The Society of Chief Librarians, Sopra Steria and visa/immigration services in libraries!

It appears that the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) have been busy striking a deal with the IT outsourcing firm Sopra Steria to deliver their newly won digital visa/immigration contract via 56 public libraries.

Sopra Steria have an 'interesting' record, they were recently linked to a scandal re the loss of 500,000 NHS documents and the loss of 220 jobs in their UK government business.

I suppose it's seen in library establishment circles as just another pragmatic partnership a bit like the ones with Barclays, Cisco, Halifax et al but it'll be interesting to see how this develops and whether CILIP, library users/staff and campaigners put up a fight against what many will see as another major invasion of public library space by a private interest and a further erosion of our ethos.

Outsourcing Fundamentalism, Hasn't Herts heard of Carillion? and SCL/Taskforce backed vol-led 'libraries' conference comes to Sheffield.

Northamptonshire, along with Barnet one of the Tory outsourcing flagships, has had a Section 114 order slapped on it which basically means it can't spend any more money on public services except apparently on crucial statutory services which apparently doesn't include libraries! A Tory council collapsing under Tory austerity cuts, who would have thunk it!!
Oh and I forgot to mention that the ex-CEO of Northamptonshire CC is Dr Paul Blantern who just happens also to be the ex-Chair of the government's Libraries Taskforce. Paul is a bit of an outsourcing fundamentalist, who planned to shrink his council workforce from 4000 to 150 core staff by 2020 by outsourcing services to 4 'Next Generation' social enterprises. His council had previously moved libraries into a 'Wellbeing Community Interest Company' but also more recently had planned to cut/close libraries and hand over many of them to volunteers. When I asked him at a Speak up for Libraries conference a few years ago whether he thought that an outsourcing fundamentalist was a good choice to chair a Taskforce on public libraries he just laughed it off, hope he's stopped laughing although the £100k pay off he received from Northamptonshire might help lighten his mood.

Hertfordshire are 'consulting' on their libraries again and in the spirit of the government's 'Digital by Default' agenda misspelled 'consultation' in the link meaning that you got 'page not found' when you clicked on it, it has I'm glad to report now been fixed. Oh and the 'consultation' asks folks whether they want their libraries to be privatised or cut/closed and apparently doesn't mention that libraries are a statutory service, wonder why?

The 'Community Managed Libraries Peer Network', "a network of peers from the full spectrum of community managed libraries from independently funded libraries to those who receive local authority support" is holding its first national conference in Sheffield on 20/3/18. The network is funded by 'Power to Change', "an independent charitable trust that supports and develops community businesses in England", it's so independent that it lists DCLG & 'Big Society Capital' as partners! Basically it's just another front for the government's 'Localism' agenda, an ideological agenda that seeks to offload public services to suspect SocEnts and volunteers.
The network is not only supported by Locality (the armed wing of the DCLG and the Localism movement) and the Upper Norwood Library Trust but also by the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) and the Libraries Taskforce! Some see the involvement of the SCL and Taskforce as a pragmatic move but i think it's absolutely shameful and indicative of the ethical void at the upper echelons of our library establishment.
Oh and holding their first conference in Sheffield is a little ironic considering that volunteer-led 'libraries' there have seen a huge drop in usage!

The SCL and volunteer-led libraries.

Today the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) published a speech given by their incoming President Ciara Eastell on her/their future priorities.

In the pre-release they say;

"She emphasised the enormous role that libraries play as enablers for local people and communities, laid plans to create a Learning Offer to expand on SCL’s current 4 Universal Offers, reaffirmed SCL’s commitment to strengthen libraries’ digital capacity and vowed to help libraries boost advocacy efforts locally and nationally in the run up to the 2015 elections. SCL will also develop more learning resources for library staff, especially in the areas of digital leadership."

and in the speech itself she talks more about the Universal Offers, developing a digital strategy, boosting advocacy efforts leading up to the 2015 elections, supporting staff & workforce development and about libraries and library staff being "key enablers for local people and local communities".

all of this is to be applauded, welcomed and supported but on page 3 of the speech she/they drop the following bombshell;

"I would like us to explore how we might develop resources and a framework to

support community-led libraries, recognising that there is a real practical need in

many of our organisations to have resources that will help to grow and develop

sustainable services."


Let me just remind you, before I say anything more on this, that the SCL is a membership organisation made up of the Heads of public library services, services that are publicly funded and are a statutory requirement under the 1964 Act. It's also worth pointing out at this point that many or the majority of volunteer-led libraries are now positioned outside that statutory remit. So why you may well ask is an organisation that should be fully supporting statutory library services proposing to use part of it's scarce resources to support what many see as book exchanges/internet cafes/community centres?
Existing volunteer-led libraries and the communities forced to consider this option already have a extremely well funded (£6m+) advice and support network provided by the Communities Knowledge Hub Libraries (CKHL), an offshoot of Locality, and Jim Brooks from Little Chalfont Community Library who receives funding to advise others on this from the DCMS, or so I've been told?

