London libraries news; Barnet, Bexley, Greenwich & Wandsworth.

There's been lots happening to London libraries recently;

Barnet

Earlier this week firm proposals emerged that could lead to the further decimation of the library service in the Borough.
The 3 options put forward by the council are;

"Option one proposes keeping the same number of libraries open. The service would focus on four key libraries – Chipping Barnet, Hendon, and the new libraries in Church End and Colindale.
Other library buildings would be reduced in size, to around 540sq ft on average, and space would be let out for commercial use. The report states it is “likely” that a number of libraries would move.
Staff hours would be reduced to half of the current opening hours. However, more would be made of technology to keep libraries open outside staffed hours, including online ordering.
Option two suggests closing Burnt Oak, Childs Hill, Mill Hill, East Finchley, Osidge and South Friern libraries.
The remaining libraries would be staffed for 60 per cent of their current opening hours. Opening hours would also be increased, using technology to allow access from 7am to 10pm, outside staffed times.
Option three suggests closing East Barnet and Childs Hill libraries, and offering East Finchley, Edgware, Mill Hill and South Friern libraries to be run by volunteers as ‘community libraries’. The space in each would be reduced, and the libraries could move.
Hendon, Burnt Oak, Chipping Barnet, Church End, Golders Green, Colindale, North Finchley and Oside libraries would be staffed for 50 per cent of the current opening hours. Opening hours would be increased through new technology from 7am to 10pm, outside staffed times."
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11548261.Options_laid_out_for_future_of_Barnet_s_libraries/

So a smorgasbord of cuts, relocation, collocation, volunteers and staffless self-service 'libraries', if you can call such a thing a library?!
(see http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/unstaffed-libraries-contradiction-in.html and  http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/a-library-solution-without-staff.html)

As you would imagine Barnet Unison is up in arms about this latest 're-organisation' (cynical management speak that means cuts)

"Proposals for the library service also suggest extending opening hours by leaving libraries unstaffed, which Unison said would put the safety of the public at risk.
Unison said: “Staff opening and closing the library at the beginning and end of unstaffed hours will also be put at extra risk.
“Until we have evidence from the council, Unison believe unstaffed libraries pose a great danger to our members, our other colleagues and to the general public.”

The union also questioned whether the reorganisation of libraries would save money, or whether unstaffed hours would make thefts more likely.
Making greater use of volunteers to help run the service was also questioned, a move Unison claimed would put the libraries at risk of “eventual closure”.
The letter added: “Nationally it is far from being proved that volunteer-managed libraries have the staying power to operate in the long term once initial enthusiasm and funding dwindles or ceases.”
http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11552077.___Great_concern____expressed_over_future_of_Barnet___s_libraries/

Oh and library staff were only given 30 minutes consultation time on these proposals and Union stewards were hampered in their attempts to represent members, shameful conduct by an administration that's shown nothing but contempt for its workforce and residents.


Greenwich

On the 14/10/14 Greenwich library workers took strike action against Greenwich Leisure Ltd (GLL), the so-called 'Social Enterprise' that runs the library service there and in Wandsworth.

"The dispute is about staffing - there are at least 12 unfilled posts and GLL are proposing to cut more. In addition, GLL are refusing to commit to pay any eventual NJC award to TUPE staff transferred over from the Council."
http://www.unitetheunion.org/how-we-help/listofregions/londonandeastern/londoneasternnews/100-strike-tunrout-of-unite-members-in-greenwich-library-service/

The strike was called by Unite and all 86 of their members walked out, a 100% success, well done to Onay Kasab, regional officer, and everyone involved. They are planning 2 more days of action on the 30th and 31st of October 2014.

Wandsworth

Wandsworth Library which only re-opened in 2009 after a £1.5m re-development could be moved to a new building next door if the council gets its way. The library is currently located in a grade 2 listed building which the council wants to flog to the highest bidder. The council are spinning the move saying that the new building is part of the regeneration of the area and will have a cafe which will attract more people, but it looks as if this is just another case of selling the family silver.
All this after a document written by the local tories was leaked outlining massive cuts including proposals to close non-town centre libraries, well well!


Bexley

Bexley Council is proposing to hand 4 of its smaller libraries over to volunteers or "community focussed organisations" and focus its resources on 6 of it's larger town-centre libraries, sadly this a pattern taking place up and down the country. The nonsense spouted by councils in these situations is sickening and cynical, Bexley are calling their volunteer model 'co-operative libraries' whilst Sheffield are calling theirs 'Associate Libraries'.
Who do they think they are kidding? They conduct sham consultations then try to hoodwink the public with doublespeak, it's a disgrace.

