28/04/04 - Libraries look to the future

Cumbria County Council library service chiefs have countered a claim that public libraries are failing and that no one will be visiting them in 20 years‘time. The library service in Cumbria has shown it can change to keep up with the times and provide an up-to-date service which people will continue to use, they say.   

Councillor Tim Heslop, Cabinet member with responsibility for library and archive services, said: 

"Over the last 20 years public libraries have changed enormously. They are now about so much more than    books, although books remain at the heart of the service. In Cumbria we have kept up with changing demands and needs and with changing technology.
 “The service continues to keep on the move and more changes and developments are planned for the near future. We are sure libraries will still play a vital function in people's lives in 20 years' time.” 

Councillor Heslop was responding to a report by Libri, a charity which campaigns to improve Britain’s 5,000 public libraries. The report claimed that visitor numbers had halved since 1984 and that if the trend continued people would stop using libraries in the next 20 years.
The report, based on data from national sources and Hampshire county library service, also claimed that spending on books had fallen to just nine per cent of the total budget. Opening hours should be extended, buildings refurbished and the service made relevant to the library users of the 21st century, said its author, Tim Coates. 

Alan Welton, Cumbria library services manager, said: 

“Our visitor numbers for the last ten years have been fairly static, actually rising this year to its highest level ever. This is because the service has diversified. Twenty years ago there were no videos in the library, no CDs, no DVDs and no computers for public access. 
Over the last twenty years libraries have been re-inventing themselves, particularly through the use of People's Network, the programme to install public internet access in libraries.
“The process of improvements continues. A Best Value Review has led to £200,000 of new funding over three years for the Library & Archive Services for improvements. These include piloting Sunday opening in some areas and piloting Library Links, which will provide computer terminals in local shops, post offices, pubs, to access the library system.
“Sunday opening is to be piloted this year. Out of 53 libraries, 37 are open on Saturday, with 7 open all day on a Saturday. In all the libraries there is an attempt to open at least one evening a week to 6pm or later.   Carlisle Library is open five evenings a week.
“Our spending on books has declined only slightly. For 2003/04 it was £743,000 for adults and £148,000 for children's books, a total of £891,000 for reading material. That is out of a net budget of £5.3 million, and is over 16 per cent of total revenue expenditure.  This compares with 12 per cent nationally and 11 per cent as far as Hampshire County Council is concerned according to the Report.  We also make the money work hard for us. For example we have a tendering scheme for book purchase which means most of the cataloguing work is done for us by the Supplier.
“Cumbria has a rolling programme of refurbishment and redecoration. Recently Kendal and Workington’s main libraries have been refurbished and also the branch libraries at Distington, Frizington, Sedbergh, Shap and Ambleside.
“Besides keeping up with the 21st century, we target a lot of activities at young people and families and in this way the library service is growing the membership of the future.”