LSSI win contract in Palmdale, California.

http://www.lssi.com/palmdale_pr.pdf

"On December 5, the Palmdale City Council voted 5‐0 in favor of awarding a contract to

Library Systems & Services, LLC (LSSI) to operate the Palmdale City Library. Under the public

‐private

partnership agreement, the library will remain in the public trust, managed by the City of Palmdale and

operated by LSSI."

 

And here is a copy of the agreement;
http://palmdale.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1269&meta_id=91860

which states;

"LSSI will have

the sole and absolute right to hire and or terminate the employment of the Library Staff from

time to time to perform work under this Agreement. However, the City Manager will have

the right to approve the selection of Library Director. Notwithstanding the preceding, LSSI

will interview all current Palmdale City Library staff interested in seeking positions with

LSSI"

One of the questions that LSSI will probably ask existing staff during their re-employment interview is "do you belong to a union" and if they say yes they will probably not offer them a position, they also have a reputation for only employing their own staff.

See the comments at;
http://www.theavtimes.com/2012/12/06/library-systems-services-selected-to-operate-palmdale-city-library/
http://www.theavtimes.com/2013/01/02/palmdale-city-library-now-open-7-days-longer-hours/

And this worries me although i can't trace the original source!

LSSI.org Review

www.webutation.net/go/.../lssi.... - United StatesCached - Translate this pageShare

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Well talked to the people from LSSI. They are the company that is taking over the Palmdale city library. The city of Palmdale is laying all the library staff off ...

See also;

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080213/NEWS/802130312/-1/rss14
"A private firm that operates Jackson County's 15 libraries is being forced to recognize that a majority of its employees are members of a union to resolve a complaint filed with the National Labor Relations Board."

http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/places/Check-Out-the-New-Library-Sign-For-Profit-104085653.html
"To achieve profitability, Library Systems & Services typically slashes costs drastically, in part by replacing unionized workers."

www.albanyca.org/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=13001
"4. Contract with LSSI

LSSI employees are usually not unionized, but

are paid a prevailing wage."




 

Croydon ignore National Libraries Day yet again!

http://soslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/2013/02/you-what-nld13-so-croydon.html

"Despite wide national publicity of the event, Croydon have ignored Croydon residents' love and support for libraries by failing to mark National Libraries Day yet again.

Many suspect Croydon keeps so quiet about libraries to keep the attention off the deal being done to outsource them. Some transparency wouldn't go amiss. With local authorities across the country shouting about the value of libraries and what they have to offer today to celebrate National Libraries Day, Croydon is more interested in keeping a low profile.
That speaks volumes!"

National Libraries Day: a pledge for Croydon - Inside Croydon - 09/02/13

http://insidecroydon.com/2013/02/09/national-libraries-day-a-pledge-for-croydon/

"TIMOTHY GODFREY restates a commitment to hand the running of the borough’s libraries back to the communities"

"Timothy Godfrey is Labour Spokesperson for Culture, Sport and Libraries on Croydon Council"

"On National Libraries Day, let me restate our promise on Libraries: We will cancel the privatisation of Croydon libraries and we will honour the pledge to match fund Lambeth Council at Upper Norwood Library."

In response to this Elizabeth Ash, the Croydon based National Library Campaigner said;

"When will councillors in Croydon stop using our much loved and much needed services as political footballs and start listening to those they were elected to serve?

Just as Croydon Conservatives had no mandate to outsource our libraries Croydon Labour have no mandate to hand them over to the community. The brazen disregard for the views of residents must stop as must the secretive way Croydon goes about its business.

Croydon Conservatives embarked on an outsourcing exercise that has been twisted for their own purposes. It is shameful that an additional £4 million of our money is being wasted on furthering Croydon's dubious relationship with Laing rather than offer the contract to GLL, who were not only considerably cheaper but have a far more sound track record in developing libraries. But what Croydon residents really wanted was for efficiencies to be made. Tim Coates identified the huge back office costs loaded on the libraries budget that could be cut and the income generation ideas offered by residents were also ignored.

And if anyone wants the facts we ( Save Croydon Libraries Campaign at http://soslibrary.blogspot.co.uk/ ) have files of the stuff - the views of residents, both incidental observations and as a result of the sham consultations conducted. As a Croydon library campaigner I have been threatened and belittled ( a tactic I am told is not uncommon in Croydon) but I am even more determined that we will fight on to the end and that the truth will be exposed and used to challenge.