And how do the SCL intend to ensure that the initiatives and crucial roles they've outlined for public libraries are firstly taken up by volunteer-led libraries and secondly delivered in a 'comprehensive and efficient' manner? Sustainability and viability are the crux of the issue here, but it seems that not only have the SCL decided to give up any resemblance of a fight to fully protect the profession and service but have also come to the conclusion that volunteer-led libraries are a viable and sustainable option. What evidence have they based this upon?

It comes across to me as a very contradictory and muddled message but as I'll probably be told by it's supporters "a realistic and pragmatic one"!

But I'm not a great believer in the stance taken by many in my profession and also by some campaigners that "anything is better than nothing' and that's it's better to hand libraries over to volunteers in the hope that some day a Utopian government will be elected which will then fully re-instate the professional service. This is just politically naive. Every party (except for TUSC and the Greens maybe?) has adopted the neo-liberal agenda and every library handed to volunteers and taken out of the statutory service is another notch in the bedpost of Localism and another step towards shrinking the state and dismantling the public sector.

Now more than ever communities need a professionally run and publicly funded and managed service and it's my view that we should be debunking the austerity myth and fighting tooth and nail to keep every library publicly funded and properly resourced and to keep every one of those libraries staffed by paid & trained/qualified library workers. This is not about vilifying volunteers its about vilifying the governments agenda. Not to do this, in my opinion, is a betrayal of our users/members/borrowers/readers, the wider communities we serve and our ethos.



 

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.

Gimmicks Galore at the Great Public Libraries Gala!

On the 31/01/13 the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL), the local government association for Chief Librarians in England, Wales and Northern Ireland announced the 'Universal Offer' for Public Libraries, the four 'offers' are Health, Reading, Information, and Digital.

"the four service areas which modern users regard as integral to public libraries."

This "vision for the future of public libraries" has been developed in partnership with the Arts Council England, The Reading Agency and the DOH.

"The new national approach will, for the first time, clarify what the public should be able to expect from their library."

This has all got to be taken in the context of the SCL backing the government initiative 'Race Online' in 2010 (now 'Go On UK'), the publication of the evaluation of the proposed 'Public Libraries Information Offer' in June 2012 and the SCL report 'The new super-users of Britain's public libraries' published in Dec 2012 which they claim to have identified as;

Career builders
Health detectives
Little learners
Friend finders
Research sleuths

One glaring omission 'Fiction Readers', by far the biggest users of public libraries, but it's not trendy to focus on books in libraries unless it's the rise in the issues of children's books or the ebooks dilemma!



So back to the 'Universal Offer', what's wrong with an initiative that talks about "where libraries can provide real value to local people and where they will be working collectively to deliver impact in difficult times." I hear you ask? Well let's start to unpick the spin a little!

This is championed as a national universal offer but how can it be with the fragmentation and post code lottery of a service that we now find ourselves with? Most authorities have 'community libraries' in one form or another with no consistency in the service offered, some authorities have privatised the service, some have created models along the lines of IPS, co-ops and trusts and nearly all have 'hollowed out' the service which means there are far less staff (2000-3000? cut nationally with at least 562 cut in London alone) and less resources available than say 2-5 years ago! So with very little consistency in the service offered and a lack of staff and resources to offer it how successful is this 'universal offer' going to be?

Let's look in detail at three of the four offers themselves;

Health - The SCL claim that the 'Books on Prescription' scheme is a new offer when in fact it's been around for some time and although it's claimed that this is to do improving the health and well being of the community i suspect it's more to do with plastering over the cuts made to local NHS services in the same way that patients are encouraged to go to the pharmacist for minor ailments because GP surgeries can't deal with an increase in demand with a decrease in resources!

Information - What really worries me about this is the fact that the number of specialist information and reference staff has been drastically reduced with some authorities not employing any at all, so who is going to oversee and cascade this out to an ever decreasing number of branch staff? With the push towards the 2015 e-gov targets and the introduction of the online 'Universal Credits' system, library staff are going to be struggling to deliver anything but a basic level of service with very little time to spend guiding users/members through a maze of official government information or the time needed to assist a claimant navigate a 'Kafkaesque' online benefits system!

Digital - The same concerns as with 'Information' but with the added problems of an increasingly decrepit ICT infrastructure in libraries, corporate ICT policies/structures blocking development and innovation and a decrease in training budgets leading to fewer staff being properly trained to assist the public leading to an inconsistency in the quality of service provided and of course fewer paid staff to do it all!

So all in all some good ideas lauched too late with too little staff and too few resources!

