Info on the library cuts

Sign and circulate the on-line petition here http://www.petitiononline.com/dontcut/petition.html

See also the Save Hackney Libraries website

This is an interview given to Hackney Citizen explaining the situation

1. Can you explain what is happening to hackney libraries with regards to staff cuts, opening times etc? + Why do you think it is so important that the libraries remain open longer and with more staff?

As things stand in Hackney thanks to the support shown to Hackney libraries earlier this year the library budget for this financial year has been protected. It’s been said a lot that he budget has been protected, full stop. But in actual fact it is only protected for this financial year, so what he future holds is still quite uncertain.

But despite the budget being safe for the time being Libraries management has volunteered cuts to front-line staffing levels by 25%, to cut local library opening hours,to cut events by two thirds and getting rid of the reference section. If that wasn’t enough to downgrade staff resulting in a pay cut of between 2 and 5 thousand pound per year! But don’t worry because they’re increasing the number of senior managers.

Self service 7am early morning libraries are to open in Dalston to service the people on their way to work in the city at he expense of other Hackney residents that will now have to wait until 10am like mothers that call into the library with their toddlers after dropping their older children at school and the elderly that find company and companionship at their local libraries. This has also been pushed by library management and councilors as an increase in opening hours but this in actual fact isn’t the case because for the couple of hours gained at a time when very few will actually use a library we’re actually going to lose 25 library hours each week from local libraries such as Homerton.

Another thing worth thinking about is the fact that although library management are going likely provide over £700,000 of saving though voluntary redundancy and the potential revenue from the sale of vacant library buildings none of that money will be used to offset the cuts in library services. Why? Where is that going? Oh yeah, of course there’s going to be further management positions!

Hackney Council plans to cut between £80 and £90 million in the next 4 years. Hackney council has pledged that no libraries will close in Hackney over the next year, serious cuts to the Library Service are planned and about to be put into action. The London Borough of Hackney Library and Archive Strategy 2011 – 2015 has just been released and is open for public consultation until 27th of June. The key points of the strategy are:

• All 8 libraries in Hackney will remain open, however efficiency savings will be made by:
• Concentrating resources, facilities and events at the 3 main libraries; Hackney Central library, the new Dalston Library (CLR James) and Stoke Newington Library. This will mean people local to the other Hackney Libraries at Stamford Hill, Homerton, Shoreditch, Clapton and Woodberry Down, will have to travel further for some essential services, such a childrens reading groups, older peoples drop-in sessions, etc as well as events around Black History Month, Jewish Book Week, LGBT month, Family Learning Month etc.
• Cuts to events : currently around 500 events are held in Hackney Libraries annually, this will drop to around 200, and because staffs job roles are being downgraded, the majority of these events will be run by unpaid volunteers.
• Reduction of opening hours in all but the 3 main Hackney Libraries.

Many of us fear that this concentration of resources, staff and events in the 3 main libraries, will result in less people using the other libraries
and that the resulting drop in footfall could be used to justify closing libraries in the future.

The reference sections at many of the libraries will be cut, with on-line and digital resources being offered instead.

Alongside this new library strategy, there will be a new library structure. Staff are currently organising to resist a serious staff restructure that will see library workers made redundant, serious loss of pay and significant changes to terms and conditions of employment. The majority of full-time staff, besides library managers will be downgraded either 1 or 2 grades, resulting in a drop in annual salary of between £2,000 and and £5,000, and part-time staff will see a reduction of hours and increased Sunday working. Libraries will be run with much smaller teams of staff

Hackney is a borough with a high percentage of residents on benefits and paid jobs therefore many people in Hackney cannot afford the ten to twenty pounds to buy a book let alone several over the year. At a time of  austerity and also at a time when there is a push by London’s Mayor for better levels of literacy it is essentiallibraries are keep open,if not invested in.

2. Why do you think these cuts to library staff are being made?

Councils around the country have been told to make cuts in council spending, ok but we’re not seeing any cuts at management level are we? Which only leaves me to think it’s a mixture of ideology and keeping nest  feathered. Many people in management positions have longed for a time like this and now gladly following the government in cuts that are more ideological than anything else and for others in those positions it’s just a case of making sure the axe isn’t going to fall anywhere near them. I realise this may sound at first hearing simplistic but I honestly can’t see any other reason for some of these actions.