| Topic: | Re:Re:Do the Council really have a choice with Ealing's libraries? | |
| Posted by: | Simon Hayes | |
| Date/Time: | 23/07/19 08:23:00 |
| Well, the data is collected by the council and shows library usage has dropped. That’s largely due to the cuts to opening hours since this administration came to power in 2010. If it ain’t open you can’t use it. There are also peaks of usage around exam time when students flock to the quiet space offered at libraries, along with access to books. However, that space has now been limited at the refurbished and much smaller central library. Perhaps the most important thing to consider is that the Council has a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive library service. The new strategy fails to do that in all but the Council’s opinion. It has gone to great lengths, and expense, to stretch the limit of ‘comprehensive’ to the legal boundary. We are told that community managed models are the answer. If they were then they’d be operating everywhere. That they are not perhaps indicates that they are more problematic than we are told. As for books, well there is still a big demand for them via lending libraries. One of the benefits of an integrated system as currently exists is you can request a book from another branch and collect it from your local library. However, Ealing has carried out a systematic destruction of its book stock as part of this strategy programme. Another aspect of the library is its role as a place for research, particularly for local history. Yes, there is online material but for proper research you have to go to the source material, particularly if what you are researching is unlikely to be available online. People are genuinely more interested in finding out about their genealogy or where they live, thanks to the success of shows such as Who Do You Think You Are. The old reference library was pretty good, although there were gaps in its stock, but that’s been moved to Southall and I don’t know how much of the material was moved and still remains. Also, hands up anyone outside of Southall who has ever been to that library or even knows where it is! The Bell administration is playing a cynical political trick, one it’s well versed in. Let services deteriorate to the point where they claim they are unsustainable. Then offload that service or close it down. We saw it with playing fields at Warren Farm and Gunnersbury Park. Now we see it with our libraries. Fine if you don’t use a library. When it’s gone you may not miss it. But is it right to deny future generations the access we all enjoyed, and many continue to enjoy, for the sake of a misguided political principle? |