Brockworth: Brockworth community project will be hosting story-telling, song, and craft activities with free refreshments, plus a ‘Flying Author’ visit from novelist and poet Gill Wyatt at 10:00

Charlton Kings: ‘Flying Author’ visit from children’s author Claire Harrison at 11:00. Claire is the author of ‘Coming Home – Peggylicious and The Do Good Dog Clan’, the first in a series of children’s picture books which follow the deeds of Peggy, a black cocker spaniel who forms The Do Good Dog Clan with her best friend Archie, a Tibetan Terrier, to solve crimes and help children in trouble. At each library she visits Claire will be reading ‘Coming Home’ accompanied by the book’s heroine Peggy, and handing out goodie bags.

Cheltenham: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Claire Harrison at 12:15

Chipping Campden: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Chloë of the Midnight Storytellers at 11:45. Chloë’s storytelling was a hit with library users of all ages at last year’s event. In 2012 she returns as Agent Green Dragon Whisperer to reveal the secrets of DCHQ (Dragon Conservation Headquarters).

Chloe aka Agent Green (photo by Vesi Kovacheva)

Cirencester: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Cindy Jefferies at 12:30. Last year Cindy emerged victorious from the Flying Author challenge by visiting the most number of libraries, entertaining library users along the way with readings and craft activities. Cindy is the author of the popular ‘Fame School‘ and ‘Heart‘ series of children’s books, and will be joined on this year’s visits by Seb Goffe, co-author of the ‘Stadium School’ series.

'Flying Author' Cindy Jefferies

Dursley: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Caroline Sanderson at 10:45. Caroline is the author of ‘Kiss Chase and Conkers: The Games We Played’, a book on traditional children’s games (readings will involve lots of fun audience participation!). She will also be discussing her current project, ‘Someone Like Adele’, a biography of the Grammy-award winning singer due to be published in March 2012.

Hesters Way: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Claire Harrison at 1:30

Lechlade: ‘Flying Author’ visit from John Dougherty at 12:00. John is author of a range of children’s books, including the ‘Jack Slater Monster Investigator’ and ‘Zeus’ series. Last year John finished a close second in the Flying Author challenge after delighting library users across the county with poems, stories and song – this year he’s back for more!

John performing at a 2011 Library Day event

Matson: Elmer the Elephant and You! Stories and crafts for children of all ages at 11:00

Minchinhampton: ‘Flying Author’ visits from Cindy Jefferies and Seb Goffe at 10:15, and John Dougherty at 10:45

Moreton: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Chloë of the Midnight Storytellers aka Agent Green Dragon Whisperer at 1:15

Nailsworth: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Cindy Jefferies and Seb Goffe at 9:30

Prestbury: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Claire Harrison at 10:00

Stonehouse: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Caroline Sanderson at 11:45

Stroud: ‘Flying Author’ visits from John Dougherty at 9:45, and Caroline Sanderson at 12:45

Stow-on-the-Wold: ’Flying Author’ visit from Chloë of the Midnight Storytellers aka Agent Green Dragon Whisperer at 2:15

Tetbury: ’Flying Author’ visit from Cindy Jefferies and Seb Goffe at 11:30

Winchcombe: ’Flying Author’ visit from Chloë of the Midnight Storytellers aka Agent Green Dragon Whisperer at 10:15

Wotton: ‘Flying Author’ visit from Caroline Sanderson at 9:45

Please note that these are the events we know about at the moment. There may be others taking place so please check at your local library.

All of these events have been arranged voluntarily by library users. If nothing is happening at your local library why not arrange something yourself? It doesn’t have to be a big grand event or even an author visit – the point of the day is to celebrate the role of our local libraries in our communities so use your imagination! There are some ideas at http://www.nationallibrariesday.org.uk/get-involved/suggestions-for-library-users/ 

If you look at the GCC Cabinet report on the new library strategy (page 20), or in more detail at pages 65-69 of GCC’s Context and User Needs Assessment, you can read what GCC wants you to know about its mobile library service i.e. principally that it is an expensive service to run.

However, the facts are a little different.

