"I would look around for inspiration at other institutions which
retain
their independence while receiving state funding, such as ... "
From close experience as a director of a local CAB, there certainly are
untapped dynamics we could do with harnessing for ourselves - does anyone
know how far the setup at Hounslow public libraries has gone? ... I believe
there's a Community Initiative Partnership which manages/oversees provision
& may have some of these attributes, though I suspect that as with most
things, those who pays the piper ... and ... the amount of manager time
required to service the more self-standing organisation musn't be
underestimated.
Apart from the ups & downs of any sort of organisational & constitutional
structure, the scale of provision both in terms of sizes & geographical
spread/disposition of the communities serves will be critical components
with the usually inevitable counter-dynamics of the smaller the scale, the
closer the sense of community ownership & involvement, the larger the scale,
the more effective the economy of scale for many aspects of the service but
the more difficult it is to engender the fierce sense of ownership such as
the more local museums and CABx do.
There is then the small matter of providing a stautory service which now
more than in the past has a certain amount of overall prescriptiveness about
it with the impacts of PN/Standards/Inspection/Frameworks etc..
On the other hand, regional frameworks are already emerging and perhaps the
MLACS could do with further development (with teeth) to counterbalance some
of the difficulties of being a financially insignificant service within
larger Local Authority service mixes.
Mike
Mike Maguire
Group Librarian S & E Devon
Devon Library & Information Services
tel 01392 384223
fax 01392 384228
mailto:[log in to unmask]
http://www.devon.gov.uk/library/
Unless otherwise stated the views expressed are
personal and not necessarily those of Devon County Council
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Harden [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 14 January 2004 19:21
> 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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