The DCMS & Civil Society (and Ed!)

Recently an announcement was made by the government that could have a fundamental effect on the future of public libraries in the UK, responsibility for the government's 'Civil Society' (Charities, SocEnts, Mutuals etc) agenda has shifted from the Cabinet Office to the DCMS. The Minister involved is Rob Wilson who has also been given the DCMS libraries brief. This change takes place shortly after a ministerial re-shuffle that saw John Whittingdale being replaced by Karen Bradley and Ed Vaizey by Matt Hancock.
This move is seen by many as an attempt by the government to re-position and re-invigorate (or even demote) their 'Big Society' agenda;

"Under cover of darkness the Office for Civil Society, a shadow of its former self, slips, almost unnoticed, out of the Cabinet Office, shuffles across Whitehall and finds refuge in the cavernous DCMS."
http://www.civilsociety.co.uk/governance/blogs/content/22119/the_rise_and_fall_of_the_office_for_civil_society 

But why might all this be bad news for public libraries? Well although we've only got a handful of library mutuals we've definitely seen a push towards offloading library services to Social Enterprises, Charitable Trusts etc and with the Minister for Civil Society now holding the libraries brief within the DCMS I would be very surprised if their wasn't an escalation. Add to this the fact that the new 'Libraries Minister', Matt Hancock, is a Suffolk MP and that Suffolk Libraries are an Independent & Provident Society (IPS) then you can start to see why I'm getting twitchy.

And as for Ed Vaizey, his tenure as the longest serving 'Libraries Minister' was a complete and utter disaster for public library services, users and staff. During his reign we lost 8000 paid/trained library staff, 343-600+ libraries (figure depends on whether you count volunteer-led 'libraries' as closed); saw a 93% increase in volunteers, a huge decrease in budgets/opening hours and an escalation in privatisation/commercialisation. He also treated campaigners with contempt, blocking them on twitter and breaking his promise to debate with them in a public meeting.
Although he was very vocal about library cuts/closures in opposition he refused to intervene or speak out when in power, a total dereliction of his duties and leadership remit under the 1964 Act.

Advocacy under austerity, Vaizey, Northamptonshire and donations and cynical electioneering.

Advocacy under austerity

A rather excellent piece by Pedronicus on advocacy and austerity in response to a recent CILIP blog;

https://pedronicusuk.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/libraries-advocacy-and-austerity/

"In the present climate, where services are immediately and imminently under threat of extinction, in those instances I do not see any alternative other than what has been termed “protest advocacy”. There is not time to think in terms of “changing the narrative”, or “building relationships”. Libraries do not need more or even better advocacy: they need actual money to be available in local authority budgets which have been cut to impossibly low levels. They need to be nurtured and sustained at the level of national and local policy by people who are not driven by neoliberal ideology. On the level of our whole society, it needs ALL of us to reflect long and hard on whether we want to continue to allow our lives and those of our communities to be directed by values that see no worth in anything other than its monetary value or ability to generate income.

If we do that maybe we can collectively start to find some real answers."

and another very splendid piece by Ian Clark on the very same topic;
http://infoism.co.uk/2015/03/better-advocacy/

 

Vaizey, Northamptonshire and donations

 

The man who would rather not intervene, Ed Vaizey, visited a library in Northamptonshire recently. "Big deal" I here you say, well Northamptonshire is Paul Blantern (CEO of the county council and Chair of the Sieghart Taskforce) territory. Ed had some interesting things to say during his visit, things that outline the governments policy on libraries; donations, volunteers, philanthropy, hubs and private/public models.

 

http://www.northampton-news-hp.co.uk/Thriving-Northampton-library-praised-culture/story-26124894-detail/story.html

"The visit comes weeks after the county council unveiled a new public donation scheme aimed enhancing library services.
The scheme however sparked fears that libraries in the county are under threat of closing down, something which was quickly denied by the local authority, who said it was just 'an example of the constant work in the county to make sure libraries are hubs at the very heart of our communities'.
When the Northants H&P asked Mr Vaizey for his thoughts on the scheme he said: "Libraries actually originally came into fruition mainly through generous donations.
"Andrew Carnegie is the most famous person who is responsible for hundreds of libraries in the UK, and back them libraries didn't become a statutory so they didn't start being paid for by the rate payer till about 100 years ago.
"We have a private public model for a lot of things such as local arts organisations, which gets government grants to cover the basics but they also raise money from people who support those organisations."

Cynical Electioneering

Oh you know how the government has cut local council grants by 30-50% and has refused to re-introduce the abolished English library standards and has abolished the Advisory Council for Libraries and has handed the development remit for libraries to an arts organisation and them cut it's funding and hasn't bothered to replace (as far as we know?) Yinnon Ezra (DCMS Specialist Advisor for Libraries) and sat on the Sieghart Report until one day before the xmas recess and has allowed Ed Vaizey to do bugger all about superintending the 64 Act and how 6000 library staff have lost their jobs since 2007/8 and how several hundred libraries have been closed or are at risk of closure and how 12% of all public libraries are now volunteer-led, WELLLL now they've decided that they want to promote library membership for children, is there an election coming up?
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/government-promotes-child-library-membership

 

Not another bloody report!

