Memorandum submitted by London Borough
of Islington—Library and Cultural Services
1. INTRODUCTION
Islington is one of the most diverse and densely
populated inner London boroughs with extremes of affluence and
deprivation which gives it one of the most polarised socio-economic
profiles in the country.
Libraries are seen as having a key role in promoting
community cohesion and bringing these diverse communities together.
The importance of Islington Library and Cultural Services in delivering
the Council's One Islington vision is recognised within
corporate objectives for regenerating the borough, with a target
for increasing access to libraries and learning facilities. The
Council's ambition for Library and Cultural Services reflects
the key features of libraries "modern mission" as described
in Framework for the Future and is based on a programme
of continuous improvement and development. Our aim is to provide
a network of library services through buildings, outreach activities
and e-services which are integrated into the life of their communities.
Islington is an improving authority and the
library service reflects the improvements that have been made.
Visits to our libraries rose 11% last year, while items issued
increased by 4.5%. Visitor numbers in October 2004 were the highest
for any month for seven years.
The key to these achievements has been developing
more user-focused stock, making the library environment more attractive,
increasing and updating technology through the People's Network
and more pro-actively reaching out to the most disadvantaged people
in Islington. However, maintaining and building on these improvements
presents challenges. We are aware that professional organisations
will be submitting evidence which deals with the national and
strategic context for developing library services. This submission,
therefore, will focus on some of the issues related to developing
library services in Islington.
2. ACCESSIBILITY
— We have recently opened a new library
in Finsbury Park, one of the most deprived areas of the borough,
which is co-located alongside City and Islington College's new
lifelong learning centre. The huge increase in visitor numbers
shows that people will use libraries if they are located in the
right place and offer a good mix of books, video/dvd and information.
It has also highlighted the benefits of co-locating libraries
with related services.
— Taking libraries into the community
through early literacy schemes in partnership with Bookstart and
Sure Start is making an impact on the profile and use of our library
services. Our New Horizons Estate Reading project promotes books
and reading on the six most deprived housing estates in the borough.
The New Horizons community libraries really do change people's
lives and have been recognised as good practice by the Government
Office for London.
Both the New Horizons and our Sure Start projects
are supported by short-term external funding. Our challenge is
to sustain and mainstream both projects with diminishing "core
funding".
— The library service is also seen
as a key partner, with Social Services and voluntary sector organisations,
in providing services to other socially excluded groups, eg looked-after
children; refugees and asylum seekers.
— One of our major challenges is making
our building fully accessible and compliant with the Disability
Discrimination Act. The costs of converting some of our older
(early 1900s) buildings are very high.
— We are increasingly able to provide
library services electronically to people in their own homes and
offices—eg access to library catalogue, self-reservation
of items in stock and access to an increasing range of electronic
information, newspapers and databases.
It is regrettable that the new Public Library
Service Standards do not yet include a count of this type of "virtual"
library use—as for some of our users this access is increasingly
important.
3. FUNDING
— The promotion of books and reading
is at the heart of our service and will continue to be so. However,
we have also developed high quality audio and video collections
which are amongst the best used in London. We rely on the income
generated from loans of these items to contribute to our overall
revenue budget each year.
— While we welcomed the funding for
People's Network PCs this has created an ICT infrastructure which
will need to be refreshed and updated in coming years. Having
built up customer expectations and demand that free Internet/PC
access is available in libraries, we will need to maintain this
provision which is an increasing drain on existing resources.
— Providing ICT access in libraries
not only provides a new service and encourages use of libraries
for a wider range of activities, but also contributes to meeting
local and national e-government targets—by providing access
to e-services and building capacity in the community to receive
and use e-services. The "digital divide" still exists
in Islington and we see free access to PCs in libraries as a way
of redressing this imbalance.
Recognition of this developing role and the
funding implications is essential.
4. LEGISLATIVE
FRAMEWORK
— As other submissions will no doubt
state, one of the biggest frustrations with libraries' funding
is that we are in a statutory service, which has no access to
the level of funding available to other statutory services.
— The Government's 10-year vision in
Framework for the Future aims to work towards a more consistent
offer in all library authorities and to promote a range of "national
offers". Without consideration of the cost of delivering
services equitably—it is unlikely that the vision can be
achieved equally across the country. Inevitably councillors focus
spending increases on Social Services, Education and, more recently,
environmental improvements—yet for comparatively small sums
library services can contribute to delivering many of our partners'
objectives.
— Libraries, more than many other council
services, have exploited regional co-operation, eg LASER, London
Libraries Development Agency etc. There could be further economies
of scale through widening opportunities for regional co-operation,
eg staff training, reader development.
5. STAFF RECRUITMENT
AND TRAINING
— In common with other inner London
boroughs we experience a range of staff recruitment and retention
problems—particularly attracting young people to consider
work/a career in public libraries, attracting middle/senior managers
into the borough due to high travel/housing costs and retaining
staff once we have given them customer care/computer training.
— The role of front-line staff has
changed a lot in recent years—we now need to attract people
with a wider range of skills and knowledge—including dealing
with an increasingly diverse range of customers with higher expectations
and demands, comfortable with ICT, developing knowledge of the
stock we provide and increasingly diverse sources of information.
— The recent initiative to develop
library leaders for the future, part-funded by MLA, is very welcome,
but is only a "drop in the ocean" in terms of the needs
of the profession and it is hoped that this can become an ongoing
development programme.
CONCLUSIONS
This brief submission highlights some of the
recent developments, achievements and challenges facing the library
service in Islington.
We will be reviewing our services over the next
year to see how we can meet some of these challenges and be more
efficient, but we would urge the Culture, Media and Sports Committee
to recognise the value of libraries generally and their ability
to meet a range of national and local government shared objectives.
19 November 2004
|
