Memorandum submitted by Newcastle City
Council
INTRODUCTION
1. Newcastle City Council welcomes this
new inquiry into public libraries and trusts this evidence will
assist in the Committee's deliberations.
2. This evidence is structured around the
areas detailed in the Government announcement of the inquiry,
dated 26 October 2004:
— Background and context.
— Investment and funding.
— The legislative, strategic and administrative
framework.
— Recruitment and training.
— Library partnerships and networks.
BACKGROUND AND
CONTEXT
3. The Society of Chief Librarians (SCL)
has submitted detailed evidence to the inquiry. Newcastle, along
with many other public library authorities, has contributed to
the SCL submission, and endorses it fully.
4. This submission from Newcastle City Council
reinforces some of the points made in the SCL evidence, but mainly
focuses on the key specific issues relating to the local public
library service, making reference also to issues facing the north
east region.
5. Newcastle's Library and Information Service
is currently undergoing a major modernisation programme. Following
a one star Best Value Review and Inspection in 2000-01 (when the
Service was failing 12 of the then new Public Library Standards)
there has been significant progress. The Council has increased
opening hours; seen an increase in issues, enquiries and visits;
has improved buildings; is at a critical stage in a major PFI
project to replace the city library; has invested in the stock
fund; and now meets all but two of the Standards. The recent re-inspection
(RPA) by the Audit Commission now rates the City's Cultural Services
as two star, and acknowledges significant improvement in the library
service. But the Service still faces significant challenges. In
the context of this ongoing change programme the City Council
feels well placed to submit evidence to the inquiry.
ACCESSIBILITY
6. Following an extensive public consultation
programme in 2002-03 the City Council is quite clear that citizens
want to be able to access services earlier and later in the day,
and through more weekend opening. Sunday opening itself is not
always the immediate answer, and Newcastle's experience is that
if a few key libraries with good city wide communication links
can open on Sundays, then what is required elsewhere is improved
opening hours during daytime and evening hours which respond to
local need.
7. More resources are required for a programme
of new build, adaptation and refurbishment. Many buildings suffer
from years of under investment, with little scope for external
support. Access to lottery funding, which is available to other
(often less visited) cultural institutions and buildings, is just
one example of how this situation could be immediately improved.
8. The lack of resources for the public
library building stock means that making all service points DDA
compliant and fit for purpose will remain at best a medium term
target.
9. Our experience with the city library
PFI project has made us aware of the importance of large city
libraries in terms of a city-wide focus for accessible and universal
learning, leisure and community space. Public libraries offer
safe and sheltered public realm, and large libraries have the
scope to be the equivalent of the major city square—the
cultural square. But the development of library buildings as quality
(rather than just functional) space requires national leadership
and vision, and an investment plan beyond that which is affordable
by local authorities. (see also paragraph 19 below)
10. Libraries are perceived as neutral and
inclusive community spaces. Increasingly the public library network
is the starting point for the development of one stop shops and
other initiatives to create a more outward facing presence for
councils in local communities.
11. Related culture, leisure and community
activities attract a broader audience to libraries. Newcastle
Libraries host and facilitate local history societies, reading
groups, arts and crafts groups, lifelong learning classes.
12. Lifelong learning, in its widest sense,
is clearly an area through which use of libraries can develop.
Newcastle Libraries is a contracted lifelong learning provider
and delivers a range of programmes throughout the library network.
The People's Network (PN) has added a new dimension to the work
of the library service in supporting independent and group learning.
DEMAND
13. The evidence from performance indicators
is that demand for services is increasing. Enquiries, visits,
attendance at events and activities, and use of the website (one
of the most frequently visited in the Council) have all increased
significantly. The new opening hours combined with the investment
in new stock appears to be stabilising book loans.
14. There is very high use of PN—perhaps
not surprising in a region with one of the lowest levels of pc
ownership in the UK. Access to ICT is essential if individuals
are to participate fully in 21st century society, and free use
of the PN is crucial to achieve equality of access in authorities
like Newcastle. The omission of free use of PCs with free access
to the Internet as a new Public Library Standard (in Standards
for a 21st century library service no less!), and the lack of
any suggestion that there will be no further financial support
for the PN cause serious concern among members and officers.
15. Newcastle is a core city which continues
to serve, by national standards, areas of extreme poverty. Overall,
based on the average of ward scores, Newcastle has three times
the expected level of deprivation. A third of the 10% most deprived
super output areas are within the city. (Index of Multiple Deprivation
2004). The spread of economic advantage and disadvantage is uneven.
17.6% of adults have difficulty with reading and writing, compared
to 15% nationally. In some wards the figure rises to 25%. As stated
above, the city and the region have the lowest PC ownership/private
access to the internet figures in the UK.
16. These serious issues of deprivation
and poor educational achievement provide a context for the library
service's social inclusion work, and link directly to the need
to widen access to reader development activities, to promote all
services (and especially the People's Network) and to target resources
on priority groups of service users. Achieving results with such
disadvantaged and hard to reach groups is extremely resource intensive.
In some cases individual support is required. We achieve much
by working in partnership with organisations such as basic skills
units. But additional and focused resource is needed to enable
this area of work to progress, and realise the potential of library
services contributing to the raising achievement agenda. These
social factors also provide the context for the Service (like
many other across the country) to focus development work on supporting
the broad regeneration agenda.