There are currently 3 community mobile libraries in Gloucestershire which mainly support rural communities over 2 miles from a library building. They currently make nearly 250 stops throughout the county.

Every other rural shire county in the country has a mobile library service but none can be as inefficiently managed as Gloucestershire’s. To sum up the situation, the intention should be to try to maximise use of the mobile libraries and minimise costs. In Gloucestershire’s case, use has been deliberately minimised and costs maximised.

How so?

Let’s look at each mobile library in turn.

The Central Mobile based at Stroud Library is on the road for 17 days out of every 20 (based on a 5 days week), meaning it is operating at 85% of capacity.

The East Mobile based at Moreton-in-Marsh Library is on the road 13.5 days out of every 20, meaning it is operating at 67.5% of capacity

And the West mobile based at Lydney Library is on the road for 8 days out of 20 meaning it is operating at 40% of capacity.

Every librarian knows that the way to maximise mobile library use is to operate them as regularly as possible i.e. on a weekly schedule of visits so that customers grow used to a same time-same place approach. Traditionally the service has been operated fortnightly which is probably acceptable. However, every librarian knows too that monthly stops do not work as the gap between visits is too long and customers forget which week the vehicles are arriving. Thus levels of use drop. In the case of the East Mobile 4 routes are now only maintained on a monthly basis and in the case of the West Mobile every single route i.e. all 8 is now operated monthly. This cannot be efficient, and is not acceptable service.

Overall the 3 mobiles together are operating at only 64% of their capacity based on a 5 days week. If one considers having mobiles operating at weekends when people in rural areas are more likely to be at home, then based on a 7 day week, the current mobiles are operating at 46% of their capacity. No wonder that use is low and costs are high.

But that’s not all.

Costs of some of the mobiles libraries are currently high partly because of the inefficient staffing policies. It is generally acknowledged that one driver trained as a library assistant, or, alternatively, a library assistant trained as a driver is perfectly able to operate the mobile library service alone. So what do we find on the Central (Stroud) Mobile Library? For the last 18 months GCC has employed an agency driver accompanied by a library assistant on every route for every stop. Reason – it has no trained driver/assistant, so instead pays exorbitant charges to an agency to provide a driver who is not allowed by the agency to help customers or undertake any library assistant duties. Thus the vehicle is double staffed by a library assistant. When the vehicle is being driven the assistant sits and watches the countryside go by, and when the vehicle is open to customers the driver sits and reads his paper. And the county council has the nerve to tell us the service is too expensive to operate!!

So, how is this new mobile library service with monthly stops doing? Levels of use (measured by loans) dropped by 25% in one year! i.e. from 81,943 loans in 2009-10 to 61,190 in 2010-11. That’s a huge unprecedented drop.

Partly, this will also be because the stock (book) fund was cut be 60% in 2009-10, so new books are really hard to come by in the 250 isolated communities currently served. Partly too, because when the vehicles cannot go out because of mechanical problems or staff shortages (there have been a lot of staff shortages over the last 3 years) the routes are just cancelled.

It is the responsibility of the county council under the 1964 Public Libraries & Museums Act to “provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons desiring to make use thereof…” That includes people in rurally isolated communities and in significant communities like Chalford and Northleach of 4,000-6,000 people with no library building

The county council’s information about mobile libraries is disingenuous at best. But watch out for more of the same. With next to no stock (book) fund, inadequate opening hours and volunteers instead of trained staff, this spells a reduced service and reducing levels of use. Now, for GCC, that’s more opportunities to cut services.

Note that in the GCC new Library strategy there has been no proposal yet this time to axe all the “community” mobiles (unlike Home Link and Share a Book which will be axed). It’s up to you to let GCC know what you think. “Consultation” officially starts on 30 January and lasts 6 weeks.

John Holland

Last year, library users arranged events at every public library in Gloucestershire which was open on the day, leading children’s author and library campaigner Alan Gibbons to describe us as ‘a beacon to the whole country’.

