Culture Minister Margaret Hodge plans to launch the consultation paper about the future of public libraries, EMPOWER, INFORM, ENRICH on Tuesday 1 December.
She admits that “some of you were expecting a final policy statement on public libraries and you may feel disappointed that this has not happened.” She is saying that she wants to include evidence from the All Party Parliamentary Group Report on Libraries and the CILIP report about what makes a “good library”. It is possible that the DCMS report will be swallowed up in the pre-election jousting. It is also possible that half-baked ideas like Amazon-style ordering and book buying in libraries will marginalise the real debate about leadership, book stock and coordinated policy.
Library Campaigner Desmond Clarke is concerned that the DCMS has not commissioned valuable research into the needs of those who use and need public libraries. As he says, public libraries are a service of choice, and they will be well used if they meet the needs of the public. There has been a Parliamentary Select Committee reporting that public libraries are a service “in distress” and the All Party Parliamentary Group reporting that the sector is “woefully” in need of leadership. Hodge seems ready to ignore these conclusions.
As Desmond says, library usage is very much on the increase due to the recession, not just in this country but in the USA and Canada. There have been some thirty reports about the issues in recent years. The time has come for action to bring real improvement in the service provided by every library authority. The current disparity of performance, and the threats to community libraries, should be unacceptable to the DCMS, MLA, SCL and the profession. The AAPG has recommended setting up a Library Development Agency to drive improvement.
Many now believe that the Wirral Report will be more important than the DCMS Consultation Document and it will have a greater impact on local authorities.. That Report is expected to be published on Monday.
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