In a recent post, Public Libraries News pointed out that some Council are sacrificing jobs in the library service for buildings and books. Put as directly as that it sounds pretty brutal, but in fact that has long been the choice as I have pointed out before. In Brent, this was made clear as early as the first consultation meeting on 1 December 2010, when the audience was told an equivalent through shorter opening times (i.e. fewer staff) would require a 40% reduction across the border. For example, instead of extensive refurbishment and opening seven days a week, Kilburn Library would have remained with its ongoing problems and opening only three days a week.
A similar logic applies to other Council budgets, and seems so obvious that I find it hard to see why people don't get it.
Brent Council, in a document not yet agreed (or possibly even read) by councillors is proposing further cuts to the libraries budget. At the same time some campaigners seem to think they can set up private libraries and rely on the Council for some sort of funding and support. If that were to happen, that would entail a draining away of resources from the Council's own library service in resources and quite possibly management time. In other words, a reversal of the current successful approach and the switch by a Labour Council to a rather strange form of privatisation with no agreed monitoring of the quality of service.
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