One of the biggest attractions were the ‘Flying Authors’ who raced around as many Gloucestershire libraries as possible, entertaining the public with stories, activities and songs. Their efforts attracted the attention of the local media, national coverage from the Guardian and BBC, and even international exposure through National Public Radio (NPR), which broadcasts to around 30 million people across the USA. All this despite Councillor Hawthorne’s bizarre attempt to ban press from the events! Photos of all last year’s events can be viewed here.

This year the Flying Authors will take to the skies again!

John Dougherty, Cindy Jefferies, Chloe of the Midnight Storytellers, and Caroline Sanderson will all be taking part in library visits on the day, with other participants to be confirmed, and details of times and locations to be announced. Watch this space!

If you are an author, poet, storyteller or illustrator who could spare some time to highlight the value of public libraries in Gloucestershire, please contact foc.cheltlib@gmail.com so we can pass your details on to the local coordinator.

John Dougherty and Cindy Jefferies - two of last year's Flying Authors who will be participating again in 2012

Under GCC’s original proposals (ruled unlawful in November 2011), all three of these areas, which are among the poorest in the county, were set to lose their public library service completely. The only option on the table was for communities to fund and run a ‘library’ facility themselves, cut off from the council’s library network, staffed and managed entirely by volunteers and with no ‘plan-B’ if this experiment failed.

While there remain serious concerns around GCC’s revised plans, it is gratifying to see an improved deal for these three deprived communities. Without library users’ campaigning and the judicial review, the doors to these public libraries would have shut for good last year.

Below, Revd. Dr. Keith Hebden from Matson, and the newly formed Supporters of Hesters Way Library explain what this news means for them:

Matson: Partnership means Respecting and Listening

News of Matson library not being closed was received with cautious optimism by those who attended our first public meeting after the event. Optimism because this time last year we were looking at the possibility of a closed library. Caution because we are still looking at an uncertain future. 

Hester’s Way, Matson, and Tuffley have been ear-marked as ‘Partnership Libraries’. There is no clear lead as to what this means. This could be because the definition is flexible and responsive to the three different contexts. Or it could be that the detail is where the devil is. 

One thing is clear is that partnership requires two parties. If a second party, a community group or local charity, is going to partner the council in delivering library services it is going to need to be on terms that are agreeable to both parties. More importantly the terms need to reflect a broad community consensus. 

Consultation is a notorious difficult process. Who is in which conversation, when, and with who else? How do conversations take place? Who is asking the questions and what are the right questions to ask? 

We know that two independent bodies are going to be involved: the equalities commission and an independent consultancy firm. These are two hopeful signs of a healthy process. But in parallel to that there will be conversations between the council through Mark Parker and Jo Grills. How these conversations are handled, the pace at which they move, and the ways the reflect the formal consultation are critical to a happy outcome. 

Meanwhile we all have a responsibility to make our diverse views heard and to vote with our library cards. In Matson we are getting more organised with a ‘Friends of Matson Library’ so that what ever the short-term solution we have some longer-term resilience to our library service. We want to make sure our library is never under threat again. 

For more on the Friends of Matson Library and to get involved, visit http://friendsofmatsonlibrary.blogspot.com/

Hesters Way: Service Users’ Voices Must be Heard.

For those of us who have been fighting hard to retain a public library service in Hesters Way (also serving communities in St Marks, Springbank and Fiddler’s Green), this is a step in the right direction. It was always madness to completely close public libraries in the poorest areas of the county – what a shame it took a High Court judgement to convince GCC of this!

Last time round Hesters Way Library users were never given a chance to be involved in decision-making over the future of their library. No consultation meeting was arranged in the area by GCC despite many requests, and residents were not allowed to access any detailed information about the future of their service until very late in the process, when the plans were presented as a done deal. 

The same mistakes must not be made again. Service users must be properly consulted, and councillors and officers must remain open-minded to changes and refinement of the proposals in response to consultation data.

Any negotiations with potential partners must not take place behind closed doors, and service users must have a real and tangible stake in decision-making. The council must be ready to answer questions about the detail and practicalities of partnership plans and how this will impact on services for all library users, in particular those in the vulnerable groups covered by equalities legislation.

Supporters of Hesters Way Library has been formed to hopefully assist in this process. We want to secure the best deal possible for all library users, and recognise that effective partnership work can also mean services being provided for other residents who have lost out on their services through county council cuts, such as youth service users.

