Culture, Media and Sport Committee Inquiry into Public Libraries

(Nov 2004)
 
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�Libraries for Life for Londoners

 

Libraries for Life for Londoners (LLL) is the umbrella organisation for the public library user groups in the 33 London boroughs and represents their interests at the regional level. The following comments are therefore biased towards the situation experienced by the 7 million residents of the London region, but are still generally relevant to other urban areas.

 

1. Accessibility

 

1.1 Location

That there are fewer public libraries than 10 years ago and far fewer than 20 years ago is irrefutable. Whilst this generation of local politicians and librarians inherited a public library map which showed something close to comprehensive coverage, they will pass on to the next generation a map showing decidedly patchy coverage. This reduction has resulted in the remaining libraries having to carry a greater burden than was originally intended and, because of the way that the slimming down process has been managed, the additional burden has been unevenly allocated to the survivors.

 

The location of the surviving libraries (actually the location of the lost libraries) has been determined to a large extent by the simplistic method of determining a library�s catchment area by drawing a circle around it (Public Library Service Standards PLSS1). In an urban environment, this is a catastrophically silly idea. There is never the homogenous user distribution implied by this and; even if there was; railways, canals and main roads would provide major barriers to accessing the library within the circle. If senior librarians and their Local Authorities wish to consider the future of each of the public libraries under their control, they should do this using professional techniques - taking into account population distributions, available public transport and barriers to travel, rather than amateurish rules of thumb.

 

It is inconceivable that a major retailing group such as ASDA or Tesco would neglect to carry out proper research when considering the location of one of their stores. Why is it acceptable to determine the location of a library without it? It is essential that decisions are based on concrete knowledge of what is actually happening in an environment that is accurately defined.

 

1.2 Opening Hours

There are two major items at the head of the agendas of all library user groups � book stock and opening hours. The public in general and user groups in particular still tend to use the traditional method of assessing the performance of a public library i.e. to use the number of books issued from that library as the measuring yardstick. The results from this method are obviously directly affected by both opening hours and the magnitude of the book stock. Indeed, the correlation between book issues and the product of the book stock & opening hours (the book availability) can be extremely good (ref. attached report). Thus, in crude terms, the more opening hours the better. However, it is possible to have better quality opening hours, just as it is possible to have a better quality book stock (quality being defined as �what the public wants� perhaps).

 

If one again looks at successful retailers, one finds that shops and stores have increased their opening hours considerably in the last few years and have concentrated on being open when the customers require it. When this retailing trend began, it was suggested that staff would have to be dragooned into working on Sundays. This has not happened, as there are sufficient people who prefer to work then. Library staff are no different.

 

Compared to the dynamic retailing scene, there has been no more than a token move in a small number of Local Authorities towards giving the public the opening hours that it wants (often Sunday opening). This does not necessary mean that there has to be a massive increase but it does mean that better planning is required.

 

1.3 Community-wide Appeal

Public library user groups usually give high priority to book lending as being the main reason for the existence of the libraries. However, the members of these groups come from the communities served by those libraries and it is recognised that the other activities now carried out by libraries play a valuable part in supporting the communities. In fact, many of the groups are part of that community support, organizing cultural events and exhibitions within the libraries at zero cost to the library budget.

 

2. Increasing the Use of Public Libraries

 

The great success of the People�s Network has shown that it is possible to draw new sections of the population into public libraries when new services are offered. New technology is a great hook to go fishing with. The problem is that, even when staff are enthusiastic, money is usually lacking. The work of organisations such as the LLDA (London Libraries Development Agency) needs far greater support to keep up with new innovations.

 

The People�s Network has increased the number of people visiting public libraries, but these extra visitors have not been tempted to borrow books or electronic media from those libraries. This is very disappointing and it is necessary to improve the quality of marketing within the libraries. Of course, it is again possible to point to the retail trade for examples of good practice in this area.

 

3. The Funding of Local Libraries

 

Local government funding is a mess, in general. Sooner or later the whole, shaky edifice will have to be redesigned. In the meantime, there is a need for some method to stop the money allocated to public libraries by central government being diverted elsewhere (ring-fencing).

 

A very large part of any library budget is allocated to labour costs. To improve the range and depth of services to the public, it is essential that there be more efficient staff usage. Self-service points should be introduced � initially in the biggest libraries. The public is used to operating such equipment and is far more capable than is generally supposed by the professionals.