346 staff cut from London libraries since 2011/12.

The following is a very basic breakdown of the data relating to staffing and volunteers in London's Public Libraries, for the period 2011/12 to 2012/13, taken from the latest CIPFA Public Library Profiles.
I did the same thing in December 2012, but that time looked at the period covering 2007/8 to 2011/12 see http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/562-public-library-jobs-lost-in-london.html

Hillingdon and Newham didn't submit data.

According to my calculations approx. 346 FTE library posts have been cut between 2011/12 and 2012/13. So add to this my previous figure of 562 (2007/8 - 2011/12) and we've lost approx. 908 FTE staff since 2007/8.
The tri-borough project (Westminster, Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham) alone lost 52.5 although Westminster, the lead borough, recorded an increase of 4.6!

The authorities with the biggest cuts are Lewisham with 56 staff lost, Camden with 52.6 and Havering with 48.3, the lowest are Merton with 0.7 and Sutton with 1.4, believe it or not there are actually some authorities that report an increase and they are Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Westminster and Croydon.

De-professionialisation continues to be a major issue, with 20 authorities reporting decreases in professional staff. The authorities recording the lowest figures for professional staff are Enfield (0), Waltham Forest (3), Tower Hamlets (4) and Greenwich (4.5). The highest is Camden who record all their 92.3 staff as professional, which is either a mistake when filling the forms in (i hope that this is what Enfiled have done also), a new model of library service provision or a radical re-definition of what a library professional usually means?

In relation to volunteers Merton, flagship for the Mayor's Team London 'Library Champions' project, comes out tops again with 603 voulunteers giving 35,630 hours of their time, followed by Croydon with 365 and Lewisham with 343. Islington and Greenwich both record 0 volunteers!
Yet again I'm not sure how this figure is calculated, do they include volunteers who assist (or run) the 'reading challenges', homework clubs, IT sessions etc or is it just purely volunteers who have replaced paid staff?

If you spot any mistakes in my calculations then please let me know.

City of London Staff 2007/8 65.5 2011/12 89 (29 prof, 60 other) 2012/13 70 (33.5 prof, 36.5 other) Volunteers 2007/8 12 2011/12 50 (696hrs) 2012/13 48 (1,367hrs)

Kingston
 

Staff 2007/8 74.1 2011/12 54.2 (12.9 prof, 41.4 other) 2012/13 49.9 (14.1 prof, 35.9 other)

Volunteers 2007/8 1 2011/12 24 (551hrs) 2012/13 21 (534hrs)

 

Brent

Staff 2007/8 133 2011/12 68 (20 professional, 48 other) 2012/13 66.5 (16.5 prof, 50 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 10 (240hrs) 2012/13 24 (2,393hrs)

Camden

Staff 2007/8 135 2011/12 144.9 (16 prof, 128.9 other) 2012/13 92.3 (92.3 prof, 0 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 12 (1,908hrs) 2012/13 55 (2,411hrs)

Ealing

Staff 2007/8 140 2011/12 123.4 (18.7 prof, 104.7 other) 2012/13 107.8 (15.7 prof, 92.1 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 29 (800hrs) 2012/13 43 (1,075hrs)

Hackney

Staff 2007/8 123.5 2011/12 99.5 (18 prof, 81.5 other) 2012/13 102.5 (8.0 prof, 94.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 38 2011/12 26 (1,486hrs) 2012/13 15 (1,134hrs)

Haringey

Staff 2007/8 113.8 2011/12 79.9 (30.2 prof, 49.7 other) 2012/13 75.5 (28.5 prof, 47 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 8 2011/12 63 (1,1830hrs) 2012/13 59 (3,391hrs)

Hounslow

Staff 2007/8 94.3 2011/12 96.5 (10.5 prof, 86 other) 2012/13 92 (8.5 prof, 83.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 11 2011/12 14 (2,241hrs) 2012/13 93 (3,982hrs)

Hammersith & Fulham

Staff 2007/8 90 2011/12 86 (5 prof, 81 other) 2012/13 45.0 (12 prof, 33 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0 2012/13 35 (461hrs)

Greenwich

Staff 2007/8 101.2 2011/12 81.3 (7 prof, 74.3 other) 2012/13 79 (4.5 prof, 74.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0 2012/13 0

Lambeth

Staff 2007/8 109.8 2011/12 112 (9 prof, 103 other) 2012/13 97.9 (12 prof, 85.9 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 1 2011/12 2 (281hrs) 2012/13 20 (403hrs)

