with the same arrangement, they never get a reply.”
Institutions with national roles, like Libraries Connected need to work with this diversity rather than try to override it. Isobel says: “It’s not about libraries being deliberately quirky or individ- ualistic, it’s about them being locally responsive. And particularly now when libraries are at the cutting edge of a local authority evolution, sometimes called ABCD, or asset based community development. There has been a shift from the town hall directly delivering services and trying to run everything in a sort of paternalistic model, to a mindset of ‘how do we build strengths in communities, how do we work with the assets and networks that are there’.” She sees the role of the local authority as defining need, collating and facil- itating partnerships, “which is why I think it’s really important that libraries retain that locally agile way of working, because when it works well, you’ve got libraries with fantastic partnerships and reach deep into communities.”
Top down
The complexity of the grass roots is almost matched by complexity at the national level. Comparing public libraries with archives she says: “When the Museums Libraries and Archives Council was ‘quangoed’, leadership for archives was consolidated at The National Archives. However, in libraries it fractured a bit more and it’s now a much more complex landscape.” But the impact need not be negative as Isobel points out: “It’s really a time thing. When you have several players in the field you need to take more time to coordinate to ensure you are not duplicating or saying things that contra- dict each other… you don’t want to be competing against each other. “Library leadership bodies have got to really work hard together to make sure we have clearly defined roles so that Libraries Connected, CILIP, the BL, DCMS, Arts Council and ASCEL don’t all end up trying to do the same thing in different ways, or leave massive gaps where nobody is doing anything. There’s enough work for all of us, we all just need to put quite a lot of time into making sure that we’re working togeth- er effectively.”
Hard times
“Times are really hard,” says Isobel. “It feels like the best of times because there’s amazing innovation happening in public libraries, and the worst of times because the financial environ- ment for local authorities is really hard. “A lot of councils are tackling big defi- cits. These might not be immediate, but they are coming down the line and then there’s no sign that the Government –
December 2023 Isobel Hunter.
whatever its stripe or make up may be – is going to address that funding crisis.” At the same time, she says: “The need for council services is rising all the time, the cost-of-living crisis means a lot more people living in disadvantaged, deprived circumstances and the thing that is really costing money is adult and children’s social care, so the broad financial environ- ment is really tough for everybody.”
Old options
One of the options presented to councils 10 years ago was outsourcing their li- braries. Asked if this was being discussed again she said: “Not at the moment. But spinning out is always on the table when councils are pressed by immediate and long-term funding pressures.” But she added: “There’s a lot more understanding now that it isn’t so much about the gov- ernance model – it’s the leadership. Well- led, well-managed services are better, whether they are in-house or out-house.” “The process of spinning-out means a lot of management time has been spent on looking at that service and understand- ing its mission and vision. So, there’s a lot of prep time for spinning-out. That time investment is really valuable and it certainly has been in Hertfordshire, where they were all ready to spin-out, but then reversed the decision due to the changed landscape post-pandemic. They had invested all that management time, thinking and leadership time in there, and that has all been for the good.”
New solutions
Isobel said this process of investing man- agement attention is replicable without spinning out: “Things like the LGA and Arts Council Funded peer review. Library services that have been through it have found it immensely useful because it’s a chance to pause, get some outsiders’ eyes to look at how you’re doing things and make helpful suggestions. That’s the thinking behind library service accredi- tation: it’s a tool that can help you review and think through what you’re delivering with the community at the heart, what are their needs and therefore what should your library service look like and how are you going to deliver…” She said: “Our ambition is to use accreditation to shift those difficult conver- sations with councils, from ‘what is the min- imum that we need to deliver?’ to ‘what can you do to make best use of your resources and meet your community’s needs?’ “A lot of work that we’re doing now is about advocacy at heads of service level, because it’s the heads of service who are, every day of the week, having to make the case to their funders, senior officers and elected members. So a big focus of our work is around putting advocacy material, argument and data, in the hands of heads of service.” IP
l A second interview with Isobel will be published in January.
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