National Library of Wales reveals Covid-19 impact
THE Chief Executive of The National Library of Wales has told a Senedd committee that the library is unlikely to re-open fully until spring 2021 and warned of a deep financial hit. Pedr ap Llwyd said: “We’ve been closed for many months and when we do reopen, because of the nature of the building, the shop is small, the restaurant is narrow, then it does appear very likely that we will be unable to open those until around springtime.”
He also told the Culture, Welsh Language and Communications Committee that the Aberystwyth-based library had already been in a precarious financial position before the pandemic struck. “None of us was prepared for Covid-19… We weren’t ready as cultural institutions,” he said, adding that the pandemic and ensuing lockdown had caused it to lose 95 per cent of its commercial income. The library has a quarter of staff on fur- lough with salaries topped up to 100 per cent from the 80 per cent provided by the scheme. Mr ap Llwyd said: “We are highly aware how much stress and anguish this period has brought about for our staff,” adding that there would “certainly be jobs for them when
it is possible for them to return to work”. David Anderson, Director General of National Museum Wales, also warned the committee about financial issues saying: “We also carry a structural deficit, and this has come at us really very, very unexpectedly, of course. We’re projecting to lose about £1.8m pounds of commercial income this financial year.”
Mr Anderson also discussed furloughed
staff returning but couldn’t say how many would be likely to have returned to work by the end of the furlough scheme in October.
“We know we won’t be able to fully reopen our sites, probably even into the autumn as well,” he said, adding: “There’s a question of how many staff should be on site, and how safe it would be for them to be on site.” Andrew White, Wales Director of the Heritage Lottery Fund, has said that over half of the organisations applying for fund- ing were making use of the job retention scheme. But he told the committee that there was potential for redundancies in the heritage sector, because of the barriers to full re-opening and income generation.
CILIP to launch Members Council to help direct advocacy and campaigns
A NEW Members Council is being created by CILIP to make it easier for members to have more input into decsions around CILIP’s work – particularly in campaigns and advocacy.
The Members Council is part of CILIP’s response to results from extensive research it conducted last year. One of the key findings was for members to have greater involve- ment in some the organisation’s work. The new group will have two main pur- poses – firstly to write an annual delivery plan that will set out priorities for the membership. The second is to feed into the process of designing CILIP’s next five- year plan, with a focus on campaigns and advocacy, content priorities and identify- ing key partnerships.
June-July 2020
There will be 16 people on the Members Council, and CILIP’s Head of Membership Meg Burke said: “There will be places reserved for representatives from the Member Networks, Devolved Nations, and Diversity Networks with the other seats being filled by representatives from the wider membership. The group is expected to meet three or four times a year, and it’s likely that the first meeting will be in the au- tumn and held online. Future meetings may be held online, or in key locations around the country – to avoid a London focus.” CILIP will be announcing a nominations process for any member wishing to put themselves forward for election. For more information visit
www.cilip.org. uk/membercouncil.
Free NAG membership for
public libraries THE National Acquistions Group (NAG) has said membership for all public libraries in the UK will be free from 1 July 2020 – 30 June 2021 in recognition of the severe spending cuts services now face. The professional organisation for people responsible for or interested in the acqui- sition, management and development of library resources in libraries of all types, also said it was working on expanding resources it offers public libraries by com- missioning new content. NAG said: “If your library authority is already a NAG member, we will auto matically add an additional year to your member- ship from this date,” adding: “We welcome new members from public libraries… We will approve your membership, then also add other members of staff to your ‘team’. It would be fantastic to reach as many library authorities as possible.”
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https://nag.org.uk/free-public-library-membership/ INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 9
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