This article is from the November 2002 Issue of Update.

Not everyone would choose to take on a high-profile, underachieving library service, immediately after long-running and rather bitter industrial action. But you could view this as a big opportunity and a challenge, as Martyn Wade did, when he came to Glasgow City Libraries and set about changing the environment, the service and staff morale.

Shortly after he arrived he told the staff his ambition was that the service should be ‘the best, and best used service in the country’. A city such as Glasgow, he said, ‘is entitled to no less’.

Since then, in only three years, the service has forged ahead. A key point is that achievements have come from ‘learning pragmatically from others’. Nothing that has been done is ‘rocket science or unique’. The service has ‘simply — and consistently — developed solutions that are relevant to the city’. In practical terms, that means that the library service has aligned its objectives with the agendas of both the Scottish Executive and the Westminster government. He is unrepentant about this: ‘Personally I feel this is right — they are the priorities for any public library.’ But it has had the enormously important benefit of capturing political support.

Personal commitment

One senses that Martyn Wade’s campaign to transform services has been driven by a personal commitment to public libraries, and a clarity of vision about their purpose in the information age. There is no half-hearted buy-in to government objectives here, born of political necessity and a need to rub along with the party in power. If there had been only this, it would have been hard to secure the necessary commitment from library staff and other agencies.

Each innovation in individual parts of the service has been used as a demonstrator of potential, to build confidence and credibility and attract funding and commitment for the next. The service as a whole has aimed to deliver ‘a strong and consistent vision to customers, staff councillors and external and other partners,’ Martyn says. To ensure its credibility as a provider and partner, ‘all plans and promises were delivered or exceeded’. Where circumstances have changed and needs redefined themselves, these plans have been ‘replaced with ones of equal importance, and these have always been underpinned by a commitment to quality, an intention to make every new service introduced the best possible’.

A key goal was to challenge the stereotype of public libraries, and connotations of dowdiness and lacklustre service. All Glasgow’s branches have set out to present ‘a new, open, welcoming and contemporary image’. This has been achieved using a multi-pronged approach, from training the staff to ensure they have the skills to deliver the new services, to throwing out old furniture, reorganising space and making the most of light, fresh paint, and some simple but effective design concepts.

Perhaps key ingredients of the success are the high priority placed on improving communication, the open and delegated style of management, the emphasis on planning, and the encouragement of innovation and risk-taking, without a culture of blame.

Armed with what he describes as ‘a strong commitment to partnership working’, he set out to meet ‘as many people and organisations as possible’ during his first few months, encouraging the development of partnership with and beyond the council. It has both raised the profile of the service enormously, and enabled the development of a wider range of services. Often these have been supported by additional resources.

Martyn benefited from the timing of his arrival, and from not having been associated with the newly resolved dispute. But he also brought with him from Cambridge experience of some impressive partnership initiatives, and some particularly positive experience with lifelong learning (LLL). He had discovered that the development of LLL facilities could act as a catalyst for the other changes required to modernise a service.

Legacy of the earlier service

In 1999, when he took over, Glasgow had just had its first stage Best Value review (BVR). This was not good. ‘It included some unflinching criticism of the service, reflecting the lack of investment over the past 20 years. Issues included a steady decline in use since 1993/94, opening hours that did not reflect customer needs, a low level of service innovation, low staff morale, restricted staff training, and a lack of clear service aims and objectives or strategy for the future’. And there had been that long-running dispute with the three unions.

Glasgow City Council had been restructured in 1998 and a new Cultural and Leisure Services Department had been created. This comprised Libraries and Archives, Museums and Galleries, Arts, Play and Community Facilities, and Sport. When the BVR came out, it also identified some key strengths. These included the quality and distribution of the service points across the city, and relatively high revenue expenditure. There was also the Mitchell Library, a world-renowned reference library, with a unique collection of historical printed, illustrative and manuscript collections, and a range of in-house specialist skills and expertise.

The Best Value review set out four clear functions for the service:

• education and learning;
• information;
• culture and leisure;
• community.

It also identified the need for the service to respond to Glasgow City Council’s key objectives, especially social and digital inclusion, social and economic regeneration, and health. The challenges were particularly pronounced because Glasgow has one of the poorest levels of educational attainment in Scotland, and a low skill base among workers. It also has the worst health record in Europe.

New opportunities opening up

At the time, opportunities were opening up. The People’s Network was developing, and both Westminster and the Scottish Parliament had recognised the potential role of public libraries in developing the information, lifelong learning and e-government agendas. The challenge, by no means a small one, was to ‘exploit the opportunities, build on the strengths of the service, and reinvent it, to meet the needs of the city in the 21st century’.

The second stage of the BV review came out in November 1999, a little more than six months after Martyn joined Glasgow. This new report was based on wide customer and public consultation. It clarified the vision for the city council — including the need to develop lifelong learning services. It also set out action plans for each of the roles. There was already a fund of £550,000 to develop learning centres, which had been agreed following publication of stage one. To this was added a new training budget of £150,000 to reskill staff (this would play an important role), and a commitment that savings generated as a result of the review would be reinvested in the service.

