What Do Public Librarians and Library Staff Do?

I wrote a blog post for the Save Doncaster Libraries blog yesterday, in response to the Mayor’s unfortunate comment that was along the lines of “oh come on, there are plenty of jobs you need training and qualifications for, but stamping a few books out in a library isn’t one of them”. This is why he thinks it’d be really easy to replace paid staff with volunteers. It’s important to note that in Doncaster, there aren’t any librarians who could train volunteers out of the goodness of their hearts because they were all made redundant years ago. Doncaster’s also a place lacking in qualified/professional people with time on their hands, the likes of whom are needed in places like Chalfont St. Giles: ”Trying to follow the same model in a busy town library in a deprived area would I think be unlikely to succeed”, says the chairman of the small community library being used as the shining example for volunteer-run libraries across the country.

It’s apparent that council leaders don’t have a clear idea about what paid library workers do on a day-to-day basis, or if they do, they’re not telling people who are considering volunteering to run libraries for councils. I wanted to come up with a list of things that I could present to people who are considering volunteering, so that they’re fully informed about the tasks that might be expected of them, or at least what library staff do that make libraries successful and useful to people. I asked people on twitter help me write a list of things paid staff are able to do that volunteers might struggle with, need training for or be unwilling to do (for reasons like it’s against their beliefs, or simply because they’re working for nothing). It’s a big list, and people asked me to share it, so as well as putting it on the SDL blog I’m reproducing it here. Thanks to everyone who helped me.

• Dealing With Library Users:
  - Suggesting a book for anyone from an 8 year old boy who never reads to a 70 year old woman who has read everything;
  - Being unfazed by complex enquiries which could be of a sensitive nature;
  - Understanding how to help people with computers who have zero confidence/experience and believe they can’t use them;
  - Dealing with abusive visitors;
  - Dealing with young people behaving badly – police have been called to library branches when young people have been climbing on bookshelves, causing problems, refusing to leave premises etc;
  - Dealing sensitively with people who have mental health problems or learning disabilities and may be challenging to help properly;
  - Keeping user information confidential;
  - Huge training requirement around legal/ethical issues;
  - Understanding the issues around safeguarding children and the elderly;
  - Providing a safe, friendly space that welcomes everyone;
  - Directing homeless people to the nearest shelter;
  - Helping people with little or no English to use the library service by translating, using translation services or taking special care and attention to ensure people understand information;
  - Collecting knives and guns;
• Helping People Find Information:
  - Information literacy i.e. teaching people how to research, study and helping people develop lifelong learning skills essential for an informed citizenship;
  - Understanding what users need and how they go about finding it (and working out where the problems are);
  -  Teaching people how to search effectively;
  - Helping people organise information effectively;
  - Helping people assess which information is reliable, for example the NHS expect patients to use online sources to find out about healthcare, but a lot of information on the internet is not reliable and can misinform people;
  - Showing people how to find information about legal issues;
  - Helping businesses find business information;
  - Helping people research their family history or local history;
  - Unearthing the needed information from the mounded heaps of print and electronic, free and subscription services, efficiently and accurately;
  - Ensuring that less easy-to-find materials are available for particular groups – community langs, LGBT, people with/ disabilities etc;
  - Being able to interpret research requests – working out what people want when they’re not sure how to explain
  - Providing pointers on free and paid resources;
  - Knowing how to do proper subject searches and suggest unthought of sources of information;
  - Signposting to a huge range of services &say what they can offer: advice/help on immigration, debt, tax, legal, benefits, housing;
  - Providing specialist information i.e. market research/patents/EU/law/health;
  - Helping people if the library doesn’t have what they need;
  - Understanding the need for access and negotiating access to information that may be blocked by council filters;
• Research Help:
  - Teaching people how to research properly;
  - Current awareness services, all types of research;
  - Personal training sessions on resources;
  - Filtering materials for relevance;
• Internet/Technology Support:
  - Teaching people to use the internet;
  - Helping people set up email accounts;
  - Showing people how to use online job boards;
  - Showing people how to use online council & government services;
  - Teaching people to use online resources e.g. e-books, e-journals;
  - Giving people login details for library computers and helping them when they have problems/forget passwords etc.;
  - Providing technical support on systems and tools (i.e. loading ebooks from something like Overdrive on to a ereader);
  - Helping people use the photocopier/printer/fax machine;
  - Showing people how to Integrate emerging technologies into their daily lives;
  - Helping people with online council housing lists;
  - Explaining how wifi works;
• Organising and Running Events and Activities:
  - Organising/promoting events for kids/teens/adults that promote a love of reading;
  - Rhyme time and story time sessions, increasing childhood literacy and promoting reading;
  - Children’s activities;
  - Visiting authors and poets;
  - Book festivals;
  - Gigs (Get It Loud In Libraries);
  - Helping with homework and school projects;
  - Book groups;
  - IT classes;
  - Doing the risk assessments needed to make sure everyone is safe and secure at events;
  - Dressing the library for events, making it look attractive and impressive (professional);
  - Organising school visits
• Partnership Work with Schools and Other Organisations:
  - A working and up to date knowledge and understanding of the curriculum and the way schools function (see this comment for much more detail);
  - Working with teachers to improve reading skills;
  - Working with schools & other community groups to promote the library and showcase all it has to offer;
  - Visiting schools, talking to parents to promoting a lifelong love of reading with parents and children;
  Giving talks on request from teachers on referencing and the importance of bibliographies for GCSEs/A levels;
  -  Working with U3A and other community groups to help public with online information;
• Library Management:
  - Understanding how libraries work together, dealing with interlibrary loans and the British Library;
  - Data protection;
  - Reporting on library use and user needs;
  - Using statistics to identify trends and assess levels of use;
  - Managing electronic resources;
  - Ordering databases;
  - Paying invoices;
  - Getting value for money via professional management, organization and promotion of resources;
  - Promoting and marketing the libraries, including using social media to promote the library service;
  - Attending training and events to make sure that the library service is keeping up with developments;
  - Dealing with legislation including reproduction and attendant copyright law: photocopying/scanning for personal use, hi-res resources for publication/TV;
  - Maintaining and building technical solutions for users’ needs;
  - Maintaining a safe, interesting quiet environment;
  - Being a premises controller: be responsible for a large public bldg, know what to do when heating breaks down, roof leaks etc;
  - Training for fire marshals etc;
  - Reporting to local Councillors, showing how libraries meet the wider council aims;
  - Managing budgets and staffing, liaising with those who provide the funds;
• Collection management:
  - Promoting/displaying/ weeding/ordering stock;
  - Making sure the books and other items in the library are ones that users want/need/will benefit from;
  - Reader and community development – encouraging people to read more widely and helping communities build knowledge and skills – matching resources to people’s needs;
  -  Describing/cataloguing/arranging physical or digital material in useful ways so that people can find it;
  -  Chasing and collecting books back and enforcing fines;
  - Matching stock held with local community group(s) needs;
  - Dealing with stock management / complaints etc. in accordance with international agreements on intellectual freedom;
• Archives and Special Collections:
  - Digitisation and digital preservation, making sure information will be accessible in future;
  - Storing and conserving media (including old/rare books);
• Other Council Services Provided Through Libraries:
  - Dealing with people paying council tax and parking fines;
  - Giving out condoms and bin bags;
  - Issuing firearms certificates;
  - Selling charity xmas cards;
  - Issuing blue badges;
  - Issuing over 60s bus passes.

