CILIP | LIBRARIES IN SPOTLIGHT AS GOVERNMENT ACKNOWLEDGES CHALLENGES : CILIP concerns aired in two major public debates

CILIP concerns aired in two major public debates

News 24/06/04

Tribute was paid to CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in a Commons adjournment debate on libraries yesterday (June 23). Opening the debate, Linda Perham MP praised the way CILIP had helped the All Party Parliamentary Group on Libraries raise awareness of the value of libraries to "Members of both Houses and beyond".

Meanwhile in a special government seminar convened by Libraries Minister Lord McIntosh earlier the same week, CILIP's Chief Executive Bob McKee welcomed the £2 million announced by the Minister to boost the current programme of work to improve and develop the public library service. "However," he added later, "This doesn't deal with two other central issues for which funding is badly needed in many areas - the legacy of years of under-investment in books budgets and buildings."

In the Commons debate, Mrs Perham raised a further issue on which CILIP has expressed concern - the apparent downgrading of libraries in local authority performance assessments. As a former local councillor, Mrs Perham said that she knew "from bitter experience" that the budget needs of other council services were usually heeded before demands for the improvement of the library service. She added: "The reduced weighting of libraries as an indicator for comprehensive performance assessments must not enfeeble their status and high-quality service. The huge regard in which the public service is held by the British people must be recognised and rewarded."

Working through its Parliamentary consultants A S Biss, CILIP was able to brief Mrs Perham not only on policy issues but also on the current facts and figures. A former librarian herself, and a chartered member of CILIP, Mrs Perham presented MPs with a range of data demonstrating the scale of the public library service.

Responding, Arts Minister Estelle Morris raised a further point made by CILIP's Bob McKee in the earlier libraries seminar. Announcing a review of library funding and how books are bought, so as to establish good practice, she added: "I hope that that might include different local authorities working together more effectively, perhaps on a regional or sub-regional basis."

Making the same point in the seminar, Bob McKee had said that the fragmented way in which the public library service was delivered remained a big challenge. "There needs to be more coherence across government at national level, more consistency in terms of quality of delivery at local level, and more collaboration at regional level to foster efficiency and benefit from economies of scale," he suggested. "For example, there could be a public library partnership in each region, supporting the local provision of library service by taking a regional approach to ICT procurement, stock management, and staff training."

Speaking in the Commons, Linda Perham MP described CILIP as "the leading professional body for librarians, information specialists and knowledge managers." Throughout this entire week's developments, CILIP's authority and influence in the whole library debate has been publicly acknowledged.

Contact: Tim Buckley Owen, Head of Membership, Marketing & Media.
Tel: 020 7255 0652. Email: mailto:tim.buckleyowen@cilip.org.uk

Notes to Editors

CILIP: the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the largest membership body in the field in the UK, with up to 23,000 members working in all sectors, including business and industry, science and technology, further and higher education, schools, local and central government, the health service, the voluntary sector, national and public libraries.

Updated: 07 January 2005