A good way of not taking action in government is to launch an inquiry, review, commission or report and in relation to public libraries this is exactly what has happened over and over again. I've lost count on how many inquiries, reviews and reports etc there have been from the 'distributive' leadership in 'LibraryLand' over the last few years, at least a couple of dozen i would think? They say the same things and make the same noises but do nothing, or very little, to safeguard or develop libraries.

Now we have a jointly commissioned report by the DCMS and the DCLG chaired by William Sieghart (chaired the recent e-lending and public libraries review). The report will focus on;

• What are the core principles of a public library into the future?
• Is the current model of delivery the most comprehensive and efficient? and
• What is the role of community libraries?

And the 'expert' panel will be made up of;

Sue Charteris - a Public Policy Consultant famous for leading the inquiry in to library closures in the Wirral
Janene Cox - Current Chair of the Society of Chief Librarians (soon to be replaced by Ciara Eastell)
Luke Johnson - Chairman of Risk Capital Partners.
Roly Keating - CEO of the British Library.
Caroline Michel - Chief Executive Peters Fraser & Dunlop.
Stephen Page - Chief Executive Faber & Faber.
Joanna Trollope - Author

So as you can see a really representative, 'independent' (whatever that means?) bunch. What might strike you is the omissions of CILIP and ACE but what is really sickening is that there is no real voice for users, frontline staff, unions or campaigners.

It looks to me that this has been set up to give the government more time to cut, close and divest libraries and to deliver a report broadly in line with policy, a rubber stamp. for more comment see;
http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2014/02/special-post-government-announces-dramatically-wide-ranging-libraries-report.html
http://www.librarycampaign.com/oh-no-another-time-wasting-inquiry/

I would however urge everyone who supports libraries to submit evidence to https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/public-libraries-what-do-you-think, i'm not sure what good it will do but we've got to keep up the pressure. As the Library Campaign puts it;

"The Library Campaign urges all who care about libraries to contact the inquiry. And to tell the minister we are sick of his inaction."

 

'Beyond Books and buildings: should councils close their libraries to save money?" - the LGA's vision for Public Libraries!

The Local Govenrment Association (LGA) is holding its Anuual Conference and Exhibition between 26-28th June 2012 and one of the sessions taking place today is 'Beyond Books and buildings: should councils close their libraries to save money?" this coincides with a new LGA report 'Local solutions for future local library services'.

The Conference session is being chaired by Flick Rea, Lib Dem Councillor for the Fortune Green Ward in Camden, who also sat on the board of the London Libraries Change Programme and now sits on the LGA's Culture, Tourism and Sports Board, and the speakers are Cllr David Hodge, Leader of Surrey CC, and Steve Bullock, Mayor of Lewisham who sits on the LGA Workforce Board.

"Libraries are among the most valued services councils provide. The library landscape is also changing radically in light of budget cuts, the Localism Act and the Big Society. From sharing back office functions, to locating libraries in shops and empowering communities to play a bigger role, councils are finding innovative ways to give people access to quality library services. Councils are looking beyond books and buildings, opening up libraries for a new generation of users, forging new partnerships and putting them at the heart of the community.
So, are there alternatives to cutting library services? How can libraries achieve modernisation and digitalisation as well as value for money?
Delegates will hear the latest cutting edge thinking from LGA and local government and have a chance to have their say."
Outline of the session taken from http://sites.idea.gov.uk/annual-conference-2012/2012/01/24/w13/

A media release relating to the report 'Local solutions for future local library services' can be found at http://www.local.gov.uk/web/guest/media-releases/-/journal_content/56/10171/3622109/NEWS-TEMPLATE and copies can be requested from ben.knowles@local.gov.uk, i've requested one but haven't yet had a response!

The themes and innovations talked about in the media release are not particularly innovative or new, libraries have been offering these services for years but what is new is the unprecedented push towards co-location, sharing services, private finance and volunteers, this neo-liberal agenda is also being adopted by ACE and of course the DCMS.

And i quote;

"A library in the 21st century can be a whole of things, from a small e-book borrowing point based in a shop to a part of a cultural hub which supports everything from education to lifelong learning to health, volunteering, art projects, smal business, job hunting and social care"

The LGA along with ACE and the DCMS have a clear vision for Public Libraries and that is to divest and diversify, they want to position 'libraries' within the leisure market in order to make them more attractive to private firms or failing this to hand them over to charities or volunteers!

This is not what the vast majority of library users want, they want local libraries that are publicly funded and accountable, staffed by paid professionals and housed in buildings which are accessible and easily identifiable as libraries, not 'library hubs', 'library plus', 'discovery centres' and shiny multi-million pound town centre libraries built at the expense of the local network and they certainly don't want library staff issuing death certificates, as in Kent Libraries!

How can i make these statements about what library users want, i hear you ask, well through 20+ years of asking them, through information gleaned from local newspapers, online forums, friends groups, feedback from other campaigners and by reading and digesting every relevant report i come across! For a fairly comprehensive overview of the reports, inquiries and research conducted on Public Libraries over the years see http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/p/links-and-documents.html

It may be worth noting that the LGA's chair is a Conservative and the largest grouping is Conservative, it represents 373 councils across the UK and the councils pay an annual subscription ranging from £10k to £70k, see http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2012/06/vital-for-communities.html for more info.