17
12
2009
Desmond Clarke makes DCMS submission on libraries review
Posted by: Alan Gibbons in UncategorizedDCMS CONSULTATION ON PUBLIC LIBRARIES
May I comment on the DCMS consultation paper and respond to some of the questions?
My background is that I retired as President and CEO of International Thomson Publishing Services Group, part of the Thomson Corporation (now Thomson Reuters). I am a former director of Faber & Faber. I have been a non-executive director of several businesses, including a leading library supplier, a retailer and two publishing technology businesses. I was Chair of the library charity, Libri.
The role of public libraries is to encourage and support literacy, reading, education and the acquisition of knowledge. A previous Culture Secretary, Chris Smith, described libraries as the “universities of the street corner”. Their importance to our society goes far beyond being just information centres.
There have been more that thirty reports and studies published in recent years about the issues facing the service, including those by the Audit Commission, the Parliamentary Select Committee and the All Party Parliamentary Committee on Libraries. Many of these reports, in different ways, have complained about the “woeful lack of leadership” in the Sector and some organisations, including the recent AAPG report have proposed setting up a Library Development Agency to provide strategic leadership. That agency would build a shared vision for the service, provide powerful advocacy and encourage and support innovation and improvement in every authority. It is essential that the agency is led by a board with the range of experience, knowledge and commitment to deliver and it might be chaired by a successful retailer with the ability to get everyone on the same page.
Successful retailers understand that they must focus their business on the needs of their customers and provide innovative and quality services. Public libraries are a service of choice and they will be successful only if they create and fulfil a real demand for their services. There is a surprising lack of research into the needs of those who use and need public libraries. Research that does exist highlights the importance of relevant and fresh book stocks, opening hours when people need to use them, reliable and fast internet access, convenience and a safe and attractive environment. Well-refined retail skills and the availability of additional services help to optimise usage.
I understand from press reports both in this country and in the USA, Canada and Eire, that library usage is very much on the increase due to the recession. That further highlights the importance of public libraries at this time.
To address the specific questions;
1. How can the library service demonstrate to citizens, commentators and politicians that they are still relevant and vital?
This question seems rather defensive when Government and its strategic agencies (MLA and ACL), the profession and the wider book world should be actively promoting the importance of public libraries. Whenever community libraries come under threat, as shown by the Wirral, Swindon, Dorset, Somerset and Cumbria, the public is quick to campaign to save them. The elderly, young families, the disabled and the disadvantaged fight hard to keep their local library which is often the hub of their community. My concern is that there is a lack of confidence in the profession and a leadership void at the strategic level. To a considerable extent, the agenda for change and improvement has been driven by campaigners, supported by the national media, rather than those responsible for delivering the service. The MLA, ACL and SCL are perceived to have been remarkably defensive and ineffective. Did not the Parliamentary Select Committee suggest that there was a need for the strategic bodies “to up their game”?
2. How can we reverse the the current trend of decline in library usage and grow the numbers using their local libraries?
Recent reports across the country and from the USA, Canada and Eire suggest that library usage and borrowing is on the increase due to the recession. Growth estimates in the range 5-9% have been reported in recent months. Unfortunately, the official CIPFA statistics are well out of date so this trend is not confirmed.
Libraries are a service of choice and must respond to and encourage those who need and use them. The quality of book stocks and other materials, well-supported and maintained internet access, improved opening hours, valuable services (e.g. reading groups, home work clubs, pre-school groups, home delivery to the elderly etc), and welcoming and safe buildings are essential to the marketing mix. The profession needs confidence, innovation and strong leadership with a total focus on those they exist to serve.
It is too easy for the strategic agencies, the profession and the LGA to blame new technologies and life style changes for the decline in the use of public libraries over the past decade. They must admit that the service has been badly led and managed in many authorities and has failed to stimulate and respond to the needs of the public. There has been a lack of proper focus on front line services and a failure to provide the most attractive offering. Much of the new funding have been wasted on uncontrolled central overheads and inefficiencies rather than on improving resources and front line services. It will be a brave but honest President of the SCL who admits that the service could and should have done much better.
3. How can the service respond to a 24/7 culture and to people wanting immediate access to information?
The Peoples Network has become tired and has lacked investment, proper maintenance and innovation. The service should learn from the hugely successful information publishers such as Thomson Reuters, Reed Elsevier etc who have built multi billion Pound information businesses by providing valuable content via new technologies. These are businesses that had their roots in this country and have developed hugely successful global businesses. There are many examples of successful commercial models for information provision and delivery and the strategic agencies should work closely with publishers and enablers to build innovative solutions. However, it is important to remember that the role of public libraries goes well beyond being just information points. They are concerned with literacy, education and the acquisition of knowledge.
