Isobel Hunter, CEO of Libraries Connected, discusses how the sector is demonstrating its best innovation while facing its worst financial crisis.

ISOBEL Hunter became the first Chief Executive of Libraries Connected in 2018. As a reincarnation of the Association of Chief Librarians, one of Libraries Connected’s achievements was to use professional staff as well as volunteer members. During this process Libraries Connected has had to learn to juggle a number of complex factors, first through Covid, and now in what looks like another financial crisis, at least for public services.

Membership moves

One factor is that the membership of Libraries Connected is becoming more complex. “It’s very different, if you wind back 20 years where you had chief librarians. Now you look at our members and you don’t always have the word library in their job titles. There’s a common pattern when someone retires or leaves, the role is reviewed and often it either gets broader – so it’s no longer just libraries, but libraries plus culture or leisure – or it slips down the hierarchy. When people leave, the council says ‘we might as well merge the head of libraries with this head of culture post’ and neither the culture service or the library service get much attention or have de facto heads. So, it’s much more complex than it was and more challenging to be a library leader now.”

This change is also happening faster: “People who have been around for a long time feel that it’s a bit like a washing machine, that change is happening more quickly, and I think that most regions would feel that over the past couple of years they’ve lost some of their really experienced people, people who have been a bit like a rock for their peers.”

Diverse roots

Isobel says that the nearly 180 different library authorities have “historic roots growing out of so many different places including mechanics’ institute libraries, religious libraries and subscription libraries. So, the narrative should be not about a national library system falling apart but a grass-roots movement that needs to work together. Our starting point is that no two library services will have the same arrangement, even on small details like how they pay their energy bills or the level of control they have over their buildings. Even ones that look the same on the surface can operate quite differently, for example, in one the building team is responsive but in another, with the same arrangement, they never get a reply.”

Institutions with national roles, like Libraries Connected need to work with this diversity rather than try to override it. Isobel says: “It’s not about libraries being deliberately quirky or individualistic, it’s about them being locally responsive. And particularly now when libraries are at the cutting edge of a local authority evolution, sometimes called ABCD, or asset based community development. There has been a shift from the town hall directly delivering services and trying to run everything in a sort of paternalistic model, to a mindset of ‘how do we build strengths in communities, how do we work with the assets and networks that are there’.” She sees the role of the local authority as defining need, collating and facilitating partnerships, “which is why I think it’s really important that libraries retain that locally agile way of working, because when it works well, you’ve got libraries with fantastic partnerships and reach deep into communities.”

Top down

The complexity of the grass roots is almost matched by complexity at the national level. Comparing public libraries with archives she says: “When the Museums Libraries and Archives Council was ‘quangoed’, leadership for archives was consolidated at The National Archives. However, in libraries it fractured a bit more and it’s now a much more complex landscape.”

But the impact need not be negative as Isobel points out: “It’s really a time thing. When you have several players in the field you need to take more time to coordinate to ensure you are not duplicating or saying things that contradict each other… you don’t want to be competing against each other.

“Library leadership bodies have got to really work hard together to make sure we have clearly defined roles so that Libraries Connected, CILIP, the BL, DCMS, Arts Council and ASCEL don’t all end up trying to do the same thing in different ways, or leave massive gaps where ­nobody is doing anything. There’s enough work for all of us, we all just need to put quite a lot of time into making sure that we’re working together effectively.”

Hard times

“Times are really hard,” says Isobel. “It feels like the best of times because there’s amazing innovation happening in public libraries, and the worst of times because the financial environment for local authorities is really hard.

“A lot of councils are tackling big deficits. These might not be immediate, but they are coming down the line and then there’s no sign that the Government – whatever its stripe or make up may be – is going to address that funding crisis.”

At the same time, she says: “The need for council services is rising all the time, the cost-of-living crisis means a lot more people living in disadvantaged, deprived circumstances and the thing that is really costing money is adult and children’s social care, so the broad financial environment is really tough for everybody.”

Old options

One of the options presented to councils 10 years ago was outsourcing their libraries. Asked if this was being discussed again she said: “Not at the moment. But spinning out is always on the table when councils are pressed by immediate and long-term funding pressures.” But she added: “There’s a lot more understanding now that it isn’t so much about the governance model – it’s the leadership. Well-led, well-managed services are better, whether they are in-house or out-house.”

“The process of spinning-out means a lot of management time has been spent on looking at that service and understanding its mission and vision. So, there’s a lot of prep time for spinning-out. That time investment is really valuable and it certainly has been in Hertfordshire, where they were all ready to spin-out, but then reversed the decision due to the changed landscape post-pandemic. They had invested all that management time, thinking and leadership time in there, and that has all been for the good.”

New solutions

Isobel said this process of investing management attention is replicable without spinning out: “Things like the LGA and Arts Council Funded peer review. Library services that have been through it have found it immensely useful because it’s a chance to pause, get some outsiders’ eyes to look at how you’re doing things and make helpful suggestions. That’s the thinking behind library service accreditation: it’s a tool that can help you review and think through what you’re delivering with the community at the heart, what are their needs and therefore what should your library service look like and how are you going to deliver…”

She said: “Our ambition is to use accreditation to shift those difficult conversations with councils, from ‘what is the minimum that we need to deliver?’ to ‘what can you do to make best use of your resources and meet your community’s needs?’

“A lot of work that we’re doing now is about advocacy at heads of service level, because it’s the heads of service who are, every day of the week, having to make the case to their funders, senior officers and elected members. So a big focus of our work is around putting advocacy material, argument and data, in the hands of heads of service.”

A second interview with Isobel will be published in January.