A Return to Colocation and Libraries

Thanks to Leon for the recent comment on my arts and libraries post. Thinking a bit more about my post on arts and libraries on Friday, I think another way to look at this is in co-location terms.  Co-location is a buzzword in the library world at the moment, perhaps rather too much so.

Where it is done well, the various services can become mutually reinforcing.  I would say that this is part of the success of the new Wembley Library.  Key to the success is accepting the value of each of the services co-located, and not treating any of them as just an add on.  Thus, the Revenues and Benefits service just above Wembley Library are not squeezed into the space.  They had a space custom designed for their needs.  The Registration service on the other side of the atrium similarly had a proper space and wedding garden designed for their needs.

In some areas there has been a suspicion that different disparate activities are just being crowded in together to save money.  This is true, for example, of the public reaction to the sculpture gallery in Bury.  It is also a sensitivity whenever a library hosts a perhaps noisy arts event.

Leon, in his comment on my original post, points out that he is making a comment around dividing a common pot.  I see where that is coming from, but some arts funding comes not from a common pot, but from an arts only source.  I suppose I am suggesting that the key thing to look at is where can we combine different revenue streams so that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." We need to combine people from different interests _ arts, libraries, public health _ together.  Each has its own justification.  The important thing is to value each appropriately and get them to work together.

Incidentally, I saw that Public Libraries News referred to libraries in Greater Manchester, where there seems to be plenty to be gloomy about.  The exception was in Salford.  Here the budget is reported to have been cut by half a million pounds, but visitor numbers have gone up from 799,240 in 2008/9 to 1,381,928 in 2012/13.  That is a remarkable increase in usage.  Their web site doesn't seem very clear on how they have managed such growth despite a declining budget, but I suspect getting all their leisure activities working together probably has something to do with it.