We will be encouraging all residents and service users to take part in the forthcoming consultation process, and demanding that this time our voices are heard. 

To get involved in Supporters of Hesters Way Library contact hwlibrarygroup@gmail.com

Consultation on new library plans gets go ahead: Gloucestershire County Council Cabinet Meeting 20 January 2012

Gloucestershire County Council’s Tory Cabinet today approved the new draft library strategy to go ahead for consultation. Public consultation begins on 30 January and will last for 6 weeks.

Today’s meeting was a carefully stage-managed affair in which all councillors spoke in serious and positives tones about the library service and its importance. There was little of the usual arrogant back slapping and cynicism, even from Councillor Hawthorne.  There were no others items on the agenda. Director of Operations (Education, Learning & Libraries) Jo Grills led the way with a powerpoint presentation, and then Councillor Hawthorne, in the chair, took members through the Cabinet Report.

The county council could clearly feel the hot breath of Judge McKenna on its neck, with constant and repeated references in the reports and verbally at the meeting to equalities legislation and the 1964 Public Libraries Act, and how seriously GCC took these.

What else did we learn at the Cabinet Meeting?

In answer to my question, Cnllr Hawthorne stated that there were few changes from the last library strategy because “the core of the previous strategy was sound”.

In answer to a question by Cnllr Hilton, Councillor Hawthorne revealed that the stock fund (aka book fund) for the next 3 years will total £1.4 million. This works out at £460,000 per year which is nearly a 60% cut from 2008-9 when cuts began in earnest. This is totally inadequate.

Councillor Antonia Noble, responsible in great part for the last library review and much ill feeling, and such a poor advocate for libraries, did not attend the meeting. According to Cnllr Hawthorne, she has not been involved in the new strategy, which is being led by Cnllr Hawthorne himself.

Cnllr Hawthorne said that he wishes “community groups, campaigners and political groups” to suggest alternative proposals, and said that these would be “explored”. He asked that these be based on the same budget as the new proposals. Not easy as the financial projections for each library’s share of the savings has not, to my knowledge, been published.

There have been no proposals as yet for the rural mobile library service, and there were many references to the need to provide a different model for its use. It’s particularly important that mobile library users engage in the new consultation process when it starts on 30 January.

All the cabinet papers are here-

http://glostext.gloucestershire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=117&MId=7365&Ver=4

The Council’s new library strategy and background papers are here-

http://www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/libraries2012

“Gloucestershire County Council, unlike Somerset County Council (who also had their library plans quashed at the hearing), are rushing this process to hit the new financial year deadline. This risks putting the cart before the horse for a second time. Despite telling the court that they had taken deprivation into account, it is gratifying to see that, now that it has, Hester’s Way and other libraries in deprived areas have been saved. But we are concerned that there are still serious flaws in the council’s approach:

•  It recognises that its equalities and user information is deficient. But this has to be the foundation of the proposal, so the proposal as now put forward can be no better than highly provisional. We expect real changes in response to the consultation. And the consultation must gather the necessary data. If it doesn’t, then it should be modified and extended.
• whilst there is a lot of pressure therefore on this consultation, there is virtually no information about its content, how it will be conducted, how equalities groups will be specifically targeted and how taxpayers can really have their say and be listened to this time around.
• there is insufficient information about the state of the proposed community partnerships, their viability and service levels. Taxpayers need this to make an informed response.
•  there are still analytical flaws in the EIA, and a failure to modify the proposals in light of it.
• What is happening to the mobiles? The council must be clear.
• the council needs to make clear what factual scenario it has assumed in order to evaluate equalities impacts. What level of success, if any, of the community partnerships has it taken into account?
•  If the council is assuming success of community partnerships, then it must guarantee that it will step in to maintain service in the event that they fail. “

Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries are extremely concerned at the very short time frame the County Council is restricting itself to, and, given that the ‘new plans’ are nearly identical to the last unlawful ones, we fear it may be making the same mistakes again. There is no evidence that the new review was approached with a “completely open mind” as claimed. Like the lawyers, we expect to see big changes to the proposals in response to the consultation, and the thorough collection and analysis of user needs. Therefore, we cannot stress enough how important it is that the people of Gloucestershire engage with the consultation process, and that community leaders and councillors make sure the people they represent are listened to. No one wants to end up back in court.

