APPENDIX 18
Memorandum submitted by Blackheath Village
Library Users Group
BLACKHEATH VILLAGE
LIBRARY USERS
GROUP
1. We formed our group in October 1999 when
we discovered that Lewisham Borough Council's library modernisation
plans involved the closure of our local library along with two
others. There are now about 100 members, and a larger number of
sympathisers, working to resist the closure. We are trying to
persuade Lewisham Council to keep a library in Blackheath Village
and to work with the Council to improve the library's services.
RECOMMENDATION
2. Our submission sets out our concerns
about the way the present arrangements work and recommends that
government should investigate the feasibility and desirability
of establishing a national inspecting body for library services.
CENTRAL AND
LOCAL LIBRARIES
3. We think a good Local Authority library
service will have both central libraries and local libraries serving
local communities. These comments deal only with local libraries
in London.
4. We are using our own experience to illustrate
our points because we know that they represent problems which
are widespread.
FITTING THE
LOCAL LIBRARY
INTO THE
COMMUNITY
5. Our library in Blackheath Village is
one of the "non-threatening community institutions"
recently praised in an article by Tony Williamson of the Department
for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS). It serves the community with
more than books and a computer linked to the Internet. It is a
valued local focus, a centre for information and advice, and a
venue for activities. It is used by people of all ages and all
economic groups; apart from the public lavatory it is the only
free facility in Blackheath Village. The very young receive their
first introduction to written knowledge and retired people use
their newly free time to take up new interests.
At its best the local library performs the magical
trick of being both a place owned by the local community and of
being open to every passer-by: it declares "this neighbourhood
is not exclusive".
6. We think the services in any good local
library would include:
— Items providing other means of conveying
information, eg CDs, videos;
— Access to electronic communication
including the planned People's Network; and
— A venue for some local cultural activities—art
exhibitions—sessions for children—meetings of local
groups and national bodies such as the University of the Third
Age—some of them very particular to the area, some bringing
in visitors.
7. Sensible people know their local authority
cannot afford to give an ideal service on everything. When a choice
must be made we think the priority should be to put libraries
where young and old can get to them on foot and to have them open
at convenient times. One of the joys of living in London should
be that we can walk to our local library; this should be not only
more pleasant, but by reducing car use contribute to safety. Increasingly
this joy is being taken away from us. If our local library is
closed many current users especially the elderly, infirm and mothers
with young children will have no accessible library.
8. If standards for judging libraries are
introduced they should focus on the service preferred by people
in the neighbourhood rather than some average level of provision
per library. Bureaucracies instinctively want to demonstrate compliance
with standards, and where there are problems with the amount of
equipment that can be installed in small libraries they may find
it easier to bring up the average level by simply closing them.
This does nothing to bring service to places where the community
wants it.
9. We want as many opening hours as are
possible, though we naturally recognise that they must often be
limited. But even limited hours should suit the users; schools,
people at work, commuters and so on.
ACCESSIBILITY
10. We have seen local officials define
the catchment area of libraries by plotting radii on a map. In
our experience getting to the library is more than a mere matter
of distance from it. People decide on sensible routes considering
various factors—barriers (main roads, inclines, undesirable
areas) and ways in (road crossings, public transport, lighting,
footpaths and familiarity).
11. Free public libraries are, by their
very nature, socially inclusive facilities, but only for those
people who can get to them. Access by particular groups, including
the very young, those with mobility problems, and carers will
present special problems which involve not just the library premises
but the routes to them, all of which need to be resolved together
with the users. In urban areas the aim should be a library easily
reached on foot. When the location of libraries comes under review
the views of the communities they mainly serve should be taken
into account.
OTHER FACTORS
AFFECTING CHOICE
OF LOCATION
12. Neighbourhoods will vary considerably,
so "one size fits all" thinking on the best location
will inevitably lead to disasters. For example, often a local
shopping centre will be the best place; indeed the presence of
a library is likely to increase business for the shops. In other
neighbourhoods people find proximity to a park or children's playground,
or a station used by commuters, fits their needs best.
