Children's Laureate attacks Future Libraries report

12.08.11 | Benedicte Page - The Bookseller

The recently appointed children's laureate Julia Donaldson has condemned the "Future Libraries" report as a "cost-cutting exercise" containing among its recommendations some likely to lead to a deterioration of the service.
The report, "Future Libraries: Change, Options and How to Get There", draws on the first year of the Future Libraries programme set up by culture minister Ed Vaizey, and has been issued by the Local Government Association and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. Vaizey said the scheme "has shone a spotlight on excellent examples of innovation and creative partnership working" and called the report "a hugely useful resource, inspiring local authorities to emulate the best ideas to provide a first rate library service."
However, Donaldson told The Bookseller the minister's claims read like "empty rhetoric". She said: "I find it hard to see why Ed Vaizey professes to find this cost-cutting exercise so innovative and creative. Some ideas, such as partnerships between adjacent borough councils, seem sensible enough and probably would be happening anyway, but others—such as replacing trained librarians with volunteers—would be more likely to lead to a deterioration of the service."
She added: "Above all, I resent the underlying assumption that libraries should be underfunded by local government and should have to seek alternative ways to survive in the 21st century."
Donaldson said she would be much more interested in hearing Vaizey and culture secretary Jeremy Hunt speaking out about authorities such as Gloucestershire, the Isle of Wight, Brent and Lewisham, which are currently drastically cutting their libraries. She said: "It is the legal responsibility of the government's Department for Culture, Media and Sport to superintend public libraries. Why, therefore, have we still not been told when they intend to announce a decision on exactly which local authorities will be subject to an official inquiry? The Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries were told in April that such a decision would be forthcoming but nothing has been heard."
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