NEWS FEATURE
Library card remains close to the government chest
A well-attended House of Lords debate covered many public library issues but no clear picture of what happens next.
THE House of Lords’ Grand Com- mittee debated a national strategy for libraries in September. The event had been called by opposi- tion peers to discuss a review and recommendations that they had commissioned when they were in power.
As many of the speakers noted in the debate (
https://bit.ly/3BVOkdq) and when Baroness Sanderson’s Independent Review of Public Libraries (http://bit. ly/4hgi5Wn) was first published – the content came direct from the public library sector, and its recommenda- tions were widely endorsed by the sector – and now have support across party lines. In January CILIP described Baron-
ess Sanderson’s report as a “detailed and thoughtful response to the issues that were raised by the sector” but also said: “It is not the Government’s position, nor is there any guarantee that the recommendations will be implemented, or to what extent.” It said: “Ultimately, everything hinges on whether these recommen- dations will be taken forward into the next Parliament, in what form and with what financial and political sup- port, both locally and centrally.” The change in government means these “what next?” questions remain unanswered.
Baroness Twycross, who is the Labour government’s Minister for Gambling and also Lords Minister responsible for DCMS business in the House of Lords, responded to most of the issues raised by the 25 speakers. Like them she was positive and reassuring but she didn’t spill any “what next” beans, saying: “The Question posed by this debate relates to a new library strategy, and I heard the strength of feeling in the debate
October-November 2024
around this. I understand it was a commitment of the previous Govern- ment, which was informed by the noble Baroness’s review. I will feed back the strength of feeling around that.” She also acknowledged another point raised by speakers – particularly the for- mer Library Minister, Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay – that the new minister with public libraries in his portfolio had many other responsibilities: “It was noted that the Minister for Creative Industries, Arts and Tourism, Sir Chris Bryant, covers libraries as part of his brief. The noble Lord, Lord Parkinson, noted that he has quite a lot of responsibility, but I take this opportunity to reassure noble Lords that he is also a passionate advocate of libraries, which he recently described as ‘cultural diamonds’.”
She pointed out that Chris Bryant had said that “we lose them at our peril,” before adding: “I agree that we lose them at our peril. The Minister will engage with library sector organisations and leaders in the coming months to discuss the challenges in the sector and reflect on priority policy areas and how best to support the sector going forward.”
The former vice-chair of CILIP’s All Party Parliamentary Group, Lord Graham Tope said: “Everybody thinks ‘libraries are a good thing!’. The challenge for the library world and its supporters has always been to turn that often passive support into a more active and meaningful support, par- ticularly in the wide political world. So, to answer your question directly, yes I do believe there would be support for a longer debate and the early days of a new Government is probably the best time to influence policy.”
However, with an ongoing local gov- ernment funding crisis, any messages from central government about what
Baroness Twycross.
councils should spend their money on would be problematic and so are likely to be limited. Money isn’t everything and the
review’s recommendations do include rearrangements. During the debate Baroness Sanderson highlighted the potential in this area: “The governance of libraries is like spaghetti junction. DCMS is the policy lead; MHCLG has responsibility for funding; ACE is the development agency; and Libraries Connected, CILIP and ASCEL all sup- port the sector and, alongside the LGA, provide co-ordination and partnership working. It is ferociously complicated.” But one key point was raised frequent- ly by the speakers at the debate – that there needs to be a further debate on public libraries due to the significant turnout in the September meeting.”
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
