were written on post-it notes, were pinned to a wall, by this time i was feeling like pinning more than the post-it notes to the wall!
We then had lunch and people networked, all i got, apart from a nice chat with Phil Bradley and Hannah Bailey, was "Oh! you're Alan Wylie"? So nice to be recognised and appreciated!
After lunch we each picked a discussion topic, mine being 'volunteering and community libraries' and split of into groups. My group had Julie Hall, Service Development Manager, Information and Heritage, Lewisham, Darren Taylor, he of the Eco Computer Systems Lewisham community libraries fame, a Camden Campaigner, a Volunteer Coordinator and someone else to do with volunteering! The discussion got rather heated when the Camden campaigner started to taunt the Lewisham contingent and when i said to the Volunteer Coordinator "how do you think that i feel having built up 20+ years of knowledge and skills only to be told that a volunteer can do my job", she said "that's what i thought when i took up the challenge, am i supposed to do all this" When i brought up the issues of data protection, customer service, stock selection, etc i was told that "all these things can be easily learnt or overcome"!
The Eco bloke then eulogised about his community libraries and what a wonderful philanthropist he was, it was at this point i decided to leave!
It was all very loaded and very frustrating, there was virtually no one challenging the neo-liberal status quo, we are my friends being sold off like the family silver!

Privatisation madness in Madrid!

A group of fellow librarians and library staff from Madrid contacted Ian Anstice asking him to publicise their campaign to stop the privatisation of  Madrid's Public Libraries, here is their message;

Dear collegues,

I  write you in the name of some librarians from Madrid.

We work in the Madrid City Libraries System, which include 28 public libraries, 1 Newspaper Library (The most important in Spanish Language in the World) , 1 Library specialized in Music and and other one Historical (founded in the XIX century) and the Archive of the Ville.

We are threatened by the shadow of privatization from the new major, Ana Botella, is in charge of Madrid City Council. We have stoped the privatization of 2 new libraries but we are suffering attacks from every where. Not just librarians, but the rest of Public Services (Museums... etc) (they are reducing our salaries and our rights). I send you some of our protest, just in case you can support us or we can do something for you as well, to let everybody know that this is happening in a lot of places in Europe.

Every friday we stand up in our libraries main door, wearing in black and informing people, and the 24th of May we will walk around the main streets of Madrid wearing in black and carrying banners.

I send you a photo just in case you want to published.

Thanks a lot, you have our support and we would love to have yours as well.

Guadalupe Uceta

Ayte. de Archivos y Bibliotecas

Hemeroteca Municipal de Madrid

Conde Duque 9-11

914800636

Simi Valley to weigh letting county run library for another year - Ventura County Star - 11/05/12

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2012/may/11/simi-council-urged-to-reject-proposals-to-run/

"The Simi Valley City Manager's Office is recommending the City Council reject three outside proposals to run its library in favor of letting Ventura County continue to administer it for another year.

An unresolved lawsuit against the city by Service Employees International Union Local 721, which represents more than 20 library employees, makes it infeasible to meet a July 1 deadline to have a new administrator take over the library on a more permanent basis, Assistant City Manager Laura Behjan wrote in a memo to the council. The council will take up the issue Monday night.
The lawsuit alleges the city acted improperly by approving a resolution in December to withdraw from the Ventura County library system. Superior Court Judge Henry Walsh heard arguments in the case last month and will issue a ruling at an unspecified date.
In the meantime, his order temporarily blocking Simi Valley from contracting with any private company to run the city's one library remains in effect. In response to a city request in February, Maryland-based Library Systems and Services LLC — the nation's largest private administrator of libraries — plus the city of Thousand Oaks and Ventura County submitted proposals to run the library."

Greenwich libraries - Workers show fighting back can win - The Socialist - 09/05/12

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/717/14493/09-05-2012/greenwich-libraries-fighting-back-can-win

"The two days of strike action already taken by Unite members in Greenwich, south London, have sent a clear message to Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL), that we will not accept attacks. GLL has now taken over the library service.