 

Many of the public library buildings in the UK are over 100 years old and others have been adapted from other uses. They are thus far from ideal as modern public libraries and will need major refurbishment / replacement in the near future. Most local authorities will have great difficulty in finding the funds to make the investment in this very necessary modernisation programme. They will need help from central government.

 

4. New Models of Provision

 

The past twenty years has been a bad time for public libraries but, because of the excellent legacy left by previous generations, a viable library service still remains in most areas.

 

Caution should be used in applying new models of provision over wide areas. There will be locations where the new models can be applied with advantage, but equally there will be areas where it is better to leave well alone. It has often been said that each community is unique and has its own particular needs. Therefore, if radical change is contemplated, each library should be considered individually, taking into account the character of its local community. Real consultation has to be undertaken and the views of users should be taken into account � even when they contradict the opinion of senior managers and Councillors.

 

An over-enthusiastic application of a new, fashionable model would be the worst possible way forward. At the forefront of managers minds should be the thought that �there is no one model which is ideal for all communities�. However, we are no longer in the nineteenth century and modern technology is changing the way everyone lives. Therefore, it is inevitable that Library Services will have to change ref: http://www.librarylondon.org/techno.htm#future. Library user groups should be utilised as sounding boards in the initial planning stages of these change programmes � prior to senior managers becoming too personally committed.

 

5. The Role of Institutional & Specialist Libraries

 

Although London does not have a Central Library, as some provincial cities do, it does have a large range of institutional and specialist libraries to make-up for this lack. The slow process of opening these up to the public should be encouraged and LLL has embarked on a programme of publishing the descriptions of each of these more-open libraries ( http://www.librarylondon.org/LINKPAGE.htm ). Many of these libraries are of national and international importance, e.g. the National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum and any reduction in the barriers to public use are similarly of national and international importance.

 

The open door policy of the Library of Congress should be used as the target model.

 

6. Performance of the People�s Network

 

The great success of the People�s Network should not be allowed to wither away. Rather than stopping funding, the opportunity should be grasped to develop the concept further. There are possibilities of expanding the present system to give local communities 24/7 access to the internet using WiMax technology ref: http://www.librarylondon.org/techno.htm#WiMax. This wireless based system would have the advantage of allowing computer owners anywhere near to a library (the max range being 30 miles) to obtain high speed internet access. The advantage of this approach is that there would be less demand for computer use within public libraries themselves and the number of computers installed there could be scaled back � releasing space and reducing costs. The housebound would also become more integrated into the library community. The opportunities for marketing library and other Council services would be enormous and it may be possible to make it self-supporting by sponsorship or paid advertising.

 

Any continuation of the People�s Network will require considerable funds and will not be popular with Local Authorities, if those funds have to be provided by them. If existing library budgets are used for the purpose, nobody will be happy. There is obviously a need for government or quasi-government funding. The payback for providing the funds would be a reinforcement of the e-government concept and a more employable workforce, which may or may not be sufficient. As an additional incentive to invest, the large banks of library computers, which stand idle for most of the 24 hour day, could be used for grid computing projects ref: http://www.librarylondon.org/techno.htm#GRID. The technology has matured considerably since its use in the SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) project and there is definitely a demand from Universities & other research institutions for the great computing power that the technique provides.

 

 

 

Attachment to LLL Comments

 

CPLUG RESEARCH REPORT No. 4

 

THE PERFORMANCE OF CAMDEN PUBLIC LIBRARIES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Prepared by A.Templeton

29th January 2004

 

 

1. Introduction

 

There has been a long period between the issue of the last CPLUG research report in June 1999 and the drafting of this document. In the intervening time, central government has invested a considerable amount of money in library facilities throughout the country. This investment was concentrated in the provision of public access IT equipment and was intended to improve computer literacy in the general population. The new �People�s Network� facilities have proved extremely popular and have had a marked, positive effect on the number of visits made to public libraries within Camden. Presumably, they have also succeeded in satisfying the government�s intensions in Camden.

 

The rapidly rising number of people visiting each of Camden�s libraries has been carefully recorded by CPLUG within its webpages 1. Although acknowledging that there has been an improvement in one narrow measure of library performance, CPLUG has been reluctant to join in the general rejoicing expected by some within the Council. The reason for that reluctance is that there has been no corresponding general improvement in the number of books issued from the libraries. Indeed, the most recent figures indicate a falling trend in many of Camden�s libraries. This report attempts to isolate some of the reason(s) for this worrying development.

