Councillor Brock on the future for Edinburgh's libraries
An abridged version of the following article was published in the Edinburgh Evening News on Saturday 4 February 2012, under the headline 'Forever turning the page - tough times mean libraries service must adapt, says Deidre Brock'.
Saturday 4 February 2012 was National Libraries Day, and people throughout the country joined forces to demonstrate their love of libraries.
This outpouring of support is particularly poignant in those areas of the UK where councils have already closed, or are considering closing branches. In Edinburgh however, we're extremely proud to be bucking this trend; just four days ago we saw 1300 people pour into the UK's newest public library, Drumbrae Library Hub. Last year we opened our Captain's Road Library within the South Neighbourhood Office, early next year we welcome a brand new building for Craigmillar Library and we have carried out major refurbishments in Morningside and Portobello branches, amongst others.
At the moment we're preparing to decide on the best direction for our libraries service for the next few years, against a difficult financial backdrop. We've just finished a very thorough public consultation and have been delighted with the response - nearly 10,000 people offered their views.
Currently, there are complicated shift patterns and somewhat confusing opening hours at our various libraries, so the service has suggested a 'tiered model' with standardised opening hours for different categories of library. The proposals take account of staff and customer feedback and customer usage patterns - they not only ensure we can keep all of our libraries across the city open but mean we can also extend Saturday afternoons to 5pm in many more than was previously the case, something we know is popular with users. When feedback analysis is complete, results will be reported to elected members for discussion and a final decision will be taken on how our libraries should move ahead.
Our city's service with our superb Libraries staff seems to me to be more vibrant, welcoming and indeed crucial to us all as a trusted information source than ever before. Of course, I should remind everyone you don't have to physically go into a library in Edinburgh in order to access our services! The growing success of both our Virtual Library and our newly updated libraries 'app' are proof of this.
Our libraries are far more than just places to borrow book nowadays; they really are genuine community hubs.
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06/02/2012
I'm surprised anyone can use the library. I filled in the online card application on 21st October, got an email saying I'd have a reply in 5 days. More than 3 months later and I'm still waiting.
08/02/2012
Will this be the same 10.000 who filled in a form that gave them no chance to say what they thought, or what they wanted, or what they valued about the library they used. The form had a list of pre set questions that they could either tick or not!
So "Would you like libraries to be open at weekends?" becomes meaningless as no other option is availible, and no explanation that by saying yes, the library will be shut have to be closed on a day during the week! So the 10.00 has ticked a box that gains them the same number of opening days just shuffled about a bit.