Agenda item

·         The Committee wishes to record its thanks to the anchor organisations, their staff and many volunteers for all the hard work they have put into developing, and providing, a wide range of resources and activities for local people. The Committee was impressed with the progress already made in engaging local people, delivering improvements in the buildings and in delivering a wide range of activities and support at each location.

·         The Committee notes that the library and information service is still in transition after its recent restructure, and that the community libraries are still developing. The Committee also notes that the anchor organisations consider they would benefit from further developing the supportive working relationships they are building across the three organisations.

·         The Committee urges the Mayor and Cabinet to continue to do all it can to keep all of the libraries operating fully, and to continue to support the close working relationships between the anchor organisations and the Council’s library and information service.

RESOLVED: To refer the views noted to the Mayor and Cabinet

Aileen Buckton introduced the report. The key points to note were:

·         The Community Libraries model is a key element of the future provision of library services in Lewisham.

·         The Council library services offered from community libraries are not the same as those offered from the core Council library buildings: although the Council continues to mange and maintain a reduced book stock for library users, no Council staff are based a the community library

·         Self issue terminals will enable users to access the stock on site and a catalogue of more than five million books across the London Libraries Consortium

·         Staff of the “anchor” organisation ensure that the building is open to the public at agreed times and many be able to assist with general enquiries regarding services available in the building. They also provide some of the activities that took place in the former Council libraries and actively promote reading, learning and library information to residents. The Staff also receive training to enable tem to actively support users to manage their own library accounts

·         Three buildings, Crofton Park, Grove Park and Sydenham were transferred to the social enterprise active in the area of computer recycling and training: Eco Computer Systems

·         Blackheath library closed in May and the services has been relocated in the Reminiscence Centre run by Age Exchange. This is currently being redeveloped and will become a major community resource which will house the community library. The library is currently temporarily located in the Bakehouse until the new building is completed next October.

·         The New Cross Peoples Library have been grated a tenancy at will by the Council on the premises in New Cross RD, currently until 2012. The organisation is not yet fully legally constituted and is receiving developmental support from Bold Vision, in whose name the tenancy has been issued

·         Eco Computer systems are in the final stages of negotiation regarding the lease on their three buildings

·         Age Exchange have signed a letter of acceptance of funding from the council in relation to the development of their reminiscence Centre building

·         Overall, Libraries performance has been disappointing over the last seven moths, in part due to the extent ant timings of changes to the service. Issues and visits have been adversely affected by the service wide staffing restructure that took place simultaneously with the implementation of new technologies and working practices

·         There are signs that performance is beginning to improve and staff and the anchor organisations are all fully committed to ensuring that it continues to do so.

·         There are different expectations for outcomes and outputs for the 5 community libraries and the buildings that house them, and those expectations will be developed and negotiated with the anchor organisations over time

In response to questions, Aileen Buckton, Antonio Rizzo, Sir Ian Mills, Darren Taylor, Gill Hart and Kathy Dunbar advised:

·         Four of the five community libraries will be utilising self service, Age Exchange have decided not to in Blackheath at this time as they are currently in a temporary building

·         Self issue is the key to customers accessing the full catalogue of books at all sites, there is a 50p charge for any request from the London Libraries Consortium service and 75p charge for interlibrary loans, including the British libraries, officers are looking at ways to waive the cost if the request is for an item that is available in Lewisham stock

·         There is currently a 2-7 day delivery turnaround for requests, the variation depends on when the order is placed and the route of the delivery van – the library with the stock sends the book to the central point where it is then shipped out to the location requested

·         Work is being done on building back up the usage of libraries by local schools – Gill Hart advised that there are three primary schools that use the New Cross Library regularly, with a number of classes from each coming in at different times, so they currently have 12 classes or school children coming in each week, and two local nurseries are also starting to come in regularly

·         All the publicity about libraries being closed is thought by the Council and the anchor organisations to have had a negative impact on usage, with some people expressing surprise when they find the libraries still open for use.

·         Age Exchange currently has 80 trained volunteers supporting the library service it is hosting in its temporary building, and the full range of services to be made available are currently being advertised locally. Local opponents of the change originally, are now working closely as volunteers with age exchange to develop the library and other services

·         New Cross Peoples library advise that the usage figures are for the library usage alone and don’t; reflect the fact that they had 6000 people use the building in November, and they have a large number of volunteers supporting the library and promoting it to local people and they have a large number of groups using the library including: a knitting group, a baby bounce group, English classes, poetry workshops as well as a good relationship with Goldsmiths College meaning a large number of students use the services regularly

·         Darren Taylor advised that there are a large range of services across the three libraries and that Cafes have been, or are in the process of being installed at all three sites. There are over 120 volunteers across the three sites and over 200 people have received training on basic computer skills.  All three sites host Councillors Ward surgeries, supported the summer reading challenge by signing up over 400 children and were involved in Black History Month and support work experience for 14-16 year olds. Sydenham hosts: art and craft classes and maths and English classes for children, teenage weekly reading group, a homework club, CV writing and interview skills. Crofton Park hosts baby bounce and English lessons and work clubs and hosted a Christmas fair that attracted over 600 people.

·         Eco Computer Systems will have repaired the roof of all three buildings by the end of January

·         There is project being developed as part of the London Library Consortium to launch an “app” that enables the whole catalogue on a mobile phone and a stock of ebooks can be downloaded for free

The Committee discussed the evidence it had heard and noted the following:

·         The Committee wishes to record its thanks to the anchor organisations, their staff and many volunteers for all the hard work they have put into developing, and providing, a wide range of resources and activities for local people. The Committee was impressed with the progress already made in engaging local people, delivering improvements in the buildings and in delivering a wide range of activities and support at each location.

·         The Committee notes that the library and information service is still in transition after its recent restructure, and that the community libraries are still developing. The Committee also notes that the anchor organisations consider they would benefit from further developing the supportive working relationships they are building across the three organisations.

·         The Committee urges the Mayor and Cabinet to continue to do all it can to keep all of the libraries operating fully, and to continue to support the close working relationships between the anchor organisations and the Council’s library and information service.

RESOLVED: To refer the views noted to the Mayor and Cabinet