 

2. Factors Affecting the Performance of Public Libraries

 

In common with all activities involving the general public, there is a wide range of factors that determine the performance of a public library. Some of these are under the simple control of library managers (such as marketing) and some are not (such as location).

 

There is also a group of factors, which are only partially controlled by professional library managers. These are generally those budget items which are of high cost and high visibility. Inevitably, Councillors set, or heavily influence, the cost limits and professional library managers have to do their best within the imposed constraints. It is not CPLUG�s view that this is inherently a bad situation (its called the democratic process). However, it is noticeable that the �robbing Peter to pay Paul� atmosphere of Camden budget setting usual casts the library budget in the role of Peter.

 

The major part of the money spent by Local Authorities on services within their boroughs comes from central government. The government imposes a duty on Councils to spend almost all of this money in the manner specified by the government. However, money provided by the government for provision of library services is one of the few exceptions. Thus, when this is combined with a predisposition of some Councillors to seek the easy, expedient way out of any difficulty, the library budget usually loses.

 

Modern public libraries have many tasks, but the one activity that the public considers to be pre-eminent is that of book lending. This is the rock on which libraries base their traditional education function and it is as relevant today as 150 years ago.

 

More than 700,000 Londoners have no qualification and 23% of London�s population have low levels of numeracy and literacy (ALG�s document �Keyfacts 2004�). This is well above average UK levels. People within this group desperately need the chance to quietly improve their skills in order to give them the opportunity to compete in today�s jobs market (the London unemployment rate is 7.1%, again well above the national rate � there are more unemployed people on London than in Scotland and Wales combined). Due to the high concentration in Camden of refugees and other deprived groups, the situation here must be worse than most other boroughs.

 

The current concentration on computer literacy can generate great benefits for the average Londoner but it has no relevance for those that cannot read. Access to appropriate books combined with some sympathetic tuition is the medicine required to cure this social sickness.

 

For those that can read, write and do their everyday sums, the government has set the challenge of life-long learning to enhance their work-skills and to live a fuller life. The simplest, cheapest, most flexible way of undertaking that task is with books borrowed from a public library.

 

3. Measuring Performance

 

As book lending is considered by the public to be the core activity of public libraries, it is not unreasonable to judge the performance of a library service on this aspect. If a library service performs well in other ways but fails in this, the public perception is one of failure. Library managers may well argue that they are set many performance targets and to concentrate on just one is unfair. This is a valid point, but the fact remains that the public judges on grounds that it considers to be important and is unimpressed by other criteria.

 

At the creation of Camden, in 1965, the borough inherited a strong, well-supported library service, with 17 libraries (each open for 60 hours per week) and, for a number of years thereafter, it remained so. However, in the early 1970s a change of attitude occurred within Camden Council and the previous commitment to the provision of excellent library services became far more muted. The number of libraries was reduced to 14, but for a decade Camden�s library service managed to survive reasonably well by means of good management. This period of stability came to an end in the mid 1980s when Camden decided that library services in the borough should be sacrificed to bolster other, more favoured, activities. This set the pattern for the council�s attitude for the next two decades. The effect of this history of waning commitment can be seen in the following charts. In order to avoid distorting factors caused by strikes, library refurbishment closures and the general turbulence of the most recent years, these charts cover the years up to 1997 only. Although the loan bookstock data is almost complete, that for other parameters is less so for the early years of Camden�s existence. The data analysis is therefore restricted to the years 1975 � 1997. Twenty-three years of data is sufficient to establish, with confidence, any trend within the data.
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The above chart of the variation of Camden libraries bookstock with time presents one of the obvious variables affecting the number of issues from the borough�s libraries. The comparison of the variation of bookissues and loan bookstock with time, shown below, confirms that there is a relationship between the two parameters. The measure of the closeness of that relationship is the correlation coefficient, where complete matching is represented by a value of 1. In this case, the value of the calculated correlation coefficient is 0.9380, i.e. the match is very good, but not quite perfect � as indicated by visual inspection.

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


It is not surprising that the match between bookstock and bookissue variations (above chart), whilst being good, was less than perfect. The number of books issued from a borough�s public libraries must be dependent on several factors. The second obvious variable affecting the number of book issues is the number of library opening hours available to the public to access that stock (chart below).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


A visual inspection of the above chart, showing the variation of the number of book issues and opening hours with time, leads to the conclusion that there is also a close relationship between these two parameters. This is confirmed by the correlation coefficient having a value of 0.9498 � very similar to that obtained for the coefficient for issues versus loan bookstock.