Lewisham

Staff 2007/8 105.3 2011/12 152 (27 prof, 125 other) 2012/13 96 (25.4 prof, 70.6 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 3 2011/12 336 (28,651hrs) 2012/13 343 (27,279hrs)

Merton

Staff 2007/8 61.5 2011/12 47 (4 prof, 43 other) 2012/13 46.3 (4 prof, 42.3 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 31 2011/12 539 (22,303hrs) 2012/13 603 (35,630hrs)

Bromley

Staff 2007/8 171.8 2011/12 117.3 (15.4 prof, 101.9 other) 2012/13 109.2 (11 prof, 98.2 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 58 2011/12 167 (4,266hrs) 2012/13 181 (6,838hrs)

Harrow

Staff 2007/8 111 2011/12 78.5 (20 prof, 58.5 other) 2012/13 76.4 (19.9 prof, 56.5 prof)
Volunteers 2007/8 29 2011/12 35 (1,350hrs) 2012/13 167 (1,920hrs)

Islington

Staff 2007/8 124.4 2011/12 98.4 (26.7 prof, 71.7 other) 2012/13 89.2 (23.9 prof, 65.3 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0 2012/13 0

Kensington & Chelsea

Staff 2007/8 111.5 2011/12 84.8 (18.5 prof, 66.3 other) 2012/13 68.7 (18 prof, 50.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 21 2011/12 40 (2,693hrs) 2012/13 43 (1,412hrs)

Redbridge

Staff 2007/8 114.5 2011/12 108 (22 prof, 86 other) 2012/13 102 (10 prof, 92 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 14 2011/12 55 (1,508hrs) 2012/13 113 (7,109hrs)

Richmond

Staff 2007/8 110 2011/12 89.5 (15 prof, 74.5 other) 2012/13 81.2 (7.5 prof, 73.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 156 2011/12 100 (3,336hrs) 2012/13 111 (3,800hrs)

Sutton

Staff 2007/8 83.5 2011/12 69 (13 prof, 56 other) 2012/13 67.6 (11.5 prof, 56.1 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 18 2011/12 105 (1,946hrs) 2012/13 66 (5,570hrs)

Tower Hamlets

Staff 2007/8 131.4 2011/12 122.7 (4 prof, 118.7 other) 2012/13 137.5 (4 prof, 133.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 20 2011/12 14 (708hrs) 2012/13 92 (1,104hrs)

Wandsworth

Staff 2007/8 127.4 2011/12 110.8 (37.4 prof, 73.4 other) 2012/13 95.0 (32.8 prof, 62.1 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 67 2011/12 79 (2,151hrs) 2012/13 145 (6,058hrs)

Westminster

Staff 2007/8 145.1 2011/12 139.4 (31 prof, 108.4 other) 2012/13 144.0 (39 prof, 105 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 88 2011/12 313 (10,950hrs) 2012/13 248 (12,478hrs)

Southwark

Staff 2007/8 113.8 2011/12 108 (20 prof, 88 other) 2012/13 115.5 (25 prof, 90.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 14 (566hrs) 2012/13 49 (2,897hrs)

Waltham Forest

Staff 2007/8 75.9 2011/12 73 (5.8 prof, 67.2 other) 2012/13 61 (3 prof, 58 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 4 2012/13 11 (7,252hrs)

Barking & Dagenham

Staff 2007/8 65.3 2011/12 71.2 (12.7 prof, 58.5 other) 2012/13 60.3 (10.8 prof, 49.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 41 2012/13 47

Barnet

Staff 2007/8 157 2011/12 122.5 (48 prof, 74.5 other) 2012/13 118.5 (47.5 prof, 71.0 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 38 2011/12 28 2012/13 83

Bexley

Staff 2007/8 138 2011/12 89.3 (15.8 prof, 73.5 other) 2012/13 81.2 (12.5 prof, 68.8 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 110 2011/12 184 2012/13 273

Croydon

Staff 2007/8 134.5 2011/12 100.4 (22 prof, 78.4 other) 2012/13 104 (23 prof, 81 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 25 2011/12 245 (3,008hrs) 2012/13 365 (9,400hrs)

Enfield

Staff 2007/8 143 2011/12 128 (23 prof, 105 other) 2012/13 125.5 (0 prof, 125.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 31 2011/12 117 (1,647hrs) 2012/13 307 (2,737hrs)

Havering

Staff 2007/8 96 2011/12 104 (9 prof, 95 other) 2012/13 55.7 (9.1 prof, 46.6 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 96 2011/12 200 (3,880hrs) 2012/13 323 (6,371hrs)

A 'clearly expressed vision' for London Libraries?

