Er, excuse me… unaccustomed as I am to commenting on this blog……

 

A group of senior MLA colleagues, including me, visited Hillingdon and spent some 2 hours with Councillor Henry Higgins who led the project. He subsequently spoke at several conferences and events - LIS Show, PLA Conference - and was duly applauded.

 

As I recall, good stuff notably the joint working (merger?) and new services with Adult Ed; the refurbishment created a pleasant and accessible environment (a bit too beige for me, but there you go); staffing was hugely restructured so outreach and community learning programmes – as I recall – were devolved to individual branches to manage locally though with less, if any, corporate back up. I don’t know how that’s panned out; such localism has a familiar ring now.

 

It was one of the first and few occasions when the consultant involved acknowledged the value of computers – for learning, information and skills – and other media, alongside books which had hitherto been prioritised in keeping with a bookstore / lending focus.

 

All in all a good project, much needed investment and, apparently, to be lauded. Congrats to an elected councillor willing and able to put energy into positive change for his community through its library service. Wish we had more of them!

 

Meanwhile Cllr Higgins continues to promote positive strategies: This http://bit.ly/rOdw65 from 2010 and this http://bit.ly/jqsYt2  from May 2011 (though please don’t demean modernisation plans with yarns about selling coffee) indicating a long-term strategy for investment and innovation. Let’s hope that’s what it is.

 

… all this just leaves the ongoing curiosity of one person who strangely believes everyone but himself to be wrong.

 

John