 

The correlation between loan bookstock / opening hours and bookissues is impressively good in both cases. However, it is unlikely that two completely independent parameters could each have such a high, similar value coefficient. Therefore, is there another variable which controls bookissues and which is related to those parameters already investigated?

 

Both the number of books on the shelves and the opening hours of the libraries are factors which determine the availability of library books to the public. Availability can be defined as the number of book hours available to library users i.e. book stock multiplied by opening hours. The chart below compares the variation of this parameter (calculated as the sum of individual library availabilities, due to opening hours being library dependent) with the variation of bookissues.

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The correlation coefficient of the new book availability factor versus bookissues has improved to 0.9746, a significant step towards the perfect match. This composite factor, therefore, represents a powerful tool for predicting the effect that changes to the level of bookstock or opening hours will have on library performance. However, the ultimate driving force behind performance variations is frequently expenditure. The chart above compares the variation of library expenditure with bookissues and shows that there is not as close a correlation between the two as for that obtained for book availability versus issues. Presumably, the rather large difference between the two correlation coefficients (0.7515 & 0.9746 respectively) is, at least partially, due to the library service attempting to meet many performance targets.

 

4. Conclusions

 

It is possible to suggest that this investigation has only found what was perfectly obvious already i.e. that the number of books issued from a borough�s public libraries is very dependent on the opening hours of the libraries and the size of their bookstocks. Yet it is these �facts� that are often denied and contradicted by Local Authorities desperate to save money by closing libraries and/or reducing opening hours and/or reducing book funds.

 

It is usually suggested by Councillors supporting library closure policies that, if a library is closed, borrowers will transfer en masse to neighbouring libraries. This is in spite of research by Sheffield University2 showing that a significant proportion of borrowers simply stop using public libraries when their local branch is closed. There may be a unique Local Authority area in some corner of the UK where this behaviour pattern does/will not occur, but this report shows that it is certainly not Camden.

 

Those Councils unwilling to fund a good library service but wishing to avoid the risk of a public backlash usually adopt a policy of �death by a thousand cuts� - gradually reducing bookstock and opening hours. It is clear from this investigation that such a policy is indeed a means of bringing slow death to a library service. Of course, this approach has the additional attraction for Councils that the resultant reduction in library usage can then be cited as the main reason for a subsequent closure programme � presented as being the fault of the users for not using the libraries.

 

The disadvantage of the slow death approach to a library funding issue is that it needs very careful management. A public backlash is always possible, especially when applying the final coup de gr�ce.

 

The extremely good correlation between the book issues and book availability parameters suggests that it may be possible to calculate the level of book issues expected from a borough�s public libraries, if the book availability is known. A linear regression was carried out on the data used in this investigation and resulted in the equation:

 

Book Issues = 679982 + 0.03354 x Book Availability

 

The level of agreement of this equation with the actual data can be gauged from the following chart.

 

The level of agreement is quite good. However, it would be very optimistic to expect the equation to accurately predict the number of books issued when this is far from the range covered by this investigation. Errors introduced by extrapolation increase as extrapolation increases. This would be especially so for low levels of issues. In this circumstance, many unpredictable variations have a large effect.

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


The data used in this investigation does not include that for years after 1997. Apart from the conflict which marked some of those missing years, the major event in this period was the introduction of ICT services into Camden�s public libraries. Internet access via library computers has proved immensely popular and has changed the way many people regard their local library. It has certainly caused an increase in the number of visits made to public libraries. However, the commonly held belief that the number of books issued from a library is closely tied to the number of visits made to those libraries, has not been borne out by recent Camden statistics.

 

The most likely explanation for this is that the historic dependencies still hold in the main. Nothing has been changed fundamentally except that there is now an additional reason for a visit to a library. Only if the Library Service can convert those extra, computer related visits to dual purpose, computer/book visits will there be a change in the book issue trends. This is something that can, with advantage, be the subject of further investigation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1�������������� http://librarylondon.org/localgroups/camden/cplug.htm

2�������������� �Assessing What Libraries Mean to Users� by Richard Proctor, pp 10�17, CPLUG Seminar Oct 99, �Do Libraries Have a Future?� Available at: http://www.librarylondon.org/localgroups/camden/seminar.htm