These are just some of my initial and rudimentary thoughts and findings from hours and hours of looking at London LA websites and info.

 

 

I decided to look at all 33 London Library Service websites for information on and links to their library strategies and plans. I was looking for accessible information, something that a member of the public could easily find without having to trawl through the council minutes or the ‘Democracy’ sections of the sites.

 

What I found was, to me anyway, quite shocking, 18 of the 33 Library Services had no policy or strategy information at all on their pages, and only 5 out of the 15 that did have had links to up to date documents, the rest had a mixture of 'Stock Policies', 'Customer Charters' and out of date info.

 

Library Authorities at one time submitted annual ‘Library Plans’ or ‘Position Statements’ to the DCMS as this archived website demonstrates http://www.libplans.ws/ and according to Yinnon Ezra (DCMS), Graeme Mc Donald (SOLACE), and Janene Cox (SCL), in a recent blog post for the Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association (CLOA), it's still important that LA's clearly express their vision;

 

“The important first step for any LA should be a clearly expressed vision for the public library service. This must be informed by the views of local people, it is not about recycling the views of existing users, but ensuring that the vision embraces those who do not/will not/won’t use the service. This must also suggest how these aspirations will be met – collecting this information can sometimes be a challenge – but many Councils have wide experience of testing the quality of services through regular citizen surveys using good inexpensive market research is also well worth doing.”

 

Does “clearly expressed vision” include making a plan or strategy available online? You would have thought so?

 

I also looked at how libraries where described/grouped on the council websites which usually is a good indication of where they are positioned with the councils directorate structure.

13 x Leisure & Culture

4 x Community & Living

6 x Libraries

2 x Leisure & Libraries

2 x Leisure

1 x Leisure, Culture & Tourism

1 x Libraries, Leisure & Culture

1 x Library & Heritage Services

1 x Community & Leisure

1 x Libraries & Archives

1 x Education & Learning

 

As you can see there is a strong trend towards positioning libraries with ‘Leisure & Culture’ and only one council places libraries with ‘Education & Learning’, 11 councils still use the words library or libraries which is a positive in these dark times.

 

So what does all this tell us? Well nothing we didn’t already know and that is that over the years there has been a deliberate positioning of libraries with leisure and culture as Yinnon, Janene and Graeme touch on in their blog post;

 

“Many local authorities would argue that making savings particularly around Cultural Services, the label under which public libraries find themselves is NOT a new phenomenon. These services, which often include Arts, Archives, Heritage & Museums, Parks, Leisure, to mention a few, the latter having no ‘statutory duty’ attached to them, always struggle to attract recourses, but do better when Grant from Government for the other main services is steady or expanding. When this is reduced the impact is more direct, particularly when mixed into this is the regional variation in Grant distribution”

 

It's also clear to me that many London LA’s are failing to make their "clearly expressed visions" easily, if at all, accessible online for public scrutiny unless that is they are 'consulting' about cuts and closures.

The State of London's Libraries

Today i met with fellow London Libraries Unison Stewards, who are doing a brilliant job trying to defend their members and the service, to discuss the current state of affairs and although i can't go into detail about what was discussed what I can say is that we are in deep deep shit!

The service in the capital is being hollowed out and ripped apart so if ACE try to cloud your vision with talk of £6m arts partnerships, or the SCL's 'universal offers' give you optimism, or god forbid you are taken in by Vaizey's rosy eyed view then tell them from me it is far too little far too late and if they deny this then they are talking complete and utter nonsense .

And yes i do have an alternative plan; strike, protest and occupy.

562 Public Library jobs lost in London since 2007/8

The following is just a very basic breakdown of the data relating to staffing and volunteers in London's Public Libraries, 2007/8 to 2011/12, from the latest Public Libraries Profiles sponsored by the DCMS and recently published by CIPFA. The City of London isn't included and i can only assume that they are one of the 4 authorities that CIPFA are hoping to release data on in the new year?

According to my calculations 562 full time library posts have been cut between 2007/8 and 2011/12, i can't tell from this how many cut were professional staff due the data not being broken down for 2007/8.
Funnily enough i was looking back over the London Library Change Programme documentation the other day specifically at the 'Workforce Benchmarking Study' which looked at ways (shared services, collaboration/partnerships) of cutting the 2006/7 London Libraries workforce of 3,900 FTE's by 10%, coincidence or hitting targets?

The authorities with the biggest cuts are Bromley with 54.5 staff lost and Bexley with 48.7 and the lowest are Waltham Forest with 2.9 and Hammersmith and Fulham with 4, believe it or not there are actually 6 authorities that report an increase and they are Camden, Hounslow, Lambeth, Barking & Dagenham, Havering and Lambeth with a whopping 46.7 increase!

