Campaign for the Book Newsletter
May 2013

‘Envisioning’ the decline of the public library service

Language is a wonderful thing. It can be moving and lyrical. It can be concise and analytical. It is the vehicle of our hopes, dreams and aspirations. It is the way we express who we are. Sadly, it can also be a means to confuse, obfuscate and evade. It was with some trepidation therefore that I opened “The Library of the Future”, Arts Council England’s response to its research project, teeth-grindingly entitled “Envisioning the library of the future.”
Envisioning? What’s wrong with a word like imagining or maybe even picturing? But envisioning! Instantly, my finely tuned newspeak detector was tingling. It is not that there is anything in the report that leaps out at you as wrong or retrograde. It all seems very worthy, even bland. It says that there is a ‘clear, compelling need for a publicly funded library service.” Well, that’s good to hear. It comes up with four points with which few would quibble:
*Place the library as the hub of the community
*Make the most of digital technology and creative media
*Ensure libraries are resilient and sustainable
*Deliver the right skills for those who work in libraries
The only problem is that this eminently reasonable list of bullet points is being issued while the sword of Damocles is hanging by an ever more palpably fraying thread over the head of the public library service. It is all very well ‘envisioning’ the digital future when up and down the country branch libraries are closing the door for the last time or being handed over to an uncertain future in the hands of volunteer groups whose long term viability is questionable. How robust does the future of libraries look in Sheffield and Manchester, Newcastle and Liverpool where around half the branch network is in danger? How resilient do libraries seem in Herefordshire where the councillors’ idea of a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service is one library in the whole county? How are librarians in Sefton going to develop the right skills when up to forty of them may be made redundant? How will libraries become the hubs of their community when vast swathes of our community will not have one?
Astonishingly, fifteen months of work has resulted in this document which is not even a pale imitation of New Zealand’s Strategic Framework.
John Dolan of CILIP is spot on when he says: “The report shows that people are passionate about having a library in their communitybut with the difficult economic realities faced by local authorities and without stronger political leadership supporting a clear national vision it’s going to be a struggle to deliver consistently high-quality and relevant library services in communities across the country. A postcode lottery is not fair or equitable.”
The Library Campaign captures the nature of the crisis perfectly when it says: “Libraries are closing at an unprecedented rate. Others are hacked to pieces. Desperate communities are trying to take them on to save them – and are getting no help or advice.”
While libraries in countries as dissimilar New Zealand and South Korea, Japan and Finland have far more secure futures and far better leadership than we have in the UK, ours are often clinging to survival by a thread. This is not the fault of the Arts Council. It was asked to supervise libraries with a wretchedly inadequate budget at a time when it had mulitiple burdens and a declining staff. The responsibility for this lies with the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. For too long the ministers have placed the telescope to their blind eye and asked: “Crisis, what crisis?”
Month after month, year after year, we campaigners have demanded action in the form of a coherent plan for the future. Month after month, year after year, we have protested at the idea that a council can destroy half its library branch network and still claim to provide a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service. Our warnings have been met with deaf ears and even derision. Our attempts to ‘call in’ the various closure programmes under the 1964 Act have been dismissed with a patronising wave of the ministerial hand.
Now we have this mockery taken to its grotesque conclusion in Herefordshire where a single library is held up to be a service. Don’t let your political leaders get away with pointing to the new flagship city centre libraries as evidence of a thriving service. These institutions can be inspiring, but without a surrounding branch network they could in time become cavernous white elephants, giant fig leaves disguising the wholesale destruction of a once proud service. If we are to develop the libraries of tomorrow we need the libraries of today to provide the bridge. The danger is that, under the woeful, neglectful and cavalier leadership of the DCMS the bridge will collapse and the destination will not be reached.

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