The following was published in Library & Information Update,
June 2009, on page 4, together with the photograph featured.
We are most grateful to CILIP for permitting us to publish their
article and photograph.
ANGRY TALE OF TWO LIBRARIES
IN A BITTER irony, the end of May saw Swindon's Central Library get a visit from Princess Anne and win a major design award (its) second). Meanwhile, the angry fight continued to retain a very different facility -- a tiny branch library half a mile away.
Old Town Library was one of four marked for closure -- unless locals agreed to staff it themselves (with support). This would save £92,000 (from a £3,358,000 budget). Angry reactions have led the council to extend its consultation, now due to finish on 27th June.
Along the way have come constant rows. First, a 'worst-case scenario' paper never meant for action was leaked. It included nine libraries, not four: Result: accusations of cover-up at a stormy council meeting.
Second, campaigners helped broker an offer from library campaigner Tim Coates to write (unpaid) a report using data supplied by Swindon. It concluded that there are other ways to make this relatively small saving.
Tempers flared when it was learned that the council had been advised that the report was of inferior quality -- by, it emerged later, MLA (Museums, Libraries & Archives Council).
MLA's action was made the subject of an internal complaint by Tim to DCMS (Department for Culture, Media & Sport), due to be heard (by an MLA-run panel) on 9 June.
There was renewed anger when three key councillors decided not to attend a campaigners' meeting where Tim spoke.
Third comes a complaint from a local MP to the Ombudsman. Fourth, the Taxpayers Alliance is making a Freedom of Information application to find out how the plan was agreed. And there were the inevitable pleas from several individuals for DCMS to intervene.
Finally, MLA is to spend up to £10,000 on more consultants, to write another report. They have just started work.
Swindon has also seen the fall of the councillor who was the plan's main backer, offers of help from three library services and one well-respected expert, visits from MLA officials and its Chair, Andrew Motion, and a question in Prime Minister's Question Time (7 May), when Gordon Brown asserted that Swindon is a portent of 'Tory cuts' to come.
A slightly stunned Allyson Jordan, Head of Libraries, thought she had found a creative solution to the budget shortfall.
She did read Tim's report, but found its methodology inconsistent. She is pleased that library staff have emerged as so highly valued -- both in the initial reactions and the current consultation. One of the four libraries has accepted the deal to be volunteer-run.
Allyson concedes that tiny libraries give a 'personal service' that can't be matched in large ones. The debate is ultimately about two completely different types of library. And people hate losing a service, even if they don't use it. For now, she stresses: "We will look at all the views we get before making a decision."