Did you #VoteLibraries?
INFORMATION Professional should have landed on your doorstep on 5 May, the day of the local elections. In the weeks leading up to this, CILIP has been running its #VoteLibraries campaign alongside CILIP in Scotland’s #Libraries AreEssential and CILIP Ireland’s #CILIP IreElectionWatch. These aimed to give the sector a profile that politicians could easily grasp – both in terms of the immediate value they deliver and how they could do more – and support. While the campaigns provided library supporters with easy ways to get headline messages across to politicians – with tem- plates for social media, emails and letters – it also linked to CILIP’s longer term goals. The activity made some early gains with candidates like Bartley Shaw, co-chair, South- wark Green Party, saying: “Rest assured that the Green Party too recognises the many contributions that libraries make to people’s lives and to communities in general. Beyond the access to and support services for infor- mation and entertainment, we know that they provide valuable points of contact and connection for many. There is no question
in our minds that libraries are indeed a sound investment.
“The Green Party is also a champion of
Libraries of Things, which can go a long way to connect parts of the community and support more responsible use of our planet’s resources. We would like to support more of these across Southwark as a genuine change to how our communities work.” As the elections drew near libraries some- times managed to take centre stage, with campaigners at Couper Institute Library in Glasgow featured on national news. And BBC Scotland’s Political Editor Glenn Campbell writing: “There will be wards where the entire result will hang on how many potholes there are on the main road through a village, or on whether a town library has re-opened post-pandemic”. CILIP’s campaign letter for candidates highlighted four local priorities where libraries make an impact:
l Supporting formal, informal and life- long learning;
l Improving local health and social care provision
l Helping build stronger, more cohesive communities;
l Giving people access to vital life skills, including literacy and digital skills.
The campaign highlighted them as immediately attractive characteristics for candidates to support in the current elec- tions, but it also had an eye on the future, linking to Nick Poole’s article in The Book- seller called ‘Library Dividend’. In the article Nick outlines the sector’s efforts to reform its funding, particularly in relation to healthcare and education, with an Arts Council England-funded Independent Review into Public Library Financing. He said: “The reality is that we have now reached a point whereby Coun- cils can no longer afford to deliver on their long-term statutory duties beyond the fun- damentals of adult social care and child protection. “Unless we can find a better way to pay for libraries, chances are we will see hun- dreds more closures in the next two to three years as we address the cost of pub- lic borrowing during the pandemic.”
April-May 2022
INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 13
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
