Government figures are a nonsense, anyway.

A copy of the cipfa dataset that shows all the library authorities visits and issues paints a really grim picture for the library sector. Even during the good times of New Labour when the public sector was awash with money the service was declining alarmingly. It doesn't matter which of the trends you look at, for most of the library services it has been all downhill:

Wales and Northern Ireland are doing significantly better on issues than England and Scotland. I don't think our friends in those countries have different reading levels and habits than us in England and Scotland. There really is a lot of fail to go round. I can't blame it all on Vaizey this time.

Even more interestingly some of the library authorities have completely bucked the trend on the issues/loans. Below are the ten worst and ten best on percentage change on loans from 03/04 to 13/14:

The Southwark figure looks iffy, but I'm not sure why. I know there are potential disparities in how visits data could be collected but the numbers for issues/loans should be consistently collected and we're looking at like for like.

What I don't understand is, councils up and down the land have gone to great trouble to submit this data and what have the DCMS being doing with it? Nothing it looks like. I presume they know how to used spreadsheets in that department. I know the department of transport has trouble making calculations for rail franchises, perhaps the DCMS are scared in case they get a formula wrong or something?

There is clearly lessons to be learned and bollockings to be given based on this data but because there's zero leadership in the sector as Vaizey is always non-minded, I suspect nothing will be done by the DCMS. Perhaps the Libraries taskforce can look into what the formula for success is and try and spread this best practice around publically so we all know what works and what doesn't.

The full data is here, if you have any idea why some authorites are doing well and some seem to be completely useless please let someone know.

He can talk in clichés till the cows come home

I haven't written anything on libraries for a while. But today a couple of things got me riled up enough to commit finger to key. The first is the super amazing Birmingham library service have stopped purchasing books, presumably to service their grotesque PFI monstrosity of a central library. Their website alone cost over a million! The second is Alan Gibbons has reissued his debate challenge to the libraries minister Ed Vaizey.

On the first point, on the library service not buying books. To me, this seems on the surface of it a clear breach of the act. It makes specific reference to "of securing, by the keeping of adequate stocks" and if a library authority isn't buying books, then to me it seems a breach of the act. Of course we know already that anything that isn't adhered to in the act isn't going to cause Lazy Vaizey or his minions at the DCMS to batter a eyelid. And my big concern is like we've seen with volunteer libraries, once one starts getting away with it, the others will and not buying books will start to spread across the 151 library authorities. This horrible race to the bottom will end up meaning library services do become nothing more than volunteer run book exchanges, with one central library building sucking up the library budget to service the PFI. Its actually a step worse than the hospital without patients episode of yes minister. This is a hospital without patients or beds.

On the second point, from what I've seen. Vaizey is a blustering coward. He's like Boris Johnson without the Latin or charisma. The DCMS has clearly tried to dodge on his behalf by suggesting a panel debate or having the debate when nobody could turn up. The man's record is awful and I'm not surprised if he's scared to defend it. A kitten with a hernia would wipe the floor with him based on his record. Alan would make mincemeat of him. If Vaizey isn't going to enforce any part of the act or hold library authorities to account for their incompetence and mismanagement and he himself refuses to submit to any form of scrutiny then what's the point of him?

Everything is at risk

Oxfordshire County Council (OCC) is preparing for another round of cuts and seems to have forgotten that libraries are a statutory service. At a meeting yesterday Cllr Lawrie Stratford painted a bleak picture for services, using the phrase "Some services may have to be removed and we have to be upfront about that"

OCC designated 21 libraries non-statutory in the last round of cuts and supposedly saved 313k by cutting the staffing in these libraries. The decision was taken most undemocratically by David Camoron and the then leader of the council. Even the deputy leader of the council admitted the consultation was a sham. See here for the sorry history.

But despite the dodgy decision making and the fact it doesn't really save any money (they continue to ignore the costs) the direction of travel seems to be more volunteers in libraries, presumably making more or all libraries non-statutory or cutting the funding and staffing to the non-statutory libraries altogether.

The current leader of OCC was at No 10 today:

A good location to talk about the challenges for local government pic.twitter.com/m2b4iWihwy

— Ian Hudspeth (@ianhudspeth) May 27, 2015

I've blogged before about the ever increasing service support costs and yet again they've increased:

This time by £575,306, in one year far exceeding the supposed 313k savings. The council have said this is because the library service is taking a increased share of the fixed costs as other services have shrunk. I've no idea if this is true or not but you can throw as many volunteers at you want at services and sack the low paid library managers, it isn't going to solve the problem of increasing property costs every year. I've also blogged before about how OCC should be looking at shared services with BucksCC to pool this back office costs to save the front office. You'd expect the Tories as the party of supposed small government would have went here first but it seems clear the tail is still wagging the dog and the front line is yet again going to take the brunt of the cuts in the library service. It all looks very bleak and I feel sorry for the staff in the library service having to face this uncertainty yet again. Despite "everything is at risk" and how bleak things are, in the height of hypocrisy, the council still managed to vote for a 19% increase in allowances a few months ago. If things are so bad, I think that should also be on the table and the average cuts to services should be applied to the councillor "allowances".

If a library closes in the New Forest, does Vaizey make a sound?

Tomorrow or over the next few weeks we may have a new minister responsible for libraries. Considering the three main parties are uninterested and have no real policies for the library service, very little is likely to change. What is important, is if and when the current post holder Vaizey leaves office, we make sure his legacy for hypocrisy and inaction sticks with his name. Much in the same way Beeching is linked to the destruction of the branch lines, Vaizey's name must be linked to the destruction of the public library service.

We know how good he was in opposition, his now famous quote about the Wirral in 2009:

"Andy Burnham's refusal to take action in the Wirral effectively renders the 1964 Public Libraries Act meaningless. While it is local authorities' responsibility to provide libraries, the Act very clearly lays responsibility for ensuring a good service at the culture secretary's door. It Andy Burnham is not prepared to intervene when library provision is slashed in a local authority such as the Wirral, it is clear that he is ignoring his responsibilities as secretary of state, which in the process renders any sense of libraries being a statutory requirement for local authorities meaningless."

When compared with his inaction in office during the closure of hundreds of libraries, book stock cut and large numbers of libraries dumped on volunteers, the quote will go down as one of the biggest bits of hypocrisy we've ever seen from a politician.

This is also from the man who admitted that he was "completely useless" and got more exercised and angry by the fact he wasn't allowed a Xbox in his office than the destruction of the library service, which he is bound by law to superintend.

The fact that he has a very safe seat and is unlikely to ever be voted out is particularly annoying for those of us who have watched his mixture of inaction and incompetence and want to hold him to account. I do hope that he isn't in post after the dust settles from the election, I cannot imagine anyone else doing a worse job. We just have to make sure that his name is always linked to the destruction of large parts of the public library service.

Bye bye Ed, don't let the door hit you on your lazy arse on the way out.

Update 09/05/15

Despite the clear majority win by the Tories, hopefully we may still have a different libraries minister who can tell the difference between his arse and elbow and actually cares about his job:

Ed Vaizey MP said he'd love to retain brief as Minister of state for Culture and Digital Economy but he will most likely find out on Monday.

— Callum Keown (@OxMailCallumK) May 8, 2015