Thanks to Abby Barker for making a wordle out of this post

Big Society Capital Funds

An emerging way in which local authorities are trying to keep libraries going are through allocations of one-off capital funds. For example, Warwickshire County Council has set aside £100,000 for people to set up community-run libraries. whatsinKenilworth”>The offer includes:

• Warwickshire County Council  is setting aside a one-off capital fund of £100,000 to support communities in the setting up their community library
• Where the Council accepts a community library business case, and the library building is owned by the Council, it is prepared in principle to lease the premises to a Community Group at a peppercorn rent for an initial period of one year
• After that, subject to annual review of the services being provided, the lease may continue at a peppercorn rent, or at less than market value, for a period of up to 5 years in total.
• At the end of the 5 year period, a full market rent will be payable
• The tenant will be responsible for all repairs from the outset
• Buildings offered at a peppercorn rent for the first year and then reviewed every year for the first 5 years after which the building would have to be paid for at the market rate.
• Current book stock will be available

You can listen to me talking about whether this is a good idea, here. My main points were:

• We need to be critical about the offer. It’s not necessarily a good compromise
• It’s important for councils to meet their statutory obligations and they need to provide a comprehensive and efficient service. Giving communities £100,000 doesn’t necessarily mean they’re doing that
• The system and funding needs to be sustainable – communities need to know where the money will come from in future
• Libraries are complex systems – local and national government don’t seem to appreciate this. It requires more management skills to run libraries than community groups who’ve done it already first anticipated.
• Libraries are about more than books – they’re about getting right information to right people
• Not all good information is on the internet, and not all information on the internet is good
• There is a need to keep expertise in the library, but this comes at a cost – councils have been charging communities for professional support
• We live in an information society – we need libraries more than ever. Councils should be investing in libraries to help citizens find and negotiate information
• Statistics about a decline in library use aren’t accurate
• The majority of children use libraries and this has a demonstrable impact on literacy levels
• People need libraries more than ever – for education, employment and information. We need professionals who can help us with this
• The government can’t shirk its legal responsibilities

What I didn’t mention is that £100,000 really isn’t a lot when you divide it up between the 16 libraries under threat (£6,250 each). I don’t know how much it costs to keep each branch library in Warwickshire running at the moment, but I can give a rough and ready example for Doncaster. Bessacarr Library costs £22,000 a year to run as it is currently. This is our very smallest and cheapest library, in a portacabin. Even if you took out the cost of staff and ran the place with volunteers, took out the rates and charged peppercorn rent, took out the costs of transport (which includes stock deliveries and receiving stock from other branches) – it would still cost about £6,140 per year to run (so that’s the generous council gift of £6,250 pretty much blown). More, if the council refuses to provide access to the council ICT network, and that’s realistically going to be the case because of information security issues. If you want to put in a self-issue machine it may cost £2,000 and then £600-800 a year to maintain. Where’s the rest of the money coming from? Communities? Because I tell you now, people can’t afford it, especially under the coming nightmare situation that’s being inflicted on hundreds of thousands of people. Even setting aside all the issues of equitable access to free, impartial, reputable sources of information provided by trained, professional staff - it’s just not a sustainable model.

I keep coming back to the thought – £18 a year in council tax is more than worth it for the service provided to society through the public library service. 25% of electors in Aldbourne, Wiltshire, even voted for an increase in council tax in order to keep their library running as it is now.