New staff contracts

Having a vision is one thing. Realising it is another. There remained the question of morale. Staff had been issued with new job descriptions and contracts shortly before Martyn arrived. The contracts had been a way of dealing with sensitive issues such as rates of pay for unsocial hours working (e.g. Sunday opening), and allowing requirements for ICT-related roles to be included in job descriptions. But the matter of staffing structure had not been tackled. Glasgow was traditionally hierarchical. This was inappropriate if there was to be a more complex and innovative service. What the city needed, Martyn says, was ‘a new culture, that would be more customer- and service-driven, an environment of mutual trust and respect, encouraging innovation and risk taking, and a commitment to integrate service within the department and across the council’. The issuing of new contracts had not done much for mutual respect.

Building staff morale

He knew he had to look forward, not back. ‘I decided there was no point having an inquest, and I would only look to the future when discussing staffing issues,’ he says. An interim structure, based on a smaller and more focused management team, was agreed and put in place by the end of the year.

This team started from scratch. They built a structure to reflect the new agenda for the service. It focused on three core areas: information, community libraries and ‘service development’. Each would report to a member of the management team. Two hundred posts were abolished but 202 were created. The staff were appointed by competitive interview. Martyn does not gloss over the difficulties of this solution. ‘It proved to be complex, and at times painful, but it gave many staff the opportunity to demonstrate enthusiasm and commitment.’ They were asked individually what they thought would most improve the service — or the part of it they provided directly. It was an opportunity to contribute to the vision, and to make a difference for which they were personally responsible. And it helped ‘enormously’ to promote the culture change from which the Glasgow population is now benefiting.

Gaining credibility with lifelong learning

Lifelong learning was the area which provided the first opportunity to demonstrate the service was fit for purpose. The BVR had produced, in Martyn’s words, ‘an evidence-based assessment of both the strengths and weaknesses of the service, as well as an action plan that showed how improvements could be made’. He wanted to outline a new direction for the service, and to encourage potential partnerships in all aspects of service development and delivery. Scottish Enterprise Glasgow (SEG), which was looking at improving the skills of the city’s workforce, was impressed by his initial vision. Together, in September 1999, Libraries and Leisure and SEG set up a new city-wide partnership, which they called Real. It included FE, HE and others involved in lifelong learning.

‘World-class’ learning centres

It was based on a commitment to high-quality open learning centres in every library, delivering SEG’s learning packages which really addressed the city’s needs. This went well beyond the requirements of the People’s Network. The intention was that customers should be able to learn in a pleasant, visually complementary online learning environment. The project as a whole would demonstrate the potential of libraries to encourage and inspire people to take part in lifelong learning. The new centres would also act as a catalyst for modernising the library service, creating a fresh image and innovative services that would challenge the stereotype of the traditional book-based lending library.

The first two centres — Shettleston and Ibrox — opened in early 2000, less than three months after they had been planned. They were described by the Minister for Enterprise and Lifelong Learning as ‘world-class’. The fact that there was such a short interval between planning and execution was important in establishing the service’s credibility and ability to achieve change rapidly and effectively.

A further 12 centres opened at the end of 2001, and another13 this summer. The rest will open by the end of the year. In the meantime the Real partnership goes from strength to strength. Individual libraries have benefited from its branding, and from the quality learning materials developed by SEG. Public libraries complement the formal learning in FE and HE, and the libraries have supported non-library based developments, such as workplace learning. In a recent development, BT has provided £100,000 to support a mobile learning centre — Real on the Road — to work in some of the most deprived areas of the city. Working through the Real Partnership, SEG has come up with more than £30,000 to provide satellite communications to ensure high-speed connectivity wherever Real on the Road is in Glasgow.

Such was the impact of the learning centres that adult community education was formally transferred to the library service in April this year, and an integration of the council’s informal learning services is currently under way.

Community libraries get a facelift too

Previously described as lending libraries, Glasgow’s community libraries offered poor information services, and ran as individual service points rather than as a network. They had leisure and informal material, with rather low-level learning collections, and limited video and audiovisual services. But the development of the Real lifelong learning centres has led to improvements in every library, supported by significant investment by the council. In particular, new and comfortable armchairs, settees and other soft furnishings are being introduced, together with refreshment facilities in every service point.

There is growing capital investment in new libraries too, including one in the Gorbals (a long-standing commitment). Pollok (in shared premises with the leisure centre) opened in 1999. A new library at GoMA, the Glasgow Museum of Modern Art, opened in July this year, and new libraries at Anniesland, Springburn (in the leisure centre) and Barmulloch (in the community centre) are planned over the next year. Shared premises are a key strategy — not just for cost reduction (which helps) but for the proactive development of joint services and events.

Everywhere, resources are put to their best use. There is only a relatively small fund for non-book materials. With videos, the service tries to provide material that customers would not see elsewhere. It focuses on children’s videos, classic films, and world cinema, and promotes these acquisitions. It also circulates stock. A developing partnership with the Glasgow Film Theatre will add a new dimension. Most authorities operate their video lending service on a self-financing/cost-recovery basis. Glasgow was able to fund the purchase of new stock by borrowing from other funds (with corporate approval), then recouping the loan from hire fees.