17. Increases in demand and the successful
recruitment of new customers must be met with an appropriate offer.
Providing relevant services to traditional non-customers (especially
those from disadvantaged backgrounds) requires disproportionately
high investment. If we are to respond to the challenge of improved
and increasing use and access, then we need a resource base to
support this.
INVESTMENT AND
FUNDING
18. External funding support for the People's
Network is critical if public libraries are to be able to respond
to future demand, and continue to support the development of an
equitable e-society.
19. An investment programme for library
buildings is urgently needed, along with a clearly articulated
vision for future library building design. Unlike other countries,
the UK seems not to have an ambition for quality and inspirational
library buildings.
20. Spending on stock needs to be at least
maintained. The purchase of electronic resources is problematic.
Unit costs are high, and the public library sector has little
experience of negotiating effective licence agreements. Increasing
the acquisition of electronic resources (and achieving wider access
to material) is essential for the modern service, but could easily
cause a library service to show an apparent underperformance against
the very traditional stock acquisition Standards.
21. A number of authorities have libraries
of regional significance, built to support a population much larger
than the local communities. Often in cities, these libraries provide
specialist support to business, researcher and inventors as well
as those interested in local and family history. These libraries
also usually support a significantly higher daytime customer base,
drawn from the city region. Local authorities like Newcastle and
other core cities, with libraries of regional significance, really
do need to receive additional budget support nationally.
LEGISLATIVE, STRATEGIC
AND ADMINISTRATIVE
FRAMEWORK
22. The attention given to the public library
service at a national level over the last 10 years has been very
encouraging. The introduction of Public Library Standards was
a positive move, providing essential substance to the 1964 Act.
The Standards have encouraged the City Council to reinvest in
its Service. Framework for the Future has provided a template
for service development, though it has to be said that it lacks
drive, and has a gentle rather than stretching ambition. The main
disappointment with Framework however has been the lack
of associated funding to engineer the required step change in
service development and delivery. The centrally funded and orchestrated
PN initiative has stimulated the most dramatic change to the Service
in its history.
23. Both the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport, and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council aim
to be supportive. MLA is working hard and effectively to deliver
Framework within the resources provided. Leadership from
DCMS is less obvious, and links with other elements of the Department
(and with other relevant Whitehall Departments) seem to be poor.
24. There is no set pattern for the location
of a library service within a local authority structure. In spite
of this most services have the potential to make a very positive
contribution to a Council's agenda wherever they are located.
What is unhelpful is the apparent relegation of the post of the
Chief Librarian to a relatively middle ranking position in an
organisational structure. Newcastle has placed its Head of Libraries
at a second tier level, where the officer can contribute fully
to the work of the Council and ensure that maximum benefit is
gained from the Library and Information Service. Unfortunately
there are many services where this is not the case.
RECRUITMENT AND
TRAINING
25. Salary levels for public library workers
(and competition from other sectors) make it hard to attract the
right sort of people into the service. The Chartered Institute
for Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) is reorganising
the structure of professional qualifications, but it will take
time for this to impact on recruitment positively. Library staff
quickly acquire transferable skills (especially since the developments
in ICT training) and very often the most able staff are able to
find better pay using the same skills for alternative employers.
LIBRARY PARTNERSHIPS
AND NETWORKS
26. Newcastle's Library Service works closely
with public library services throughout the region. For example,
Newcastle is currently leading on developing a new model for providing
business information support through the region's public libraries.
The City Council also encourages joint working across the UK,
and was happy to see the Head of Libraries lead the first library
service Peer Review on behalf of MLA.
27. At a local level, the City was instrumental
a number of years ago in creating a local partnership of public,
university and college libraries. Working closely together, this
partnership widens access to resources across the city, and provides
a mutually supportive and dynamic cross referral system for each
organisation's customers.
28. The Service also works closely with
services and agencies from other disciplines, looking for joined
up solutions to problems and development needs. For example, we
work with the Newcastle Literacy Trust, the Trade Unions and the
City's Basic Skills Unit to explore new ways of combating literacy
problems for Council employees and for residents.
CONCLUSION
29. To summarise briefly, the key points
that Newcastle City Council would like the New Inquiry to debate,
and hopefully use to inform recommendations for improvements,
are:
30.
— the issue of additional resources
for the maintenance and development of the People's Network;
— the whole issue of improving public
library buildings, from raising the standard of the existing estate
and ensuring DDA compliance, to setting the vision for a new generation
of inspirational public libraries—and proposals for investment
programmes (to include the National Lottery) to achieve this;
— how best to develop library stocks
of both traditional and new format materials, ensuring that both
are seen as essential, and offering support to local authorities
in achieving the best from electronic materials;
— the role of the public library service
in local authorities, highlighting the potentially massive contribution
this modestly funded service can make to, for example an authorities
social inclusion, e-government and learning agenda;
— a critical look at the new 2004 Public
Library Standards to assess whether they really will drive forward
performance in a truly 21st century way.
The City Council is grateful for the opportunity
to comment, hopes this evidence is constructively helpful, and
would be happy to contribute further if required.
11 November 2004
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