The most likely attack would have been an attempt to drop council library workers' pay and conditions to the level of staff employed at GLL. But, in response to the campaign, GLL has now offered to come to an agreement that will confirm they will not do this."

Greenwich library workers statement - Alan Gibbons Blog - 05/05/12

Greenwich library workers statement

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Alan Gibbons

WHY WE ARE TAKING INDUSTRIAL ACTION
GREENWICH COUNCIL IS ‘TRANSFERRING” ITS LIBRARY SERVICE TO A PRIVATE COMPANY, GLL
GREENWICH REFUSED TO CONSULT THE PUBLIC WHO ARE TOTALLY AGAINST THE TRANSFER
GREENWICH WILL PAY £3.3 MILLION A YEAR OF YOUR MONEY TO GLL TO RUN THE LIBRARIES
THE MANAGING DIRECTOR OF GLL PAYS HIMSELF £175,000 A YEAR.
AT THE SAME TIME LIBRARY WORKERS WILL FACE CUTS IN PAY AND CONDITIONS.
GLL EMPLOYS MOSTLY LOW-WAGE AND SESSIONAL WORKERS WITH FEW RIGHTS
GLL HAS A RECORD OF INTRODUCING CHARGES FOR SERVICES
ONCE THE LIBRARIES ARE PRIVATISED YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO GET THEM BACK
GLL WANT TO PRIVATISE AS MANY COUNCIL SERVICES AS POSSIBLE
THE STRIKE IS ABOUT OBJECTING TO OUR PAY & CONDITIONS BEING CUT. BUT YOU TOO WILL BE HIT BY THE TRANSFER. WE KNOW THAT GLL WILL CLOSE LIBRARIES. THEY WILL GET RID OF THE MOBILE LIBRARY AND THE SMALLER LIBRARIES WILL BE NEXT
THIS IS WHAT GLL SAY ON THEIR WEBSITE :
“We may not be the cheapest in raw price terms, but if accountants were able to properly quantify the ‘social added value’ of our work we are confident we would always offer best value. Social Enterprise can provide more sustainable solutions in a stormy financial climate for Libraries, Parks, Play and a whole host of services. There are real opportunities for enhanced services at reduced costs.” – M Sesnan GLL Managing Director
PLEASE SUPPORT OUR CAMPAIGN BY DOING THE FOLLOWING:-
Write to the Chief Executive – Mary Ney, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Town Hall, Wellington Street, Woolwich, SE18 6HQ
Write to the Leader of the Council – Cllr Chris Roberts, Royal Borough of Greenwich, Town Hall, Wellington Street, Woolwich, SE18 6HQ
Send a Message of support to the strikers – C/o Greenwich UNITE, Old Town Hall, Polytechnic Street, Woolwich, SE18 6PN
Make a donation to the campaign – Cheques payable to Greenwich Unite, Old Town Hall, Polytechnic Street, Woolwich, SE18 6PN
Join The Walk To Save Your Library Service (Details Overleaf)
WALK TO SAVE YOUR LIBRARY SERVICE 5th MAY 2012
ASSEMBLE 11.30 AT ELTHAM LIBRARY – 2 ARCHERY ROAD,
ELTHAM, SE9
MOVE OFF 12 NOON
WALK ENDS WITH A RALLY IN GENERAL GORDON SQUARE – WOOLWICH
LIBRARY WORKERS SUPPORT YOU, THE PUBLIC
PLEASE SUPPORT GREENWICH LIBRARY WORKERS

The re-election of Boris and what this could mean for London Libraries.

Well like it or lump it in London we've got Boris for another 4 years, what could this mean for London's public libraries?

Let's look at his record on Libraries up until now.

In January 2011 Boris announced that he was planning to set up a trust to run libraries that were at risk of closure, after the announcement no detail emerged and the plans seem to fade away until December the same year when he announced the 'Team London - Library Champions' initiative! Merton was used as the template for the scheme and now has over 450 volunteers working in its libraries!
So within the space of a few months he had moved from the position of saving libraries to doing nothing to stop the closures and staffing the ones still open with volunteers!
In February 2011 he muddied the waters by stating;

“…there is no statutory obligation to provide a library service, but there is plenty of ill-thought-out legislation about equalities and heaven knows what, emanating from Westminster, imposed from Whitehall and slavishly obeyed by local authorities. Councils are not obliged to have libraries…”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/borisjohnson/8337324/What-ski-helmets-can-teach-us-about-keeping-libraries-open.html

something that was clearly untrue and possibly, along with similar comments by the LGA, meant to undermine the sector, or was it just another gaff?

