Thanks Nick, I couldn't agree with you more!
Cheers,
Aran Lewis
Senior Librarian, Stock Support Services
Lambeth Libraries
Carnegie Library
Herne Hill Road
London SE24 0AG
020 7926 6069
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: Nick London [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 11:21 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Friday ramble (was Command and control) (was FW: Is this
> the e nd for OPACs?)
>
> ----- Forwarded by Nick London/cs/nottscc on 18/01/2004 23:23 -----
>
> Nick London
> To: "Lewis,Aran M"
> <[log in to unmask]>
> 18/01/2004 23:19 cc:
> Subject: Re: Friday ramble
> (was Command and control) (was FW: Is this the e nd for
> OPACs?)(Document link: Nick
> London)
>
>
>
>
> re: Aran's Friday ramble,
>
> I am glad someone with some common sense and an understanding of the
> true
> nature of public services has added their voice to this increasingly
> orbital discussion thread.
> While I found myself agreeing with some of Robert Harden's points about
> the
> danger of assuming 'customer' demands are paramount, and of the rationing
> role of the public librarian, the idea that then emerges about the
> benefits
> of being 'free' of local government control is rather missing the point.
>
> The whole reason for public libraries - or any other public service or
> good
> - is that there is no commercial process which would provide a substitute.
> There is no profitable market for giving access to the range of creative
> fiction and information resources that every public library providing free
> of charge. The kind of lending service that the commercial sector would
> provide can already be seen in my local market place in Newark - a
> thriving
> buy and exchange trade in popular 2nd hand paperback fiction.
>
> Public libraries are a social benefit which are provided without being
> expected to break even - like schools, flood protection, social services,
> country parks, defence etc etc. They have all long been regarded as a
> legitimate activity of government in one form or another. To suggest that
> public libraries can be freed from all the constraints and burdens they
> bear as part of local government is to ignore the fact that any other body
> or arm of government will exert equal political influence. Trusts,
> quangos, regional offices and the rest are all parts of the overall
> government machine and all depend on taxation to fund the services they
> control.
>
> To be in public libraries is to be in politics. There is no escape, but
> there is hope of some common sense as long as the politicians in charge
> are
> the kind that face the electorate every so often.
>
> Nick London
> Principal Systems Officer
> Nottinghamshire Libraries
>
>
>
>
> "Lewis,Aran M"
> <[log in to unmask] To:
> [log in to unmask]
> OV.UK> cc:
> Sent by: Subject: Re: Friday
> ramble (was Command and control) (was FW: Is this the e nd for
> "lis-pub-libs: UK OPACs?)
> Public Libraries"
> <LIS-PUB-LIBS@JISC
> MAIL.AC.UK>
>
>
> 16/01/2004 17:35
> Please respond to
> "Lewis,Aran M"
>
>
>
>
>
>
> London Borough of Lambeth: our disclaimer is at the end of this e-mail.
> **************************************************************************
> *********
>
>
> Some interesting suggestions, Robert, but in your list of vital things you
> omit the obligation to serve the local community, or even the obligation
> to
> serve current library users. Without this, what is to stop the governing
> body serving its own prejudices, or simply carrying out the agenda of the
> politicians who appointed its members? They would probably decide who
> their
> metaphorical "customers" were or ought to be, and what they ought to
> receive. Public libraries do not have a business-type relationship with
> most
> of their users, who are therefore not really customers. The principal
> customers of museums etc are the funding bodies - they are the ones who
> buy
> the service, albeit on behalf of other people and with other people's
> money!
>
> Ownership of assets means having to pay for their upkeep. Councils
> struggle
> to do this at present, and if public libraries were cut loose with current
> budgets they could not afford to do it. Where would the money come from?
> Sale of assets? Cutting staff, stock and opening hours? Sound familiar?!
> As
> for raising investment funding, how can investment be profitable in a
> service designed to "lose" (ie spend and not recoup) most of its income?
>
> Any major national restructuring would be enormously expensive, and these
> days would inevitably entail countless millions of taxpayers' money being
> poured into the pockets of consultants instead of funding service
> provision,
> with no indication that the outcome would be an improvement on the status
> quo. Local democracy is deeply flawed, and in dire need of improvement
> (these are my own views, obviously, not my employer's!), but it does offer
> a
> mechanism whereby local people can chuck out the governing body if they
> don't like what they are doing. We would do better to push to make local
> authorities more responsive, in particular to get them to give the same
> priority to public libraries and other services that local residents do
> (at
> present their priorities are mostly dictated by central government), as
> the
> alternative is likely in practice to mean handing this superb resource
> over
> to distant unaccountable quangos with their legendary capacity for lavish
> self-reward and irrelevance to service delivery.
>
> If we are to adopt a different model, how about this? Everyone possessing
> or
> reading a book would have to pay a disproportionately large and
> ever-escalating annual book licence, and the library authority could spend
> its billions however it pleased, paying million pound salaries to senior
> staff to be rude to people, abuse minorities, etc., if it felt like it,
> and
> there would be nothing the licence fee payers could do if they didn't
> approve. If it's good enough for the BBC...!
>
> Cheers,
> Aran Lewis
> Senior Librarian, Stock Support Services
> Lambeth Libraries
> Carnegie Library
> Herne Hill Road
> London SE24 0AG
>
> 020 7926 6069
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> SSS home page (internal):
> http://intradoc/intradoc/groups/public/documents/a-default/021138.html
>
> SSS home page (external):
> http://www.lambeth.gov.uk/intradoc/groups/public/documents/a-default/01923
> 2
> .
> html
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Robert Harden [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 7:21 PM
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: Re: Command and control (was FW: Is this the end for
> OPACs?)
> >
> > A very fair question, Aran. Not being an expert in not-for-profit
> > business models, I haven't got a ready answer, just a few thoughts on
> > what an independent public library sector might look like.
> >
> > I would look around for inspiration at other institutions which retain
> > their independence while receiving state funding, such as some museums,
> > charitable trusts, universities. What they have in common is their
> > ability, indeed duty, to manage their assets solely in pursuit of the
> > objectives for which they were founded. That means that their
> > independent governing bodies own and control their real estate and
> > plant. They employ their own staff. They can raise investment funding.
> > They can generate income and use it for their own purposes.
> >
> > I imagine the government's regional structure would have to be the
> > geographical basis for independent public library institutions in
> > England with national institutions for the other parts of the UK. This
> > could be expected to facilitate the distribution of state funding. That
> > would mean 9 regional library authorities for England and one national
> > authority each for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
> >
> > Whatever the organisational structure, the vital things are the
> > ownership of assets and the freedom to manage them in the interests of
> > the library's customer community.
> >
> > Robert Harden
> > ______________________
> > [log in to unmask]
> > www.harden.dial.pipex.com
> > ______________________
> >
> > On Wednesday, January 14, 2004, at 04:48 PM, Lewis,Aran M wrote:
> >
> > > Robert, if you take public libraries out of local government, where
> > > would
> > > you put them instead? No doubt we can all think of a number of
> > > possibilities
> > > and models, but what would you advocate?
> > >
> > > Cheers,
> > > Aran Lewis
> > > Senior Librarian, Stock Support Services
> > > Lambeth Libraries
> > > Carnegie Library
> > > Herne Hill Road
> > > London SE24 0AG
> > >
> > > 020 7926 6069
> > >
> > > [log in to unmask]
>
>
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