Tony Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 That's the legacy left by the last government for you. Lessons learned hopefully, we don't want a repeat of this mess. As a point of interest, how many loans were made by the mobile library service last year? The figures don't seem to be available. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PeteM01 Posted February 21, 2011 Share Posted February 21, 2011 That's the legacy left by the last government for you. Lessons learned hopefully, we don't want a repeat of this mess. Judging by the complete lack of effective controls of banks by the coalition and the slashing of the taxes to be paid by them in future, I would suggest that no lessons have been learned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat145 Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Here's how slight the cuts in Sheffield's library services are : Friday 4th of March will see Sheffield City Council finalise its budget (not without a protest outside the Town Hall though…). The proposed cuts to Sheffield Library Service will mean a massively reduced mobile library capacity, reductions in opening hours at most branches and the loss of around 33 full-time staff posts. There's an e-petition on the council's website if anyone wants to petition the council to reconsider the Mobile Library Service reduction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 How many loans were made by the mobile service last year? This data would at least help to provide some context about what is being reduced. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat145 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 How many loans were made by the mobile service last year? This data would at least help to provide some context about what is being reduced. Don't know where you'd get the information from. The cutting of 4 vans down to 1 would mean that the service won't be able to visit anything like the number of nurseries, residential homes, and other locations that it presently does. That's the issue. People won't realise that they're not going to get a visit, until the cuts actually happen. By then it's too late, cos they'll have sold or scrapped the vans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Well, I ask because the loan stat's are on the council's website for every other library other than the mobile ones. I thought that they were on there a couple of weeks ago but I couldn't swear to it. In all seriousness, if the stat's say that they each made say 250 loans a week, could they be justified? At what point do we say that they aren't a good use of public money in straightened times. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat145 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 In all seriousness, if the stat's say that they each made say 250 loans a week, could they be justified? At what point do we say that they aren't a good use of public money in straightened times. Well, the council has a statutory duty to provide a comprehensive library service to all. In fact, legal challenges to the cuts are being made in Somerset & Gloucestershire. Many of the people that the Sheffield Mobile Library Service visit are not well served by static libraries, in some cases because previous cuts have closed their local branches, and in others because we've never provided a local static library. You might say that we are heading for the death of a library service by a thousand cuts! :-) Other folk are infirm and wouldn't find it easy , or even possible, to carry a few books any distance. I'm sure that they really appreciate the service. Yes, we have to decide how we spend what council money is available. Some will support one thing, others will support other niche interests, others will insist that pothole repairs are more important. Literature and it's availability to all, is one aspect of a civilised society that I'd support. Getting kids to read is really important, in my view, for a variety of reasons. If we making cuts across the board to cover the 15% loss of funding (or whatever the real figures actually is), then it seems disproportionate to hit mobile libraries with a 75% cut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 That's all well and good and I agree with many of your laudable sentiments. But I asked at what point is a mobile library not a good use of public money? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pat145 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 That's all well and good and I agree with many of your laudable sentiments. But I asked at what point is a mobile library not a good use of public money? Difficult to say, because I don't have access to all the figures, or enough information to compare with other uses of public money. It also depends on what value you put on all the other ways that we spend public money. I'm trying to argue that a few thousand spent on providing books to kids, older folk, and relatively isolated people is money well spent, and is being cut disproportionately compared with other aspects of council spending. I don't think it's being cut because it's not good use of public money, but because it's an easy target and that is what council officials and councillors are looking for, when making snap judgements about how to balance the books. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 In an ideal world everything would be wonderful, libraries plentiful, bookshelves full and mobile libraries visiting every street corner and the last government wouldn't have screwed us up. Obviously that's not the case. If they were going for the easy option wouldn't they have done the same as Manchester, Birmingham, and others? The mobile library comes up to us every week and I really can't say that I've noticed anyone using it at all. This is why the numbers would be useful in making some sort of assessment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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