But don't worry according to Vaizey;

“The public library service is in good health"

And Janene Cox, SCL President, gives our morale a much needed boost by stating;

"In the jargon of today, libraries must do more, or the same, with less"

Ahhh! I'm beginning to feel better already!


for more commentary see
http://www.voicesforthelibrary.org.uk/wordpress/?p=2821
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/scl-announces-universal-offers-libraries.html
http://www.librarycampaign.com/scl-announces-universal-offers-for-libraries/
http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/2013/01/special-report-libraries-of-the-21st-century-versus-offering-a-new-dress-to-a-plague-victim.html

The Society of Chief Librarians and the Chief Leisure Officers Association

I've been asked to explain my view on the link between the SCL and the CLOA and why i think this relationship has had a significant bearing on the development of the role of Public Libraries and the way they are perceived by the public, the profession and government, so here goes albeit briefly;

The Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) is a membership organisation made of all the Local Authority Chief Librarians in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It was formed in 1996 and describes it's role as thus;

"SCL takes a leading role in the development of public libraries, through sharing best practices, advocating for continuous improvement on behalf of local people, and leading the debate on the future of the public library service. Public libraries operate in a fast-changing world and are responding to this challenge imaginatively in communities across the UK. SCL works to ensure that this community-based contribution to national and local strategies is recognised and developed.
SCL supports chief librarians by providing regional networks that allow them to discuss current issues and concerns in a confidential environment. These regional networks also work closely with partners within their regions to deliver real benefits to services and customers such as cheaper procurement of services and easy access to books across all libraries in a region."

The current SCL President is Janene Cox, Commissioner for Culture, Leisure & Tourism, Staffordshire County Council. The history of the SCL talks of Chief and County Librarians but you will be hard pushed to find any mention of Librarian in many of the job titles of the new bunch!

The SCL, in my view, have developed very close links with the Chief Leisure Officers Association (CLOA) which describes its role as thus;

"The Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association (^cCLOA) exclusively represents senior strategic leaders managing public sector cultural, tourism and sport services. It works closely with central government and key national organisations to influence the development of national policies and to lobby for positive change in the cultural and leisure sectors. It is also a founder and leading member of the National Culture Forum."

The current CLOA Chair is Richard Hunt, Head of Service Development (Culture, Sport and Communities) Adult and Community Services, Suffolk County Council, his remit covers libraries, archives, arts, museums, sports, culture and tourism! In fact Richard Hunt, the Chair, Iain Varah, the Vice Chair and John Bell, the Honorary Secretary, all have, or have had at one time, libraries as part of their professional remits!

Under 'Current Issues' on the CLOA website you'll find "Future direction for arts, museums and libraries." and on the micro-site for CLOA London it states;

"London ^cCLOA is currently involved in two projects in London
Team London Libraries Project
A £100K community development project centred on strengthening local communities and civic engagement through increasing volunteering in Libraries. This project is funded by the GLA and the following boroughs are participating in a fast track pilot: Croydon, Redbridge, Waltham Forest, Barnet, Ealing, Enfield, Hackney, Havering, Tri Borough (shared service) and Bromley/ Bexley (shared service) The project will produce toolkits and best practice guidance in the summer of 2012 and will support other boroughs through a formal peer to peer programme from September 2012."

their general view on the situation facing Public Libraries can be gleaned from the following document and its title!;

CLOA and the Public Library Service

Crisis or opportunity?

SCL and CLOA members attend some of the same meeting/forums and both meet regularly with representatives of ACE, DCMS, LGA, London Councils etc, CLOA London publishes agendas and notes from their meetings but you'll be hard pressed to find these for the SCL!

So the SCL and CLOA have a close relationship, so what?

Well in my own opinion this relationship can be seen most clearly in the way that the majority of councils position their library services within their departmental and directorate structure, more often than not libraries are lumped in with leisure, arts and culture or anything else other than education and learning!
This change in perception and focus makes it easier for councils, government departments and agencies to renege on their statutory duties through divestment and/or by telling the profession that their job can be done by anyone, anytime and anywhere, after all it's only another leisure option!
In my view this is not coincidental but part of a deliberate neoliberal agenda to position libraries within the leisure, arts and culture market making them more attractive to private financiers, 'Social Enterprises' and the like or as i touched on in the last paragraph just easier to cut,  'hollow out' or divest. Look at the privatisation of Greenwich and Wandsworth's library services to sports/leisure specialist Greenwich Leisure Ltd and the 'Localism' agenda with it's 'Right to Bid' and 'Community Asset Transfer' spin offs!

This isn't by any means the full story, there's the cuts to ACE and DCMS funding, the fact that ACE funding to libraries is based around creating partnerships with arts organisations, the role of consultants and attitudes within the library profession itself, but that's a whole new blog post!

I'll finish with a quote from a recent article on libraries by Jeannette Winterson;

"When we look back at the latest cuts in Newcastle, we can see where this confusion starts – "Libraries, leisure and culture". But culture is not leisure – though you need leisure to pursue culture – and libraries are not leisure in the way that a sports centre is leisure. Libraries began with the highest purpose in mind – to educate through the agency of a book. The first public libraries were aspirational and proud. Libraries were not community centres with books in the way."