A library glossary #3

Following on from my original glossary and it's update post here's another instalment of library spin and doublespeak.

Community Resources - what Bristol Council calls those it's trying to manipulate and blackmail into running its libraries.

Libraries Extra - what Brighton Council call a staffless 'library' that offers less!!!

Lending Locker - what 'LiveWire' (the Trust you can't trust) propose to replace some of Warrington's libraries with, "it's Amazon Jim but not as we know it".

Digital Playgrounds - an Arts Council funded programme worth £3.9m which they claim will get disadvantaged kids expressing their creativity through technology.

Library Guardian - what the supervisor of a certain volunteer-led 'library' calls himself.

"ongoing changes by library authorities" - a phrase used by the Libraries Taskforce to describe what others call cuts/closures. Cowardly and complicit doublespeak.

The Engagement Team - not an elite bunch of NASA scientists in charge with docking a shuttle to a spacestation but the name given to Librarians in the new all singing all dancing multi-million pound Chester 'Storyhouse'.

Community Partnered Libraries - 'libraries' without paid and trained library staff in Surrey.

Library Carpentry - not making shelves with users but something to do with data.

"Connecting Communities" - what Coventry Council calls its policy of cutting/closing libraries and community centres.

Satellite Library - an unstaffed bookdrop in Lancashire.

Partnership Libraries - what Barnet Council calls a volunteer/community org-led 'library' that's open for 15hrs a week, users/campaigners call it a staffless book exchange that's hardly ever open.

'Innovative' - what Swindon recently called their proposals to close 11 libraries and what the DCMS/Councillors/library establishment commonly call anything that fits with their agenda to cut, co-locate, privatise, commercialise and amateurise libraries. (can be substituted with '21st Century')

"Changing the narrative" - a plea to campaigners from the UK library establishment to stop sharing news stories etc about library cuts/closures, and stop putting these in the context of a savage ideological austerity agenda, after all if we keep saying that libraries are failing then they will fail! Seen by many campaigners to be insulting, spin and propoganda.

"More than just a library" - what some volunteers and councillors think they'll achieve by turning library buildings into book-IT/exchanges/community centres and substituting paid/trained/qualified library staff. It's generally regarded by staff/camapigners to be higly suspect and insulting and is just another example of a complete ignorance of what libraries are and have always been.

'Always-on generation' -  a phrase used by a company (Axiell) flogging tech to libraries, not quite as annoying as 'Digital Natives' but nearly!

Hub Activators - What the new 'Community Learning Hub' (once Upper Norwood Library) hopes to employ.

Micro-Libraries - 200 books in a Cornish pub.

'Hub & Spoke Model' - a model of library provision in which folks in city centres get shiny hub libraries and the rest get 'satelitte' libraries with decreased hrs/staff/resources.

Healthy Living Centre - a proposed gym with some books run by a so-called 'Social Entereprise' (uses 0-hrs contracts & forced Greenwich library staff to take strike action) in Lambeth.

Libraries Unlimited South West - a spun-out privatised 'mutual' library service in Devon chaired by someone with a "Stalinist agenda", according to a Guardian article!

The Answers People - what Essex CC call their online (cut) Reference Library service.

"In this context libraries will act as creative incubators, centres for social innovations and intercultural dialogue facilitators" - from the 'Public Libraries 2020' website. No one really knows what this means but it sounds great when you're talking to Politicians, Cllrs and other people that don't use libraries.

"a measure of library provision" - a reduced library space in Walton (Liverpool)

Neighbourhood Centre - apparently a "community focussed multi-functional building" in Lancashire, really means a shoe-horned collection of cut services, including a 'library presence', under one roof.

Library Fundamentalists - what Kate Andrews and the Institute of Economic Affairs call people who want to protect and promote public libraries. (Neoliberal Chancers - what people who want to protect and promote public libraries call Kate Andrews and the IEA)


"Safeguarding" - what Staffs CC call selling Lichfield Library.

Re-imagining - what Birmingham Council claim to be doing to their library service whilst users/staff/campaigners/unions claim it should be another word ending in "ing".

Maintaining - what Barnet Council claim to be doing to their library service whilst users/staff/campaigners/unions claim it should be another word ending in "ing".

Libraries Extra - what Brighton & Hove Council call a 'library' which doesn't have any staff and denies access to unaccompanied U18's (see my post on 'open+')

Library Access Points (LAP's) - A volunteer-led 'library' type of thing with a computer in Cambridgeshire.

The Word - "a state of the art, new library and digital media centre" in South Tyneside. (3D Printer mentioned)

Hybrid Library - A library building in North Yorkshire containing one paid/trained member of library staff surrounded by an army of volunteers. This sole library worker will manage the library and supervise/train the volunteers as well as offering 12-15 hrs of professional support to the partly cast-adrift local volunteer-led "community library", it's claimed that the job description contains the words "superhuman powers" and "stress assessment"!

