What happens when a library is attacked by far-right rioters? Denise Jones, Acting Customer Services Manager, Liverpool Central Library, explains how the library service and the community reacted to events at the Spellow Library Hub in Liverpool.

The mass stabbings and deaths of three children in Southport led to online speculation and misinformation about the identity of their killer and then to riots, with premises being attacked and looted. One of these was the Spellow Library Hub in Liverpool, which was targeted on Saturday 3 August.

Denise Jones, Acting Customer Services Manager, Liverpool Central Library, said: “My colleague Mark Wareing, who manages the community libraries, and I are both on Liverpool City Council’s business continuity plan, so we found out pretty quickly, late on the Saturday evening. I didn’t quite believe it at first and the question is always ‘why?’

“Staff began to WhatsApp me with images and questions, particularly those staff who worked at the library hub. They were very distressed having worked so hard for the previous 12 months to develop a popular and well-used community library service.”

Pressure for information was coming from all directions, and “as line managers our priorities were to assume a staff support role as well as liaison with senior Council Officers, Directors, Councillors and our Communications Team.”

Prepared for the worst

Denise said she turned to the plans that were already in place, explaining: “Local ­authorities do have disaster and business continuity plans in place that cover many scenarios and I’m sure that’s the same for academic and health sectors. We also have a lot of corporate training around this.

“As a City Council service, we have robust business continuity plans and disaster plans that are invoked if there is a crisis. We work with the public and manage staff and buildings so senior library managers are used to dealing with serious issues as they arise. In some ways this means we don’t panic; we just work through processes that have already been tested on previous occasions and we know our roles. These are skills all senior managers in public libraries would recognise.”

Sudden role changes What did following these pre-planned processes mean in practice? Denise says that having a plan helped, but speed and flexibility was still very much needed. “I work within the Service Management Team as Customer Services Manager as does my colleague Mark. We had just lost our Head of Service to retirement, so Mark, the Spellow Library Hub Manager, Deborah Moore and I found ourselves very much at the forefront of communications and logistical planning to relocate services. For my part I worked with our communications and press teams to get the right information out to the public via out library social media channels and websites.”

She added that “because there was a lot of focus on replacing books, I also led on managing donations of new and used books and devising a plan and timetable for this. Again, another area where Librarian training, knowledge and experience comes into play.”

At the same time, she said her colleagues were focused elsewhere: “Mark and Deb found themselves in the middle of logistical planning to relocate services, programmes and events, building management as well as suddenly being in the middle of a media storm. They had to develop interview response skills at a pace.”

Biggest challenge

But Denise says one of the biggest challenges as a leader during a crisis is uncertainty. During the riots this was meant now knowing whether the crisis was over. She said: “Our primary concern has always been supporting the library staff through challenging times. The attack on the library was a shock to many of our staff and of course the situation was ongoing with rumours spreading of potential new disorder which of course made everyone anxious. This didn’t materialise but we did work hard to put measures in place to ensure staff concerns and worries were addressed, and their safety took precedence.”

COVID lessons

Asked if the library service benefited from its experience during the pandemic, Denise said: “Public libraries were able to pivot very quickly during COVID-19 due to the diversity of our offers and the fact that we offer information and digital services alongside a physical service… We were back at our library sites delivering library services within a couple of months of the first lockdown using different formats to reach as many people as possible within redesigned health and safety protocols and risk assessments. We also had to manage staff anxieties and concerns. And yes, these were skills we already had in place when we dealt with the aftermath of the disorder at Spellow Library Hub.”

Community

The riots “had the effect of bringing local communities together as they were generated and perpetrated by a minority of people and the majority of people were ashamed and mortified by their actions. This is shown by the immediate support by local, regional, and national communities for our library service and the library staff.”

Asked whether the recent investments in the library had helped motivate the response she said: “That’s an interesting question, but I believe all of our library sites are valued by their local communities, and residents have a sense of ownership whatever their condition… so I think the response would have been the same had this happened at any other community library. The public are connected to the idea and ethos of public libraries and will always come out in support when they are threatened as they are seen as symbols of a civilised society and centres of learning and knowledge that don’t discriminate against anyone.”

Disinformation

One of the drivers of the violence was the dissemination of mis- and disinformation. Asked if the community is more interested in hearing about it now, and if the library service can help, she said: “Absolutely. We are highly invested in digital inclusion activities, and this includes enabling and educating people in how to access verified sources of information and research. Good quality knowledge transfer is key to all library services and is increasingly important as we move to different versions of AI generated information. Maybe this could be a call to action to design library programmes and outreach activities that begin to address this.”

Aftermath

Denise said: “We have been very much involved in general decision making about communications, next steps and planning and we worked very much as a cohesive team at all levels.

“We were able to share our expertise when required and we felt supported. Now as we move away from the initial event and into a recovery phase this is where our library sector experience and specialist skills will be paramount to the success of the reinstatement of services at the site.

She said: “Repair and full restoration work is underway, and we intend to have a major relaunch of the site when the works have been completed with plenty of community events and programmes planned for Spellow Library Hub.”

A crowdfunder set up by Alex McCormick for the library hub had already passed £250,000 (at the time of writing),And Denise says the funds “will be used on books and equipment that will improve and enable access to reading and learning resources. So, we are looking forward to getting back to ‘Business as Usual’ but even better thanks to the support of the community and the determination of Liverpool City Council to restore our services.”

Read CILIP President Sue Williamson’s take on the role of libraries and librarians in supporting a community here.