4. How can all libraries grasp the opportunities provided by digitisation?
The success of digitisation has been especially strong in the area of “have to have information”, such as legal, financial, scientific, medical and reference material. That is where the big rewards have been found. Academic and educational publishing has been slower and trade (consumer) publishing is still finding its way. There are many issues, including delivery means, pricing models and rights to be resolved as well as a clear indication as to successful business models. The DCMS and a Library Development Agency, working with the book trade associations, should establish an experts panel to advise and develop models as digitisation develops. In the meantime all library authorities should be persuaded to work with BIC to achieve agreed national standards and protocols and to improve processes. No one knows where digitisation will lead and it is probably true that “rapid change” is much slower than is often assumed. The printed word will be the main “delivery means” for many years. Libraries have to be careful not to be distracted by the glamour of possible new worlds, which they don’t fully understand, at the expense of serving those who rely on them today and tomorrow.
5. How can the library service cope with limited public resource and economic pressures?
I recognise that the public library service will face considerable economic and financial pressures for several years and some believe that they will only survive by setting up trusts or other models of service delivery to protect them from the vagaries of local politicians. It is clear that the sector will require very strong leadership, powerful advocacy, a firm commitment to improve efficiency and better manage its resources and a total focus on the needs of those who need and use public libraries, especially the young, the elderly, the unemployed and the disadvantaged. The service needs to be confident in its unique and essential contribution to our society. The conclusion by the Parliamentary Select Committee that it was a “service in distress” should have been a wake up call for all those responsible for leading and managing the service. The losers have been the public who need an improving, comprehensive and efficient library service as defined by the 1964 Act. The existing wide disparity in performance is unacceptable and inexcusable.
I believe that, despite the recession and the changes in technology and consumer demands, the immediate future provides considerable opportunity for innovation and improved models of service delivery. The signs are that demand for public libraries is increasing as a result of the recession. However, this requires the profession to develop its focus on knowing and understanding the needs of users and potential users. At the strategic level there is an urgent need to tackle the leadership void and put in place an agency to build the vision, provide advocacy and support change and improvement. That will only happen if the best people are involved and we bin the current amateur approach.
It would be good if the future leaders of the sector can get everyone on the same page and build a powerful vision that we can all help to deliver. At stake is a literate, well-read, educated and knowledgeable society. I suggest that the time has come for urgent delivery.
Desmond Clarke
Entries (RSS)
December 17th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Much of what you say is yet another exposition of how wonderful the private sector is. Presumably this explains why, just under 2 years ago, Reuters sold itself to Thomsons, because of concerns over its future financial performance. As in, perhaps, the knowledge that the easy gravy train might just about to be over in its business sector. The City.
And certainly in my chosen work area for many years, freelance programmer, Reuters was a byword for its computer project management screw-ups, throwing money at problems to solve them…..
The primary difference between public sector, and private sector, is that news media love to report public service messes, and corporate incompetence goes mostly unreported, unless of course it’s banking well terminal.
And the subtext of most of what else you said is angled towards placing more high-value , payable services in libraries, cheap ‘marketing makeovers’ , a little bit of extra training for counter staff, attempt to disguise a starvation of the infrastructure elsewhere. Funny really, many people have commented on the political thinking around the Shadow Cabinet and their admiration for Edwardian values. For me , Edwardian values translate as ” the poor know their place “. And a large chunk, in my opinion, of your scenario for libraries is one which really just emphasises when someone is poor. Which, in my opinion, is almost exactly the opposite of what libraries are supposed to be about.
December 18th, 2009 at 11:38 am
I am not proposing, in any way, a private sector solution. Given the expected cuts in public services and the vagaries of local politicians, some have rightly suggested new service models such as trusts to PROTECT public libraries. I would encourage readers to read the contribution by the former chief librarian and consultant, John Hicks, published in the consultation document.
My reference to Thomson and Reed is that they have clearly found successful business models for the delivery of “have to have” information and about 80% of the revenues of their professional publishing divisions are now derived from digital delivery. The success of services such as Lexus Nexus and the Web of Science contrasts with the early attempts of trade (consumer) publishing. There are many issues to be overcome before the e book starts to replace the printed word. I have suggested that the DCMS should set up an expert panel but the profession must be careful not to disregard the book in favour of possible false dawns. Their focus should be on satisfying the needs of those who increasingly rely on public libraries today and tomorrow.
