Lords urged to make 'positive intervention' in decline of libraries

Libraries body CILIP has urged peers to intervene in the declining library service ahead of a debate in the House of Lords today (30th March) on libraries and other arts services.

The library and information association has highlighted the "profoundly damaging" effect the "severe neglect" of the public library service has had on society ahead of the debate, which takes place in the House of Lords at 1pm today.

The debate will see Nicholas Le Poer Trench, the Earl of Clancarty, ask the government what steps it intends to take to protect and improve local arts and cultural services, including museums, libraries and archaeological services.

In a briefing provided ahead of the debate, CILIP said that despite the positive impact of libraries and librarians, the UK’s national library network has suffered from "severe neglect" as a result of successive programs of government policy. Recent CIPFA figures have revealed that 478 libraries have closed across England, Scotland and Wales since 2010 and budgets have been slashed by £25m.

In the past week, The Bookseller has reported that Walsall Council is moving to close more than half of its libraries despite the service being shortlisted for Library of the Year at this year's British Book Awards and that around sixty members of library staff in Bromley are to strike next week over privatisaion of the service.

Lord John Bird, who organised the last Lords Debate on libraries and bookshops in October, has lent his support to this afternoon’s debate. As a member of the recently relaunched APPG on Libraries, Bird has said that he wants to see action from the Libraries Taskforce and unions to protect and save libraries.

The Taskforce's recent ambition document, which has been criticised for lacking a "proper strategic plan", revealed the launch of a £4m fund for libraries - the receipients of which were announced last week.

Nick Poole, chief executive of CILIP, told The Bookseller that while financial support for cultural projects in libraries beyond local authority funding is welcome, the "continuing pressure" on council budgets has resulted in "overall neglect" of the core library offer including buildings, staffing, central services and reading materials.

"We ask Peers to take the opportunity to make a positive and constructive intervention to make sure that every UK citizen has access to culture and the benefits it brings”, he said.

Although campaigners are welcoming of the debate, many have expressed concern about the government's capacity for effective action.

Ian Anstice, librarian and editor of Public Libraries News, told the Bookseller that he believes the debate is necessary as the government has "shown it needs to be told, apparently repeatedly, that it is not doing enough for libraries".

“I'm delighted that the Lords will be debating this important national public service", Anstice said. "If libraries are not talked about then there's a danger that people think the issue is settled, which would be disastrous seeing the potential cuts that they are facing, and have already endured. While I am pleased with the setting up of a Taskforce and know the people within it genuinely want the best for the sector, it is tied to the government line of austerity and localism. The first means there is less and less money and the second means that local councils can happily atomise their services with no central direction. Each separately makes little enough sense for a national service but both together spells a disaster for the sector."

Children's author and library campaigner Alan Gibbons said that while he "always welcome politicians paying attention to libraries", the "deliberations of the Libraries Taskforce have been long and labyrinthine", and meanwhile "hundreds of libraries have closed, a quarter of librarians have lost their jobs, opening hours have been slashed, book stocks have shrunk and inevitably some of the public have drifted away, discouraged by this failure".

Gibbons said: "What we need is a strong and unequivocal commitment to libraries run by librarians rather than volunteers, with proper, legally enforced minimum standards ensuring a truly comprehensive and efficient service. When will we finally see our elected representatives say no more closures, no more opening hours or book stock reductions and no more redundancies? That is the least library users deserve. Anything else is fatuous posturing."

"If the Lords debate is just another puff of hot air joining the fog of platitudes, library users will feel pretty cynical", he added.

Laura Swaffield, chair of the Library Campaign, also welcomed the debate, but added that "satisfactory answers from the government" were "always missing" from such debates.

"Lord Clancarty spoke to good effect at the last Lords debate recently called by Lord Bird", she said. "More debates are always welcome, as is  he current steady stream of questions from MPs and the new-ish Labour spokesman. What's always missing is a satisfactory answer from the government. Now that Brexit looks likely to be the only game in town for years, we are less confident than ever that the government will pay attention to the huge breakdown in public services - from prisons to the NHS, schools to social care - being caused by its pointless austerity policy."

Veteran library campaigner Desmond Clarke agreed. “We must welcome any parliamentary debates that highlight the issues facing public libraries and other culture services though the government tends not to take much notice", he said. "The public library service clearly lacks a proper strategic plan to address the complex structural, technological and performance issues and to attract back the many users who have stopped using the service. The Library Taskforce has proven to be ineffective as shown by its failure after several months to even issue a minimum data set and complaints about inadequate services in several authorities are just ignored."

Tim Coates, former Waterstones m.d. and library campaigner, said that "local councilors simply don't grasp the continued importance of reading and of books in libraries". He said that if the service continues at its current rate of decline, it will be closed within eight years because "it no longer provides the service that people want". "Use will have fallen to nil", he added.

The debate is taking place today (30th March) at the House of Lords at 1pm.