Birmingham is considering an automatic library card system for school children, according to the Birmingham Post. Good as this sounds in theory, the practice is rather harder.
After reading a blog by Michael Rosen, I was enthused by this idea, and Brent became one of the pilot schemes for the concept. The various schemes are listed here. The Brent one emphasised not only giving children cards, but also actively promoting the service to them. It is actually very hard to get schools to look outside their own boundaries. I have also found this with other areas such as use of study space or sports facilities. I understand the reluctance to involve the non-school community in the use of school facilities, but I find the library example puzzling. I think the lesson to draw, is make sure you are measuring the actual success, rather than making assumptions.
This is one of the reasons I distrust Ed Vaizey's promotion of volunteer libraries. He doesn't seem to have any evidence that they perform as well as Council run libraries, or even that they cost less.
Still I wish Birmingham every success.
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