My regret is that those responsible in government have failed to develop a vision for public libraries in the 21st Century which is understood by the public and supported by the strategic agencies, the profession and local politicians. That vision must recognse the unique and powerful contribution libraries make to a literate, well read, educated and informed society.
December 18th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Before sallying forth to battle, first, identify your enemy. Mr Preston really should investigate and will discover that Mr Clarke is not it. Clarke and others who are fighting for libraries nationally have helped us to save our very modest one in Swindon’s Old Town and many others. I have never been patronised or sneered at by these decent people, but have been regularly patronised and sneered at by several lofty individuals representing both major political parties.
Libraries are an egalitarian space, or should be. We just want to keep them OPEN, for heaven’s sake, for everyone’s benefit.
Political infighting and a consciousness of issues of class (which ought to be obsolete) have allowed and continue to allow injustices to take place, at a great cost to the whole public. We all need community libraries. Those who, erroneously in my view, look to the Shadows for a saviour are reacting in frustration to the inertia demonstrated by the incumbents.
My ‘beef’ is that enough hot air is generated to finish off the planet, never mind the emissions contributed from animals’ behinds. By trying to put people in convenient boxes, labelling them and dismissing their contribution to the debate, we are side-tracked from the main aim. I only wish we could make common cause.
December 22nd, 2009 at 10:45 pm
To Shirley Burnham
At the end of Desmond Clarke’s post it says ‘Leave a Reply’. It doesn’t say ‘Cheer Now’. And when someone extolls the so-called virtues of the private sector and its view of life, and simultaneously describes others as amateurs…., I assume that they can look after themselves . My general view is that much of what Mr Clarke said, and the way he said it is designed to appeal to the proclivities of a Conservative viewpoint. Boards of directors, corporatism. I happen to believe that much of what has gone wrong in public services is the idealogically based attempts to make them sound and behave like images of for-profit business.
For now, I believe that what is most important is to ensure the strength of the 1964 Act. I disagree with you over the the current government. The stated Conservative intention is to ‘clarify’ the Act. Which , taken together with various other aspects of their political positions, traditional and current, means a watering down. Probably force people to redirect their appeals to the new proposed ‘agency to give a veneer of ‘accountability’. The agency just another unelected quango, answerable only to the government, who in the case of the Conservatives wish by ‘localism’ to divest themselves of any responsibiliities. Underfunding, laziness and arrogance in action. Edwardianism. Keep them working hard just to keep their libraries in survival mode. And we’ll get on with our real interests…., the bond markets.
Hot air…… Not in Banwell the other night, a few hours before I posted here. Shoving leaflets through letterboxes in the freezing rain, destroying my street-cred with the orange Ikea umbrella……
December 25th, 2009 at 7:06 am
To Andrew Preston
Thanks. I must agree with what you say, but still believe that Mr Clarke tends to listen and is a thoughtful man. The acutely disappointing thing for me is that no-one in the current regime, except our local MP, has been at all responsive. I am absolutely no fan of the Conservatives and their intentions. Locally, we have been defending our libraries under a Tory council. An appeal made to Ed Vaizey early this year was not, in retrospect, a bright idea. The situation is utterly frustrating for anyone attempting to save a local library, constantly exhorted to protest to all and sundry with little or no result. The political hay/chaff being made out of Libraries is most indigestable. But our own Old Town Library in Swindon is still open, so it is well worth soldiering on.
The 1964 Act must stay in place and have clout.
I, too, am currently shoving leaflets through letterboxes (hot tip: a small wooden kitchen spatula is useful to poke the leaflet through when there is a maddened dog throwing itself at the door from the other side).
December 26th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
We all come to this campaign with some history and preconceptions about what we might think but Desmond makes a huge contribution (as do Andrew Preston, Alan and Shirley). Among the many important observations Desmond makes is the imperative that we must all come ‘on to the same page’ in order to preserve and grow the public library service. For some of us that means analysing what the priorities are in the case that we make and accepting that others come with different perspective. It is a Churchillian approach and has to be important and urgent.
December 27th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
What can Tin Coates mean……?
December 27th, 2009 at 10:00 pm
oops, dyslexic keyboard.