Excellent and well balanced response, with points well worth considering
and taking up.
I can tell you that many of the things you mentioned are being
considered by the Laser Foundation in some of its funded work.
thanks
f
-----Original Message-----
From: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Smith, Simon - A&L
Sent: 04 May 2004 10:38
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: 'Who's in Charge?'
Yes...I have heard of virtual services - very little mention of them in
the report though, so has Mr Coates? One of the reasons for fewer visits
to libraries is that you can email/telephone in requests and queries and
you can renew your books online in the majority of cases.
I realise that this doesn't in itself account for all of the reduction
in visitor numbers, but a significant percentage of visits that used to
be made for this reason now no longer have to be - so aren't recorded in
the figures quoted.
The article in the Observer will have alerted more people to the report
and provoked a greater awareness of the issues, it was quite
disappointing and one-sided, but it really does make you realise what
has to be done if someone like Will Hutton in a publication such as The
Observer (I think I was expecting a bit of support!) seems to be
preparing for this precipitous decline.
I think that there are societal reasons why libraries are not used as
once they were, and whilst that isn't an excuse to keep going and
getting smaller every year, it is something that seems to have been
completely overlooked.
More books are published every year, average prices of books are falling
so are more affordable, people like creating their own libraries that
are exclusively 'theirs' and, a key point, there is much greater
awareness of books, due to the Internet, newspaper and magazine reviews.
I'm sure I'm not alone in now being presented with lists of ISBNs that
someone wants to check whether we have...greater information to users
means increased awareness of just what is out there. It's not
exclusively down to how libraries are funded and managed - this is how
it has been portrayed.
We have library users coming in and discussing the report with us now
the Libri report has raised awareness and a level of concern in exactly
what's going on: although people are making supportive and
non-supportive noises re the report it must be said.
Just my own thoughts etc...we should enjoy the spotlight, and make use
of it! Regardless of what it said in the paper - the byline : "Public
libraries need to be properly managed, by people committed to the idea
of public value
- or they will die" This interestingly doesn't mention that 'they mainly
need people coming through the doors' (hence the need for marketing) but
I'm sure we can all agree on the sentiment.
Simon (Reading).
ps : the article
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1207975,00.html :
interesting that it's easy to use Amazon but not your local library
catalogue...
-----Original Message-----
From: Frances Hendrix [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: 01 May 2004 13:06
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Press Release from the Laser Foundation - 'Who's in
Charge?'
Ever heard of virtual services?
-----Original Message-----
From: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of David McMenemy
Sent: 29 April 2004 11:08
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Press Release from the Laser Foundation - 'Who's in
Charge?'
Hi Andrew,
I'm a little confused with regards the issue you raise regarding staff
expenditure. Public libraries will always have to spend a significant
portion of their budget on staffing, simply because of the network of
venues they need to resource. When I worked for Glasgow Council we had
over 30 service points to staff, many of them large libraries.
Unlike the BBC, who can hide staffing costs by farming out contracts for
programme making to private companies, public libraries manage and
operate their own service points. Rather than cutting staff numbers,
there needs to be an increase in order to open libraries longer. Indeed
isn't that one of the points made by Mr Coates - libraries need to be
open longer.
Just my opinion.
Cheers
David
---------------------------------------
David McMenemy
Lecturer,
Graduate School of Informatics,
Department of Computer and Information Sciences, University of
Strathclyde, Livingstone Tower,
26 Richmond Street,
Glasgow.
G1 1XH
U.K.
Tel: 0141-548-3045
email: [log in to unmask]
www.cis.strath.ac.uk
-----Original Message-----
From: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Andrew Sandeman
Sent: 29 April 2004 10:26
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Press Release from the Laser Foundation - 'Who's in
Charge?'
John:
you are right about Hampshire but this sort of response (in general, I
really don't want to personalise this) - makes me despair, because it
discourages debate on the real issue.
Even at 55% (LISU), staffing costs are damagingly high and the effects
(yes, there are other factors as well) include LISU 2003 p.4 "Only 9.6%
of total libraries expenditure was on books in 2001-02."
We SHOULD be concerned that
a) most of our (Paying) customers still want a good range of books
etc.as their top priority
b) we are NOT spending 90% of our budget on what they want.
There are some good things happening out there, but they need to deepen
and spread very
rapidly if libraries are to recover their relevance to most of the
general public.
Regards,
Andrew
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Briggs" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: 28 April 2004 16:52
Subject: Re: Press Release from the Laser Foundation - 'Who's in
Charge?'
> Andrew Sandeman wrote:
> > A pity that a report which makes some important points -
> > controversial maybe, but the basic thrust is well supported by
> > evidence - should be
met
> > with this sort of 'debate'.
> >
> > Hopefully, perhaps elsewhere, we can have a more considered
> > discussion about how to achieve the STEP CHANGE in effectiveness
> > which is so clearly needed.
> >
> > For example, it looks as if many authorities spend (roughly) two
> > thirds
of
> > their budget on staffing,
> > whereas I understand that the BBC spend approx.20%.
> >
>
> The figures quoted by the report are that Hampshire spends
> approximately half of its 'funds' on "staff", which is in line with
> the UK as a whole
(see
> Appendix 2).
>
> John Briggs
>
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