Scintilla: March 2024
scintilla /sɪnˈtɪlə/ noun a tiny trace or spark of a specified quality or feeling
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This issue of Scintilla is dedicated to libraries.
Books, books, books. How does anyone live without them? But more importantly libraries. If you aren’t a member of your local library you don’t know what you are missing!
I read so many books that I couldn’t possibly afford to buy them all or have space for them all. I will often read reviews in the weekend newspapers and order new books from my library. Often they are not my cup of tea so I have just saved myself on average £15 when this happens. My library lets me reserve and suggest books for free. I have obscure taste in reading - including, as you know, a lot of Japanese literature in translation. But not much seems to phase my library. I’ve had 1,746 books on loan and 1,486 reservations since being a member of my local library. Now that’s a lot to be grateful for.
When I was a child we couldn’t afford to buy books, but we loved them. So every Saturday we went off to the local library with it parquet floor, buff coloured library cards and sixties design. It was a menagerie of wonder. I distinctly remember the day I got my adult library card and could explore a whole new area of the library. I remember reading books about yoga, history, embroidery. I would read anything and everything that caught my attention.
At my local library (above) where I am known by name and often take up a lot of space on their reserve shelves. Not a week goes by when a book doesn’t arrive for me.
I love my library.
There are some stunning libraries, new and old, but I am equally excited by a small village library or even the library bus which tours my rural area. It’s just - FREE BOOKS!
The Guardian recently dug out some images from their archives of libraries who are now facing increased pressure and slowly disappearing. My county library in Suffolk is now run as an independent and provident society, but the Council remains the statutory library authority. It funds and monitors the performance of the public library service. So you can imagine with the underfunded public purse1 - several local authorities becoming bankrupt (five since 2021)- libraries face continuous threat.
Libraries now are the hubs of community support. It’s not just about books, you can access internet, ebooks, audio books, online news and magazines, films. And now warm spaces, Lego clubs, knitting groups, craft clubs, board games, therapy dogs, toddlers singing - the list goes on.
Libraries now offer connection, consolation and community.
The current contract with Suffolk’s Libraries Industrial and Provident Society (IPS), worth £5.92 million per annum, comes to an end on 31st July 2024. The Council now needs to consider how library services will be delivered following expiry of the contract.
I’m worried. What will this mean for our precious local library.
To enable meaningful engagement, public consultation and a competitive tender process to take place, the current contract has been extended to 31 May 2025. We wait with bated breath to see what happens after this.
A brief history of libraries in the UK
The introduction of council run and funded libraries came in with the 1919 public libraries act whereby a network of publicly funded libraries were established. The McColvin report in 1942 brought about the radical transformative change to libraries not unlike the establishment of the NHS. And the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act made it a statotory obligation for every local authority to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for its community2.
McColvin suggested and enshrined 5 key principles for libraries.
Libraries should be publicly funded
They should be administered by public bodies
They should be freely available to the whole community
They should embrace the needs of the community
They should be free financially and intellectually and provide access to materials without interference or bias.
So I urge you to love your library too, because this is what enables libraries to flourish.
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Despite that higher inflation, the government chose not to provide additional funding at this week’s finance settlement (the means by which central government allocates funding to local government). As a result, authorities’ 2024/25 spending power is now 4.7% lower in real terms than it would have been if inflation had remained at the level forecast in 2022. (Source https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/comment/local-government-finance-settlement-council-bankruptcies)
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.cilip.org.uk/resource/resmgr/cilip_new_website/plss/l1_and_l2_ethics.pdf