INTERVIEW
Ambition and imagination: making public libraries indispensable
Rob Green talks to William Sieghart about public library projects that are being rolled out in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough that could potentially reinvigorate libraries across the country.
WHEN William Sieghart’s Independ- ent Library Report for England was released in December 2014, there was an undercurrent of frustration at “yet another report”. The call was for action, not words, and although the Government did follow up on recommendations – notably Wi-fi in all libraries and the creation of the Libraries Taskforce, the plight of public libraries has continued.
Changing the way public services are delivered Austerity policies that lead to signifi cant local authority budget cuts are continuing to have a negative impact on library and other local services. Now William Sieghart is back with an ambitious, but achievable project to rein- vigorate public libraries across the country. Working with public engagement compa- ny CiviQ, Cambridgeshire County Council and Peterborough City Council, William is looking for public library solutions that can be sustainable, replicable across the country and user-focused. This, according to Wil- liam, means not just looking at what library services off er but also looking at how public services are delivered.
He says: “Local authorities have been delivering the same council services in a dirigiste top-down way since they were invented. We have now hit a kind of buff er right across all kinds of organisations where the old-fashioned ways of delivering things
16 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
Rob Green (@CILIP_Reporter,
rob.green@
cilip.org.uk) is Editor-in-Chief, Information Professional.
are no longer plausible or aff ordable. “What’s delightful for me with this part- nership with Cambridgeshire County Coun- cil is that for the fi rst time I’m dealing with a largish local authority that completely understands this and says we have to trans- form the way we do business and they see the transformation of the library service as a central plank of the way to change services into demand-driven operations.”
Getting buy-in Achieving political and organisational buy-in is a crucial fi rst step, and Cambridgeshire’s involvement provided a platform for genuine transformation. Neighbouring Peterborough was quick to recognise the potential impact of the project and was welcomed on board, meaning there are now around 70 libraries involved.
March 2019
Interview Willian Sieghart
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07/03/2019 12:54
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