13. A local library will usually be beneficial
to the area around it. When local authorities are making decisions
about opening and closing libraries they should carry out a full
analysis of the economic and environmental impact that the decision
will have. At the moment they seem more inclined to take account
of the potential benefit from any new library they wish to open,
but to slide to one side the detrimental effects of closures.
Lewisham Council's plans can be cited as an example. These make
much of the economic benefit of extra "footfalls" in
an area where a new library is promised but do not consider the
effect of taking footfalls away from the places where three libraries
would be closed.
CONSULTATION
14. The community which the library is to
serve should be identified and consulted about where the library
should be, its opening hours, etc. User's preferences are influenced
by factors such as convenient walking routes, bus routes, bus
reliability, safety and so on. People usually recognise their
own community and are likely to have strong views on what it is.
The straight line mentality does not reflect the lives of those
with a strong sense of locality.
15. Consultation should be seen to be completely
open minded but often it is viewed with suspicion. If council
officials use surveys with questions slanted in favour of their
preferred outcome, retain a firm grip of membership and reporting
of focus groups, and release information selectively an atmosphere
of mutual distrust will be generated. All of this can only tend
to undermine confidence in the consultation and indeed the political
process itself. In many areas there will now be an uphill task
restoring faith in the consultation process. Most library users
would prefer to spend their time using the services rather than
political lobbying, but repeated attempts to close local libraries
(in the Lewisham area some have had to fight off repeated attempts
over more than six years) have lead to a state where users feel
they must be constantly suspicious of what their council intends
for them.
THE PEOPLE'S
NETWORK
16. We welcome development of the People's
Network, but are concerned that it might lead to the downgrading
or destruction of other roles of small libraries in particular
book services. The sheer volume of official reports devoted solely
to this network may well affect the thinking of officials planning
services, resulting in them losing sight of the other functions
the local libraries serve. This is particularly unfortunate at
a time when we believe the trend in book reading continues to
grow; in our own library book issues are steadily increasing.
17. We are also concerned that some local
authorities will use the People's Network to justify the closure
of small local libraries, when their real reasons are quite different.
For example, at a public consultation meeting Lewisham Council
officials have asserted that local libraries such as that at Blackheath
Village must be closed because of difficulties in installing in
them the number of computers required by (as yet unpublished)
standards being developed by the DCMS. Closer scrutiny of the
Council's plan, however, suggests that old fashioned aims of cutting
running costs and releasing valuable property for sale are more
potent reasons, and that this fits into a pattern of attempting
to close small libraries extending back many years. This can only
tend to bring into disrepute the DCMS standards.
COLLABORATION BETWEEN
LOCAL AUTHORITIES
18. Borough boundaries in cities tend to
be invisible, so that libraries will serve people from more than
one local authority. The authority providing the local library
should pay more than lip service to users living in another borough,
but often it does not. For example Blackheath Village Library
is the local library for both Greenwich and Lewisham council tax
payers. Even though the boundary runs right in front of the library
Lewisham Council, which owns it, took plans for closing it to
an advanced stage before even discussing the matter with Greenwich
Borough Council. The "Greenwich" users are being cut
out of any genuine input to Lewisham's public consultation and
of participation in the "citizen's panel" which officials
will cite as evidence of consultation.
19. Local authorities could help to extend
facilities to residents of other boroughs by working towards computerised
systems capable of accepting tickets from libraries other than
their own. At the moment this is impracticable because of incompatibilities
between computer systems, but as a long-term goal it should be
attainable. It appears prima facie absurd that mutual recognition
of tickets which was commonplace before the development of computerised
systems seems now to have disappeared.
A NEW INSPECTING
BODY
20. The many pressures on local authorities
mean that left entirely to their own devices they are unlikely
to give public libraries the priority we think they should have,
or to apply consistent long-term policies for their improvement.
We think that the Committee should consider the merits of an enquiry
into the feasibility and desirability of a national inspecting
body with powers to intervene where library services are failing.
OFSTED might form a model for such a body.
January 2000
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