Memorandum submitted by Gateshead Council
INTRODUCTION
Gateshead Council is classed as an excellent
Local Authority, as assessed by the Audit Commission through its
Comprehensive Performance Assessment. Gateshead Council welcomes
this new Inquiry into public libraries and offers this evidence
to assist the Committee.
In Gateshead the public library service, as
part of the Cultural Development Service, plays a key role in
the achievement of a range of Council objectives and priorities.
Its service plan for 2004-07 addresses the issues, challenges
and priorities for action reflected in Gateshead's Community Strategy.
Gateshead Council has always valued its public
library service and has invested above average resources into
a service that is widely regarded as exemplary. In 2000 the public
library service in Gateshead was awarded three stars—"Excellent
and likely to improve" as a result of its Best Value Review.
The Council has always recognised the importance
of external drivers on the library service in Gateshead. These
currently include the Government's own strategy documents for
public libraries—"Framework for the Future", and
"Libraries for All" (Social Inclusion and the public
library service). The Council also recognises the importance of
the public library service in meeting e-government targets set
by Government.
ACCESSIBILITY AND
MEETING DEMAND
Gateshead Council has always valued the importance
of having easy geographic access to local libraries across the
Borough. We currently have 17 static libraries with none opened
less than 41 hours per week. We also provide a mobile library
service so no one in Gateshead has to travel more than two miles
to access the service. Readers at Home—our library service
for housebound people—works to a target to ensure that every
new customer requesting that door to door delivery service waits
for no longer than two weeks before receiving the service regularly.
The AIRS team in the library service provides
information and material via British Sign Language video, Braille,
audio tape and talking newspaper. Other targeted provision includes:
— Services to children and young people
via Sure Start and Reading Opportunities for Looked After Children.
— Reader Development with the Visually
Impaired.
— Local and Family History with the
Deaf Community.
— ICT website developments with community
groups.
— Service developments for Asylum Seekers
and Refugees.
Gateshead's Central Library provides specialist
assistance in obtaining information about the European Union and
its workings. The Government Minister for Europe is scheduled
to visit Gateshead to visit this service on 25 November 2004.
Libraries in Gateshead contribute extensively to lifelong learning.
They have always done so by supporting research and informal study.
More recently this has been expanded through a range of structured
programmes in partnership with the formal learning sector in Gateshead.
Digital content and websites such as FARNE http://asaplive.com/farne/home.cfm
have greatly improved access to local history and cultural heritage
resources. The FARNE site is part of the groundbreaking new music
library service provided by the Council in the new Sage Gateshead
concert hall complex due to open in December 2004.
INCREASING USAGE
The obvious evidence from performance indicators
nationally and in Gateshead is that book borrowing is declining.
There are many possible causes. It is possible that the days of
borrowers taking literally armfuls of light romantic fiction home
on a frequent basis are disappearing and a different type of less
voracious, more selective book borrowing habit has emerged. We
would urge the Government to resist the temptation to predict
the demise of the public library service as some commentators
have done when looking at the decline in book borrowing.
The Council welcomes the fact that many of our
customers choose to buy books from bookshops as well as borrow
from their library. Public libraries are now more concerned with
the impact that they have in the lives of their customers so the
key question is how we measure the value of book borrowing rather
than measure the volume of the activity. In Gateshead we are working
closely with colleagues in the Neighbourhood Renewal team to improve
the targeting of our reader development work in areas of deprivation
as indicated by the local neighbourhood Vitality Index. Library
activities are a powerful tool in improving literacy. In addition
we are developing an innovative partnership relationship between
the public library service and local schools to promote reading
as a driver of creativity and educational achievement.
FUNDING
The public library service plays an important
role at the heart of local neighbourhoods but this role can only
be sustained if the fabric of the buildings is fit for purpose
and welcoming. Gateshead, in common with most library authorities,
has a chronic need for funding to improve its library building
stock. It is the view of Gateshead Council that this is the single
biggest national funding problem for public libraries.
In our view the Inquiry could assist in exploring
the possibilities of a fixed term Lottery funded programme of
capital investment in the network of local library buildings in
each local authority. This would be the equivalent of the People's
Network but it would provide funding to reach a "tipping
point" of improvement after which local authorities would
again be expected to sustain the investment in their own network
of local library buildings.
Similarly, in Gateshead the maintenance of the
library ICT hardware and connectivity infrastructure is seen as
part of the Council's corporate ICT provision. This was the Council's
part of the bargain in receiving People's Network investment through
Lottery funding.
Gateshead Council applauds the Government's
commitment to the well-executed national programme of investment
of £120 million in ICT training and technology for every
public library service in the country. The Council's Chief Librarian
was directly involved in the production of the original report
that led to the introduction of the People's Network. The People's
Network is a partnership between central and local government.
This Council accepted that our part of the People's Network deal
with Government was that we would provide free public access to
the Internet throughout our library service. Gateshead Council
is delighted with the impact that this has had in securing social
inclusion in the Information Society.
We would draw the Inquiry's attention to the
strong evidence, available from MLA, CILIP and the Society of
Chief Librarians, that charging for Internet access has discouraged
library users and the removal of charges has resulted in a substantial
increase in take-up. We are disappointed, therefore, that the
Government has now shown its reluctance to press for free internet
access to be included in the new Public Library Standards. This
leaves a patchwork of provision across the country instead of
the public being clear that this is one of the strong offerings
of every public library in the land. We would encourage the Inquiry
to consider the possibility of free Internet access being explicitly
recognised as an essential feature of a "comprehensive and
efficient" service in the current interpretation of the 1964
Act. Failure to address this issue now could have serious long-term
implications for the free public library service as a whole, because
more and more of the information that public libraries provide
is held electronically.
We welcome efforts at national level to secure
more robust procurement arrangements for library services through
co-operative supply processes. Gateshead already participates
in a regional book supply contract. Gateshead Council is also
the lead authority for the new regional centre of excellence for
procurement and we will contribute further to the ongoing national
and regional discussions to achieve economies of scale.
LEGISLATIVE, STRATEGIC
AND ADMINISTRATIVE
FRAMEWORK
Gateshead Council believes strongly in the benefits
of having the public library service funded and integrated within
the structure of local government. Libraries in Gateshead have
been at the leading edge of Gateshead Council's Customer Service
Strategy with two libraries becoming pilot "one stop shops"
for the Council. The Inquiry could help to improve the recognition
within ODPM of the value of the public library service in achieving
the Shared Priorities of local government. DfES now recognises
the strong contribution that public libraries make to educational
achievement up and down the country. Sadly it is widely felt that
ODPM, the Government Department that funds the library service
through local government, is less clear about the cost effectiveness
of public libraries. The Inquiry could help to increase a sense
of ownership and value within ODPM.
12 November 2004
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