It's all your fault

The council’s library consultation document tells you the three options for effectively destroying Barnet’s once-acclaimed library service. And the Tory majority (by one seat) on the council wants you to choose one of these options so that they can escape responsibility for this destruction by claiming they did only what you wanted. It’s all your fault. In my next blog I’ll explain how you can make your own views known rather than be forced to accept any of the choices the council has made for you, but here let’s look at their three options.

Although they are presented as separate options, they all propose:
• cutting staffed opening hours by 40– 50% of the current number
• extending opening hours, meaning that the majority of time the libraries were open they would be unstaffed • maintaining the size of only 3 libraries: the table shows Hendon’s size unchanged but the document itself says the library would be 56% smaller
• the other libraries that remain open will be reduced to 540 sq. ft,
• increased use of volunteers to run additional services

The options differ in how many libraries will remain open: option one, all 14; option two, 8; option three, 12 but only if volunteers run 4 of them, so maybe only 8.

How do these proposals affect the library service? You have to consider them together to get the full impact. Start by thinking about what libraries are now: they are much more than buildings storing books to borrow. They serve us, our families and our communities as a place to go to, among other things, research, study, read, be with other people, use a computer, borrow films and music, pick up council notices and information about events throughout the borough and London, and go to groups activities.

It takes professional librarians to organise a library so that it can provide all these facilities: to keep the all materials up to date and accessible, to create and supervise the timetables for group activities and for use of the computers, to advise people on what to look for –whether a book for pleasure or information for study – and where to find it, to help with Internet usage, and to supervise what goes on in the building, providing order and security for users.

Cutting librarians’ hours by 50% means they cannot do all their organisational jobs, and that users won’t be able to get advice they need. Keeping the library open without librarians reduces their usefulness and security. During unstaffed hours, only people over the age of 16 or 18 will be allowed to enter, using their library card and a PIN, an obstacle easy to overcome. Don’t worry: CCTV will keep watch. So after someone gains entry, takes away the computers or the books or vandalises the building or mugs a more vulnerable person, the CCTV will provide a record of the event. It won’t prevent it, or undo the damage to materials or people. And don’t you just wonder how much the CCTV systems will cost to install and run? Or will they leave the film out, as they used to do with speed cameras?

It takes more than 540 sq. ft to provide enough space for an adequate stock of materials to borrow; a separate area for reference materials; computers, desks and chairs for people studying; chairs for people reading; an area for children’s books and activity; a suitable place for librarians to do their job and be accessible to library users; a place for volunteers to run ‘additional’ services.

The full impact is single rooms that provide limited function and security. Next time round the council will declare them unfit for purpose and close them.