Co-locating services

The Best Value review in 1999 focused on the benefits of co-locating services. The first such service was Pollok, located within a leisure centre. While this provided some savings, the key benefit was in the development of joint programmes and activities for customers.

In the city centre, however, is a project on a much grander scale. Stirling Library had been relocated from its original building, which was then converted into the Gallery of Modern Art. The service did not thrive in its new location. Then, in 2000, the library basement was badly flooded. Repairs would have cost around £70,000 — £100,000. Given the success of the Pollok venture, Martyn suggested that the library should be relocated to the original building, and share the premises with GoMA. A new style of service, a visual arts-focused learning centre and library, would directly complement and support the work of the gallery, while also generating some savings.

The principle was accepted, and architects commissioned to develop a cost-effective building which could be marketed as a single service point — rather than a separate library and gallery. New signing and progress towards integrated opening have reinforced the message and a joint programme of activities is under way. The library is open seven days a week, including three evenings. The gallery has followed suit!

The city centre location of the library required a different feel to reflect its art-focused ambience and its target market — families, the growing local population (with many young professionals), and tourists. A Costa coffee bar was sited in the library to attract this audience. Books to suit (focusing on the arts) were supplied from the Mitchell Library flagship reference library. It was intended that the international/informal/visual art focus to the book stock would provide items for people to browse and dip into, as well as to borrow.

Finance for the new facility came from the funds for repairs after flood damage, supported by the People’s Network. The library hosts a Real learning centre and internet cafe. Additional capital expenditure was approved on the basis of anticipated longer-term savings, from shared premises. This new type of library encapsulated many of the priorities (including lifelong learning) identified by the Best Value review.

New plans for the Mitchell Library

The Mitchell Library is one of the largest public reference libraries in Europe and has some important collections. It has iconic status in Glasgow as one of the most well-known buildings in the city, but has been separated from the city centre by the M8 motorway (although it is more visible than before from the motorway itself).

The library had suffered a long-term decline in use, particularly by students, who had benefited from improved facilities at universities in the city. It is, moreover, a difficult building to use — for customers and staff — because it has undergone various phases of development, resulting in different floor levels.

The Mitchell needed to maintain its unique role as a public research and reference library but develop new services to attract local people into the building, with visitor and interpretative exhibitions to bring the treasures and unique collections to life for everyone.

New roles envisaged for the Mitchell included:

• supporting lifelong learning;
• acting as the hub of a new digital information service;
• providing an integrated genealogy, family and local history service;
• acting as a visitor and tourist attraction targeted at the citizens of Glasgow, and British and international tourists.

The plans for development are phased. Phase 1 opens the building up by sweeping away barriers to use, creating a welcoming public space on the ground floor with direct access to community library and information and study services. It is intended to demonstrate the relevance for everyone of a service which is currently admired by the people of Glasgow, but not often used by them. This phase includes a new cafe-bar, surf room, and retail and informal spaces designed to be an attraction in themselves, bringing more people into the library and encouraging current customers to stay longer. New high-profile exhibition facilities will be supported by a programme of activities and events in partnership with other organisations. This, too, should encourage wider use of the collections and services.

Phase 2 will see the creation of an interactive visitor attraction that will bring the collections of the Mitchell — especially its unique treasures — to life. It is hoped that by telling stories that relate the items to people’s lives, customers will be encouraged to move across into the library areas and make use of the library’s resources.

Lobbying leads to increased resources

The library service has lobbied vigorously for recognition of its role in supporting the council’s information and e-government initiatives. Its persistence has paid off. A further £1.6m has been earmarked to upgrade learning centres to an even higher standard, and introduce a digital information service throughout the city. Additional resources have been provided to enable the library service to redevelop the city council’s website.

When you see what has been achieved, it is hard to believe that it has all happened in three years. There is a lot still to be done, as Martyn says: ‘We have made enormous progress, but we’ve been realistic in our approach. Glasgow has gained a reputation for cutting edge developments, but many core areas still need improving and developing.’ It may be pragmatic, but could it have happened without that personal vision and drive?

Martyn is quick to point out that Glasgow’s successes, which he agrees have been been rapid and impressive, ‘have been achieved by the involvement and support of colleagues at all levels’. He singles out the Libraries, Information and Learning management team for praise. ‘It has been crucial in ensuring a drive to deliver change and improvement,’ he says, adding that the support of the Culture and Leisure Services management has also been vital, particularly in developing political support for the new vision. Perhaps the other key is humility — ‘Glasgow has been keen to learn from and share with others. There is no monopoly of good ideas, and if someone has one we can use or adapt, we do so, with enthusiasm!’

But perhaps it is a good thing that Martyn is a fast worker. Having made the difference at Glasgow, he is due to take up the post of National Librarian, Scottish National Library, on 30 September. Watch this space.

Elspeth Hyams is Editor of Library & Information Update.