Apart from the actual numbers lost the other thing that really jumps out from these figures is the deprofessionialisation of the service, Newham for 2011/12 record 2 professional staff and there are others with only 4/5! How can you run a comprehensive and efficient, statutory public service with only 2 professional staff?

 

In relation to volunteers no surprises that Merton, considering it is the flagship for the Mayor's Team London 'Library Champions' project, comes top with 539 closely followed by Lewisham with 336, three authorities Islington, Hammersmith & Fulham and Greenwich all record 0 figures for this! I'm not sure how this figure is calculated, do they include volunteers who assist (or run) the 'reading challenges', homework clubs, IT sessions etc or is it just purely volunteers who have replaced paid staff?

Obviously these are the figures up untill 2011/12 i would take an educated guess that the staffing levels will be even lower and volunteer levels even higher when the next set are published, if they are?

Brent
Staff 2007/8 133 2011/12 68 (20 professional, 48 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 10

Camden
Staff 2007/8 135 2011/12 144.9 (16 prof, 128.9 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 12

Ealing
Staff 2007/8 140 2011/12 123.4 (18.7 prof, 104.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 29

Hackney
Staff 2007/8 123.5 2011/12 99.5 (18 prof, 81.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 38 2011/12 26

Haringey
Staff 2007/8 113.8 2011/12 79.9 (30.2 prof, 49.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 8 2011/12 63

Hounslow
Staff 2007/8 94.3 2011/12 96.5 (10.5 prof, 86 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 11 2011/12 14

Hammersith & Fulham
Staff 2007/8 90 2011/12 86 (5 prof, 81 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0

Greenwich
Staff 2007/8 101.2 2011/12 81.3 (7 prof, 74.3 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0

Lambeth
Staff 2007/8 109.8 2011/12 112 (9 prof, 103 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 1 2011/12 2

Lewisham
Staff 2007/8 105.3 2011/12 152 (27 prof, 125 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 3 2011/12 336

Merton
Staff 2007/8 61.5 2011/12 47 (4 prof, 43 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 31 2011/12 539

Bromley
Staff 2007/8 171.8 2011/12 117.3 (15.4 prof, 101.9 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 58 2011/12 167

Harrow
Staff 2007/8 111 2011/12 78.5 (20 prof, 58.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 29 2011/12 35

Islington
Staff 2007/8 124.4 2011/12 98.4 (26.7 prof, 71.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 0

Kensington & Chelsea
Staff 2007/8 111.5 2011/12 84.8 (18.5 prof, 66.3 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 21 2011/12 40

Newham
Staff 2007/8 127 2011/12 103.4 (2 prof, 103.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 20 2011/12 181

Redbridge
Staff 2007/8 114.5 2011/12 108 (22 prof, 86 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 14 2011/12 55

Richmond
Staff 2007/8 110 2011/12 89.5 (15 prof, 74.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 156 2011/12 100

Sutton
Staff 2007/8 83.5 2011/12 69 (13 prof, 56 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 18 2011/12 105

Tower Hamlets
Staff 2007/8 131.4 2011/12 122.7 (4 prof, 118.7 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 20 2011/12 14

Wandsworth
Staff 2007/8 127.4 2011/12 110.8 (37.4 prof, 73.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 67 2011/12 79

Westminster
Staff 2007/8 145.1 2011/12 139.4 (31 prof, 108.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 88 2011/12 313

Southwark
Staff 2007/8 113.8 2011/12 108 (20 prof, 88 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 14

Waltham Forest
Staff 2007/8 75.9 2011/12 73 (5.8 prof, 67.2 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 4

Barking & Dagenham
Staff 2007/8 65.3 2011/12 71.2 (12.7 prof, 58.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 0 2011/12 41

Barnet
Staff 2007/8 157 2011/12 122.5 (48 prof, 74.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 38 2011/12 28

Bexley
Staff 2007/8 138 2011/12 89.3 (15.8 prof, 73.5 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 110 2011/12 184

Croydon
Staff 2007/8 134.5 2011/12 100.4 (22 prof, 78.4 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 25 2011/12 245

Enfield
Staff 2007/8 143 2011/12 128 (23 prof, 105 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 31 2011/12 117

Havering
Staff 2007/8 96 2011/12 104 (9 prof, 95 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 96 2011/12 200

Hillingdon
Staff 2007/8 125.5 2011/12 97.6 (10.6 prof, 87.1 other)
Volunteers 2007/8 17 2011/12 24

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!