Bestselling writer Martina Cole says: 'If you take away libraries, it's another thing chipping away at the community. It's taking away the right to a child's safe haven.
Alan Gibbons, writer and Campaign for the Book co-ordinator, gives us the low down on planned library closures and service downgradings that are now sweeping the UK. Writers and everyone concerned about what's happening should check out with their local librarians and unions and take action now.
The London Evening Standard last week talked about 130 out of 385 libraries being at risk of closure here. Bestselling writer Martina Cole has said her career would never have taken off if it had not been for her local library: 'I am mortified to hear that they want to get rid of the libraries in London. Why do you want to take away someone's basic right? The library teaches you to respect books, reading and other people. If you take away libraries, it's another thing chipping away at the community. It's taking away the right to a child's safe haven'
This is David Cameron’s election pledge: “This government will not cut the deficit in a way that hurts those who most need help, in a way that divides our country or in a way that undermines the spirit and ethos of our vital public services.”
It is a pledge that is looking increasingly at odds with the reality of increasingly draconian cuts.
Every day brings more bad news as public libraries closures mount. In many localities half the branch network is being eliminated. These measures are usually accompanied with two mantras, firstly that the cuts are the only way out of the mess and that we are all in it together, secondly that if volunteers don’t take up the slack communities are going to lose their library. The very notion that a librarian does more than issue books is being tossed aside with ever more flagrant disregard for any notion of professionalism.
Ireland suggests that the government’s entire strategy is built on sand. This is a country that cut first and cut deepest and it has still had to go cap in hand to the IMF. Interestingly, the same government that says there is no alternative to cuts and that the cupboard is bare can find seven billion pounds- the same amount that has been cut from public spending- to bail out Ireland’s incompetent and wastrel banks.
Protests
Influential writers Philip Pullman, Kate Mosse and Will Self have taken a welcome stand against government cuts that could see up to a quarter of librarians lose their jobs over the next year.
In the Guardian Mosse said "frontline support for literacy" was being cut, while Pullman declared that the librarian "is not simply a checkout clerk", and Self condemned the "crude calculus of cost-benefit analysis" involved.
The same article revealed that North Yorkshire is considering reducing its 42 libraries to 18 over four years, while Leeds is proposing to axe 20 smaller libraries. Cornwall, Brent, Lewisham, Hammersmith and Fulham, Richmond, Barnsley and Warrington are also planning closures.
In Buckinghamshire, 14 libraries could become volunteer-run; in Gloucestershire, 12 will be closed if volunteers do not step forward. The article named Camden, Westminster, Oldham, Southampton and Cambridgeshire among the councils whose plans include greater use of volunteer staff.
The latest Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy statistics showed a drop of nearly 1,000 in the number of paid library staff in the 12 months to March 2010, a 3.4% fall to a total of just under 25,000. Over the same period the total number of volunteers in UK public libraries rose 7.7% to 17,111.
Philip Pullman
Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, said: "The librarian is not simply a checkout clerk whose simple task could be done by anyone and need not be paid for. Those who think that every expert can be replaced by a cheerful volunteer who can step in and do a complex task for nothing but a cup of tea are those who fundamentally want to see every single public service sold off, closed down, abolished."
"Of course these things have to be paid for, which means putting taxes up; and the delusion that has gripped every politician in the western world for 30 years or so now is that when you lower taxes, the commercial world will take care of everything. The destruction of the library service is part of a wider malaise."
Kate Mosse
Kate Mosse, author of current bestseller The Winter Ghost, said: "Skilled librarians don't simply say, 'Go to the third aisle on the right'. They can show people where to start, and that is not the same as a volunteer saying, 'You might enjoy Danielle Steel'.
"I do not understand how the government can talk on the one hand about the disgrace of adults whose reading is not at an appropriate level for their age, yet consider cutting this frontline support for literacy."
Will Self
Writer Will Self said: "Libraries are a cultural resource of universal benefit that shouldn't be subjected to the crude calculus of cost-benefit analysis. What they should do is provide access to as many books as possible for as many people as possible."
The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals estimates the service could lose up to 6,000 jobs over the next four years. Chief executive Annie Mauger said the librarian's role was "very much under threat".
Northern Children’s Book Festival
There are worrying noises from the North East of England. The Northern Children’s Book Festival has been a wonderful feature of the cultural landscape for many years. It has brought many thousands of children together to meet hundreds of authors and illustrators. The devoted and dedicated library staff have worked wonders to mount this exemplary event.
Budget cuts are putting the NCBF’s future in danger. Gateshead School Library Service is scheduled for closure and librarians are facing an uncertain future across the region.
I would ask readers to be prepared to lobby and protest about the threat to library services and staff and to pledge themselves to campaign for a secure future for the festival. I will keep you informed as the situation develops.
Conclusions
Now re-read David Cameron’s quote. Are the most in need being hurt? Is the country divided? Are the spirit and ethos of our vital public services being undermined? I leave you to draw your own conclusions.
Alan Gibbons www.alangibbons.net
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