Gloucestershire County Council remains determined to make deep and damaging cuts to a library service that is well used with 3 million visits each year, and economic to run costing little more than 1% of the overall budget.

Whilst we are delighted that, thanks to the dedication and determination of library users across the county, we have saved the libraries in the 3 poorest areas of Gloucestershire (Hester’s Way, Matson and Tuffley), we are extremely disappointed that Gloucestershire County Council is still pushing for a two tier system and that 7 communities are still having a metaphorical gun held to their heads and will no longer be funded. The County Council will now have to justify very clearly to these communities the reasons why they still intend to take their county library service away from them.

The new proposals are merely a rebranding of the old plans with some retrospective research to back them up. We were promised “significant changes” but have seen little.

We would like to point out that the county council’s cabinet report and press release which both claim that this is a 25.7% cut in the library service’s budget since 2010-11 completely neglects to add that a similar percentage was also cut in 2010-11.

We object strongly to the statement in the council’s press release that the £1 million saving from the service last year was “back office reductions.”In fact it was almost entirely made up of front line qualified librarians being made redundant and now, apparently, being replaced by volunteers.

We will be scrutinizing the plans very closely, as will the legal team who represented library users in the High Court. We have many questions to ask Gloucestershire County Council about their plans and the practicalities of them. We strongly urge all library users to engage with the consultation process and we will be reminding Gloucestershire County Council that they really must listen this time and respond positively.

While the three of us do not claim to represent the views of all FoGL supporters (the groups is far too large and diverse for that!), this first meeting did offer a good opportunity to share with Jo and Duncan the many serious concerns about the previous review and decision-making process, and library proposals, which were shared with us by library users and supporters across the county over the past year.

This week, we were invited to meet with Jo and Duncan again. They explained to us the process behind the new library review which is taking place at the moment, and which is based on a needs analysis, demographic information on the various library catchment areas, and information obtained during the previous consultation process. The council is also in discussion with the Equalities and Human Rights Commission.

It was confirmed that Cabinet will discuss the new proposals for the service on the 20th January. The proposal documents will be publicly available on the GCC website a few days prior to this (probably around Monday 16th). If Cabinet vote to accept the proposals, they will then be put out to public consultation (after the requisite ‘call-in’ period, when opposition councillors have the chance to refer the decision for further council scrutiny).

We were told that (assuming the proposals are approved by council and get through the call-in stage), that the consultation process will take place over six weeks, and that particular efforts will be made to conduct targeted consultation with the groups identified under equalities legislation. The council also plan to allocate a section of their website, where all the  consultation and decision-making information documents will be publicly accessible together (we did emphasise that this kind of information also needs to be readily available to those who are not online too).

As soon as the new proposals are available we will post here and circulate. The 20th January Cabinet meeting (10:00am – Shire Hall) where the proposals will be discussed and voted on is open to members of the public.

The judge found for library users, awarded them costs and quashed all decisions.

Somerset campaigners have kindly highlighted in yellow some of the comments which press home the intentions of the judge and which show significant contrast to Cllr Hawthorne’s understanding of what was meant. Not least is the one where the judge acknowledges that the case was brought in the wider public interest and judgement was applied and relief given to the whole of Gloucestershire. Also, please note, where the three points of the challenge are discussed, it is the judges opinion that they were so inextricably linked that he felt it was necessarily to quash ALL the plans.

Cllr Hawthorne has repeated in the press and indeed in the county council meeting that they were “tripped up on a minor technical matter”. This ruling clearly shows that this is not the case and states that GCC were indeed guilty of “bad government” and “the breach of the equality duties is a substantive and not merely a technical or procedural defect”

We sincerely hope that we can now move on and that a much fairer deal can be reached for the library users of Gloucestershire

libraries final ruling

We have also received a copy of the final order which confirms the outright quashing of all of the relevant decisions made by Gloucestershire County Council

final order