Off course before all this came the Mayor's 'Cultural Strategy' with the immortal;

"The Mayor strongly endorses the efforts that

library staff, local authorities and others are making

to continue to innovate. In recent months, MLA

London in conjunction with the London Cultural

Improvement Programme has overseen the London

Library Change Programme (LLCP) to assist this

process and to address many of the strategic and

resourcing issues. It is also looking at different

governance models, exploring how services can

be made more efficient through possible sharing

or contracting out, while still preserving local

democratic accountability. It is important that the

LLCP delivers tangible, long-term outcomes for

customers, such as improved stock, more flexible

opening hours, improved use of digital technologies

and greater convenience."

The London Libraries Change Programme (LLCP) was run along the lines of a masonic lodge, secret and only for the privileged few namely members of the ALCL, Chief Leisure Officers and the now defunct MLA! No one outside this circle was privy to the reports and findings and no one really knows what impact the programme has had, except that their 'workforce benchmarking' study with it's proposals to cut the London Library workforce by 10% might have already hit its target?

Recently Boris has spoken out publicly in support of the Brent Campaigners, a move that many saw as a cynical election ploy!
Mr Johnson spoke to the Times exclusively about the controversial issue.
He said: “I think it is a great shame. It’s very sad what’s happened to the libraries in Brent. I read that Brent had closed more libraries than anywhere else in the country. Closing them is something that is actually avoidable as there are boroughs that have actually opened libraries recently.
“I think Hammersmith is one of them so it goes to show that they are still used.”
Mr Johnson added: “I have heard about the efforts of the campaigners and various community events they have held to fight for them and I admire them for that.”
Brent & Kiburn Times 01/04/12

With Boris's emphasis on volunteers and private finance, the ALCL seemingly supporting his position and the push towards privatisation I don't envisage there being much of a comprehensive and efficient, publicly funded or accountable library service left in London come the next Mayoral elections in 2016!

  

I'm famous in Tracy!

Today Tracy tomorrow the world!

http://savetracypubliclibrary.webs.com/apps/blog/show/14538504-tracy-s-antics-have-gone-global-

"Yesterday, we received a letter from Alan Wylie in London, England. He copied us on a letter that he sent the Director of Community Services Rod Buchanan, as well as other City of Tracy staff. He also emailed Stacy Aldrich, State Librarian."

Fight privatisation: Save our libraries - The Socialist : 2nd May

http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/716/14456/02-05-2012/fight-privatisation-save-our-libraries

"Over the last year more than 100 libraries have either been closed, are now run by volunteers or have been made into social enterprises, ie privatised. Here Paul Callanan, Socialist Party member from Greenwich, south London, describes the onslaught by a Labour-led council carrying out government cuts. He also explains the huge battle, led by the Unite union, including Socialist Party members, involving possibly the first strike against cuts in libraries. "

Trouble in Greenwich with GLL - Save Croydon Libraries Campaign - 03/05/2012

http://soslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/trouble-in-greenwich-with-gll.html?spref=fb

"Croydon Libraries are in the process of being outsourced and five companies and organisations have been short-listed. Inside Croydon has written of those short-listed in this comprehensive article here.
Greenwich Leisure Limited (GLL) is just one of these bidders and and an article highlights the troubles in Greenwich where GLL are taking on the running of library services. The full article can be read here. The article explains,

"GLL have made clear that following the transfer, there will be a "harmonisation" process, in reality to bring library staff down to GLL levels. GLL negotiators have confirmed that new library staff will be employed on poorer pay and conditions."

The article claims that the council refused to accept a potential compromise whereby staff would be seconded over to GLL, rather than transferred, which would give staff staying as council employees a better safeguard against attacks on pay and conditions."