9 February - Unfortunately it is Non-fiction
Cut backs to the library service seem to be raising hackles everywhere; it is
the subject of today’s News Shopper ‘Star Letter’ (Bexley edition) and it has
been whispered to me that it will be the same in the next issue of The Bexley
Times. Since I last mentioned the subject on the 5th I have found
councillor Peter Catterall’s proposals on the council website, all very carefully worded of course.
He says “I am hopeful that the community will demonstrate support for
their local libraries by offering to take on the management function, to reduce
costs. If, however, we are not able to secure this level of support from
residents, it will not be financially viable for the Council to continue to
provide this level of library service. I am also seeking to make the mobile
library service more cost effective, by charging for the service to our partners
in schools and care homes etc. who currently benefit from the service free of
charge. Depending on the level of buy-in, I may also need to consider rationalising
the mobile library service.”
I was always under the impression that working in a library required a great deal of knowledge
and professional qualifications. A quick Google for “becoming a librarian” says I am
not wrong but maybe there is a distinction between library manager and librarian and Catterall
only proposes that managers should be volunteers. Wouldn’t such an arrangement be crazy?
How would a professional librarian react to being managed by an enthusiastic amateur?
The most likely source of enthusiastic amateurs will be pensioners with time on their hands and
whilst I would not want to belittle their experience and devotion to the cause, how long will they
last when they find they have to foot some of the bills themselves? It is not
impossible that the council is going through the motions so they can say “Look, we tried, but
the volunteers were too few and too unreliable so we had no option but to shut
the library and sell the building.” There are
leaflets in libraries right
now asking for your comments about the future of libraries but the librarian I
spoke to says it is a waste of time filling them in as “they have made up their
minds already”. I expect they have.
I find it slightly odd that councillor Catterall speaks of “charging for the
service to our partners in schools and care homes”. Doesn’t he know that
the
council has reduced the money it is paying to care homes by so much that they are
slashing staff wages there by 33%? Why does he believe that care homes have the spare
cash to pay for a mobile library service? I suspect that councillor Catterall is having his arm twisted
to make the proposal to justify his Cabinet Member’s allowance of £22,650 a year and he
doesn’t really believe a word of it. Neither do we Peter.