House of Commons Meeting 15th March 2001
Library supporters who represented over 18 boroughs and institutions
connected with libraries in London attended the first public meeting�
of LLL.� An estimated 130 people were there.
The meeting was sponsored by JOHN WILKINSON, MP for Northfields
and South Ruislip, chaired by KATHLEEN FRENCHMAN (co-chairman LLL) and introduced
by SUSAN CHINN (co-chairman LLL)� who spoke briefly on the origins of the organisation. TREVOR PHILLIPS,
Chair Greater London Assembly, TONY TRAVERS, Director Greater London������
LSE,� and TOM SELWYN, (co-chairman LLL) were the
speakers.
TREVOR PHILLIPS spoke of his background, which had given him
an understanding of the importance of libraries to the lives and life chances
of less privileged young people. His own introduction to libraries, by a
teacher who took an interest in him, led to his immersion in worlds outside
his family life . The libraries in Guyana where he spent his teenage years
continued this trend.�
He described the Mayor and Assembly as �conjoined twins locked
in a hellish embrace� and advised campaigners to consider the four branches
of Police, Transport, Regeneration and ���.as an opportunity to persuade
different parts of the Assembly to support libraries.�
Trevor described London in the 2000�s as a city where knowledge
and information were the new industry, and where the patterns of employment
were radically changing. Libraries could aid in creating the necessary�
smart and educated citizenry.� Libraries
provide a most significant communal meeting place for all kinds of people,
vital in a city where people have so many varieties of backgrounds , cultures
and interests. Neighbourhood libraries were very important.
Supporters should� encourage
their local councillors to think more widely about libraries, especially
given social diversity and division. �You have to win hearts and minds�
to convince local authorities that serving the community is about more than
financial balances.� Money must go
in the right places, and the GLA wants to ensure that children such as he
had been would have the opportunities they needed.
TONY TRAVERS� noted
that he had been independent� chair
of the Councillors� Review of Camden�s library services when that borough
was going through a bad patch. That occasion proved the value of civic engagement.� He said that councillors face difficult choices
in London , with all its diverse needs, and that libraries are in competition
for resources . Complications are added by government directives.
Libraries have changed from Victorian days and now respond
to an increasing variety of needs. They are threatened by ignorance of what
they can and do, and by a complacency of expectation that they will always
be there.
He urged campaigners to use all opportunities to lobby the
GLA, and pointed out that the existence of LLL is �a demonstration of the
way in which Londoners can work together for the common good�.
Points from discussion:
What could be done, lobbying apart, to keep libraries open.� How should it become an all-party issue?� Could the business world help locally with support for local libraries? How could partnership agreements with other community groups/buildings be arranged? How could the Internet be used to bring young people into libraries?� Was there a way to bring the City of London �with its money�into library support?
Trevor Phillips suggested that we could tie our thinking about the future of libraries into some of the current concerns about area regeneration and the creation of healthy neighbourhoods.� He asked if we needed to rethink �what a library is� and where it� should be located. He was fairly dismissive of Community Centres as neighbourhood focus points and mentioned doctor�s surgeries as in more regular use by all groups.
Can the comparative claims of books and technology be adjusted so that libraries were not �dumbed down� to provide for information technology?
Tony Travers said that this was the key problem, to understand
the contributions of technology and to reconcile it. No answer at present.
Councillors from Merton said that the library was important
as the focus of the community and that they had resigned because of proposed
cuts and closures� in that borough.
Tony Travers mentioned the Tower Hamlets experiment of locating
libraries in supermarkets� (�Ideas
Stores�) and there were loud and disapproving murmurs from the crowd.
Whitechapel Library Friends are fighting to keep their library
from being sold�a decision taken without consulting users. How should this
be stopped?
Tony Travers said the local authorities had been cash-strapped
for years and had constraints from directives of central government. If
there was an inconsistency this should be explained to central government
(i.e. the DCMS) as they made the rules.
DAVID MURRAY, Director of the London Library Development Agency,
spoke on all that libraries were doing�
and commented that �some people don�t want to read books but everyone
needs access to information�. He felt that there should be dialogue between
LLL and all library users in London.
PETER BEAUCHAMP, DCMS,� pointed
out that central government departments other that the DCMS have responsibilities
which influence the operation of libraries. It is the DeTR which shapes
the flow of money for buildings, not the DCMS. The Treasury itself takes
decisions which affect the way in which libraries can operate.
Mayfair Residents Association is campaigning� to keep local library in Westminster open,
and has a� wide support base.
TOM SELWYN of CPLUG said that the discussion had thrown up
new perspectives on �partnership�, pointing out that often decisions on
libraries were made after property deals had been made.� The debate on the impact of information technology
on libraries should be continued, and it was important to work WITH councils
as much as possible.
�Museums, archives and libraries belong at the heart of people�s
lives� but they are in a bit of a mess.� At all levels there must be powerful resistance to the relentless
decline in funding.� But deals with
property developers must be approached with caution�is a public/private
linkage really a partnership? �
The battle for good lively local government goes together with
the battle for good cultural life. The Key People are the users� who can resist �dumbing down� in cooperation
with library staff.
Trevor Phillips said all forms of media should exist in libraries
and that arguments about� organisational
style of local authorities should not be confused with the requirements
for libraries. He supports the new approach as far more open than the old
and better able to cope with the billion-pound organisations that councils
are now. Think of using the vast resources of new initiatives for regeneration/social
inclusion and� maybe provide council
services in libraries. Do not be blinded by adherence to the past, to preserving
things as they have always been�look at the whole picture, seize opportunities.
The meeting closed with thanks to all participants , MP John
Wilkinson. who arranged for the room, and all who attended.