"a local non-statutory library offer" - Lambeth Labour (the co-op council!) bollocks for a volunteer-led 'library'.

"alternative delivery models" - a phrase beloved of both the SCL & the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce, it basically means offloading library services to suspect Social Enterprises, mock mutuals, Trusts you can't trust, blacklisting building firms and Baptist churches!

Customer Experience Supervisor - someone who works for the University of West London Library Services helping students (not customers) and doing a bit of shelving.

Express Library Service - not a library aboard a train but a plan/ploy by Birmingham Council to extend its Central library's opening hours by introducing self-serve kiosks that speak 70 different languages or something like that!?! (anyway they're not re-employing the culled staff)

Library Ambassador - someone in Northamptonshire who's daft/naive enough to pay twice for their library service.

Rightsourcing - can't even bring myself to explain this one!

A library glossary #2

In January 2012 I wrote a post listing some of the new library buzz-words/concepts and my interpratations of them see;
http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/library-glossary.html

and it's now time to add some more.


'Associate Libraries' - volunteer-led 'libraries' in Sheffield.

'Co-operative Libraries' - volunteer-led 'libraries' in Bexley.

'Community Book Exchanges' - what most library campaigners prefer to call volunteer-led 'libraries'.

'Inspiring Libraries' - what Hertfordshire CC calls it's plan to cut libraries.

'An enhanced online offer' - what Hounslow Council call their plans to cut the book budget by 50%.

'Community' - often used by local authorities, councillors, politicians and policy holders when describing a decision, new model of service or/and cuts that have been forced upon a community, for example 'community hub' or 'community library' see my post on this http://dontprivatiselibraries.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/lets-reclaim-community.html

'Save or Saved' - often used by the local/national press, councillors, volunteers etc to describe what happens when a library becomes volunteer-led, when in fact all that really has been achieved, in many peoples view, is keeping the building open. For a classic example see; http://www.theguardian.com/local-government-network/2013/dec/12/library-cuts-volunteers-saved-camdens-libraries

'Little Free Libraries' - tiny wooden structures containing books, which are not 'public libraries', often found in the US but now appearing in some trendier UK communities, if you can call Walthamstow trendy?

Public Sector Mutual - an agenda being pushed by the Cabinet Office to offload more public services and open them up to the rigours of the market. York Libraries and Archives have gone down this route with Birmingham maybe to follow.
Not, and i repeat Not, a road to Damascus moment when the government suddenly decided that it wanted more worker control in the public sector.

'Co-operative Councils' - a model favoured by the Fabians and the Labour Party to dress up cuts, with Lambeth as the testing ground. Not, and i repeat not, a road to Damascus moment when the Labour Party suddenly decided that it wanted more worker control and community involvement in the public sector.

'Devon Centre' - a collocated, shared services kind of library type thing in Devon.

'Library Consultation' - a process whereby a council makes a decision to cut, close or divest libraries then asks the public to ratify it and even if they say NO they still go ahead with it. See Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, Doncaster, Gloucestershire etc.

'Broader Community Offer' - no one is quite sure what this means but it's been heard mentioned in Devon.

'Working Smarter or leaner' - delivering a service with fewer staff.

'Service reform/Synergies/Doing more with less/Restructuring/Reorganisation' - delivering a service with less staff and a reduced budget.

'Library Core, Library Local and Library Extra' - a 3-tier library structure in Staffordshire with town centre folk getting more and rural folk getting less.

'Customer Service Assistant (CSA)' - a library assistant.

'Innovate don't save' - a phrase beloved of the self-styled library guru who has given up the fight and expects everyone else to. Can also be replaced with "if all people hear is 'saving' then no wonder they think libraries are dying". Uniformly hated by the vast majority of campaigners/supporters.

'Outreach Libraries' - What Manchester City Council calls unstaffed 'libraries' based in community centres, housing offices etc.

'Buddy Library' - a 'library' in Manchester that supports an 'outreach library'.

'Flagship Super Hub' - a massive co-located service centre containing a library presence in Cardiff.

'Community Partner' - what Lambeth Council are looking for to help run Waterloo Library, could be a voluntary organisation, SocEnt or volunteers?

Modernise - a word used by councils, recently by Bristol, to justify cutting services. For a good example see;
"Seven libraries in Bristol could close under plans by the city council to save money and "modernise" its service."

'A new chapter' or 'turning a new leaf' - a favourite headline used mostly be local journalists to describe the handing over of a library/ies to volunteers.