Croydon Labour will win no favour by using the plight of our libraries purely to offer grand election promises that may not ever come to fruition. They should be standing up NOW to challenge the lack of transparency, the ill-conceived decisions, highlighting the appalling deterioration of our much loved library service and really listening to the views of residents.

We must stop celebrating the hollow victory of open doors. The real fight is for the championing of the core offer of a comprehensive and efficient library service within; a service Croydon residents are entitled to, by law, and currently being denied."

Swindon Labour and Libraries

Thanks to Shirley Burnham, the Swindon based National Library Campaigner for this little gem of an insight in to the mindset of the majority of Labour Councillors who instead of making a stand and fighting the cuts on behalf of their communities choose to implement them! From: Chris O'Brien (chris.labour@brightwebsolutions.co.uk) on behalf of Chris O'Brien (chris.obrien@southswindonlabour.co.uk)
Sent: 09 February 2013 12:43:20 To: Shirley Burnham (saveoldtownlibrary@live.co.uk) cc: andy.smart@southswindonlabour.co.uk

Hi Shirley,

I've spoken with Jim Grant and he's asked me to forward on the following information to you:

The cuts to the library services are as a result of the cuts being made by the Coalition government centrally which are supported by the Tory and Liberal Democrats locally.

Were Labour in power nationally or locally it is hoped we wouldn't have to make these cuts. However, because of the financial constraints being imposed by central government local government has to make very hard choices about how we spend what little money we have.

Labour will be amending the overall budget by finding additional savings in non essential spending in order to preserve services which have a direct affect on the lives of the vulnerable people of the town. This will not include opposing the cuts to library services.

Labour's long term plan for the library service is to ensure that libraries are contained within community hubs, similar to the Old Town library moving into the Arts centre. Unless this path is followed the future cuts to local government, supported by the Tories and the Liberal Democrats, will inevitably mean permanent closure of libraries in Swindon

A Public Libraries Manifesto for National Libraries Day 2013

Here's my contribution to NLD 2013;

A very basic but fundamental Public Libraries Manifesto!

Public Libraries should always be statutory, publicly funded and publicly managed.

Books, knowledge/information and learning should always be at the core of the service.

At the heart of the service should always be the needs and wants of the local community, they should always be properly consulted and involved.

They should always be run by paid, knowledgeable and properly trained staff who are committed to the public sector ethos.

The service should always have as it's backbone a comprehensive network of local, accessible branch libraries.

Simples!

 

Proposal to cut the Library Enquiry Service in Somerset

Somerset County Council are proposing to cut their specialist Library Enquiry Centre based at Taunton Library, the service deals with 1600 enquiries a month;

"the service relieves other front-line staff

from the weight of reference enquiries normally associated

with a public library service.

70% of enquiries come direct from the public. The remaining

30% come from library staff."

The proposal goes on to outline the savings and the new model of delivery;

"It is proposed that the service should be stopped over two

years, 50% of the budget being withdrawn in 2013/14 and 50%

in 2014/15 (£100k in total)."

"The basis for this savings proposal is that the role of the

Enquiry Service can be fulfilled in other ways, including

through the rolling out of the Council’s Customer Strategy

(including face to face, phone and web access) and the Library

Service Review, and through existing access channels such

as Somerset Direct, NHS Direct, the People’s Network (which

provides publicly-available web access in Somerset libraries),

and relevant websites."

It also states;

"Outcomes for users, in providing them with the information

they need, will be achieved differently but without a necessary

loss of effectiveness."

Four specialist information staff will lose their jobs, staff who have probably spent years training and building up knowledge and experience in order to do their jobs 'comprehensively and efficiently' and the council states that there won't be a "loss of effectiveness" in cutting them!

"Capacity issues will arise for front-line

library staff unless effective mitigation is put in place to offset the loss of the service."

This is happening at the same time that the SCL, ACE and partners have announced that 'Information' will be part of their 'Universal Offer' to Public Library users, obviously no-one has told Somerset about this?

http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/council/board10%5C2013%20January%2029%20Item%206%20Medium%20Term%20Financial%20Plan%20-%20Cabinet%20MTFP%20Report%20-%20Appendix%20I.pdf - see 13.211
http://www1.somerset.gov.uk/council/board3c%5C2012%20December%2012%20Item%208%20Libraries%20Service%20Review%20Appendix%20A%20-%20D.pdf

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