The Croydon rumour mill goes into overdrive on libraries

There have been various reports in the press recently about the possibility of all but one Croydon library closing or being turned over to volunteers or just four core libraries remaining.

And the council has gone silent on their pre-election promise to rip up the contract with Carillion.

They also declined to take up the offer extended to them of advice from Tim Coates, at no cost to the council, to advise them on libraries, although Croydon Labour were very keen to engage with him in opposition.

It might appear that Councillor Timothy Godfrey, the cabinet member responsible, really has no idea what he is doing, but it is suspected that this leaking of possible scenarios is just the council’s way of testing the public’s reactions.

There is talk of a review of libraries, which some believe has already started, but which the Chief Executive, Nathan Elvery has confirmed as still in the planning.

He wrote,

“The Library review has yet to commence, as soon as we are in a position to begin any form of public engagement I will let you know.

regards

Nathan
Nathan Elvery 

Chief Executive”

And, to add to the confusion, we now have conflicting reports regarding closures.  

The first is the promise made by the Council leader, Tony Newman that Norbury will definitely stay open, although it is unclear exactly what this means in terms of level of service, hours, staffing and stock.

The second, is a local blogger who seems to think that four libraries might remain, a plan which includes the closure of Norbury Library.

There are figures quoted in the later post, but those that campaign for libraries know how easy it is to achieve a pre-determined outcome.

Tactics such as reducing the promotion of libraries in general, restricting the stock and greatly reducing the staffing in Croydon libraries all play a part in driving numbers down.  Add to this the reduction of activities offered within in some but not all of the libraries, and it’s not hard to predict the outcome.

Carillion’s Curse – part 2

Keeping track of the situation, some two and a half months on…

It is fair to say that modest progress has been made since the previous post reporting the state of Croydon Central Library back at the end of May.

You ARE now welcome to Croydon Central Library

Gone is the unwelcoming closed entrance shutter that was in place for so many months, 

even if somewhat reluctantly opened….

thanks to the efforts of the lead for Libraries, Cllr Timothy Godfrey.

Sadly though, library users are still so conditioned to going in the exit, the exit is the main entrance for most, even months later.

Lighting, surroundings and outlook

The lighting was dim on all floors months ago, and still is.

Previously some of the seating was in a poor state and, at times, oddly placed.

Now the issue of oddly placed furniture appears to have been remedied but the furniture remains in a poor state with threadbare seating still apparent.

Months ago there was a partly dismantled shelving unit, complete with metal shelving protruding beyond wooden side of unit. 

 

The metal jutting out at child eye level was not even masked until weeks later.

Months on though, the piece of metal has been removed, perhaps as a result of a library user pointing this out to the person doing a health and safety inspection.

Quite what purpose the remaining structure serves nobody knows. It’s still there.

Signage

Previously there were signs everywhere, advising of the systems in place, not to move chairs and tables, where to go when stations on different floors were unstaffed and that staff were no longer able to help on matters such as booking PCs.  There was odd signage too, referring to not plugging in lap tops at points where no sockets existed and not moving chairs from an area with no chairs.

Signs are inconsistently formatted – different colours, fonts and styles – giving an unloved and unprofessional feel to the place.

Other than the removal of some of the notices and colour coding that had been put in place by hastily and poorly applied thick coloured tape across corners of tables to denote study and non study tables, little has changed.

Before

And after

Some signs on tables still remain. Where removed, the cleaning contractors have not even managed to clean the sellotape marks off the tables, leaving grubby marks on surfaces.

Nice!

Promoting what’s on offer

Sadly there is little change here. Shelves are often untidy and trolleys are stacked with unprocessed returns.

Displays are still dismal and the same as those on show months before.

The leaflet racks are often virtually empty.

The Twitter account @CroydonLibs still fails to engage with library users or to promote events.

And notable changes

for the better….

New IT and access to floors is now in working order

At least most, if not all, of the PCs are now in working order, which is a welcome change. Gone are the out of order signs on PCs, on the lifts and the escalator.

Magazines and papers are now readily available on shelves that lay bare before.

Uncertain future, sustainability or effect
Maps are also readily available.

Whether or not they are still available in branch libraries has not been explored though.

Staffing was increased, on occasion, after the previous post went up late May, but quickly dropped to previous levels.

At no time in the past few months have we seen, or anyone we’ve spoken to seen, staff on level 2 or on the ground floor in the children’s library. Signs to direct library users are permanently in place and regular library users know the system well.

Staff are tied to work stations (presumably due to shortage of staffing), rarely on the floor engaging with library users or dealing with stock on shelves and trolleys. Queues at desks are often evident.

Negative
Ever reducing stock
It is of concern that the stock is reducing even further. The proliferation of hazard-taped spots, empty shelving and bare unworn flooring where shelving once stood is ever more apparent.

So what exactly is Croydon getting for their money from Carillion?

 Not a great deal.

Let’s hope the damage can be reversed by the new Labour administration.

Croydon Labour continue to promise a public meeting.

To be fair to Croydon Labour it is early days for the new administration. Nevertheless it is clear that Croydon libraries need urgent action and support.

Liaison with the lead on libraries, Cllr Timothy Godfrey and hid deputy Cllr Oliver Lewis has been sought, with an offer of support. A meeting with the Leader. Cllr Tony Newman, has been held, with promise of more engagement with the campaign.

The new administration is making positive noises about keeping their election pledge to bring Croydon Libraries back in house.

Let’s hope this aim is realised.  It is the only point that has raised serious spontaneous applause at two public meetings in Croydon recently. 

A fresh chapter for libraries, but have we gained?

Many view the Council magazine, Your Croydon, as a waste of time but it comes in handy to remind us what messages and promises were promoted.  Here’s the text from August/September issue, 2013.

“A fresh chapter is about to begin in the history book of the borough’s library
service – and residents stand to gain. 

Increased flexibility and innovation are two of the improvements that library users will notice following changes to be introduced later this year. 

In October, John Laing Integrated Services (JLIS) takes over the management of the libraries from the council, and, although the changes might not be immediately obvious, behind the scenes lots will be happening. 

Most importantly, the new contract guarantees value for money that, in addition to substantial cost savings, will see none of the borough’s libraries facing closure. 

In the short term, people will see improvements to the public computers, and the introduction of wi-fi networks and new self service systems, enabling staff to do more productive work. 

Over time, the changes will allow Croydon’s libraries to become more flexible and innovative – opening times could change to improve access for customers, and some branches might provide a wider range of services to appeal to a larger audience. 

This approach was adopted following cuts in government funding that could have left the council unable to run the current number of branches. Residents, however, made it plain that they valued their libraries too much to let any go. 

The solution to the problem was to use a model that has worked for other formerly council-run services. 

From bin collections to leisure centres, experience has shown that residents can enjoy continued levels of service while, at the same time, the council saves substantial sums of taxpayers’ money. And, although JLIS will be handling the day-to-day management of the service, the council will remain in control, ensuring that planned changes are real improvements that will benefit residents.

And, where are we in May of 2014?

Promised:  

“increased flexibility and innovation”

” improvements to the public computers, and the introduction of wi-fi networks and new self service systems, enabling staff to do more productive work.”

“the council will remain in control, ensuring that planned changes are real improvements that will benefit residents.”

“value for money”

And the reality

• Laing passing the contract to Carillion at a very early stage. In addition to the depleted book stock and the loss of the purpose build library in New Addington, we have:

• far fewer staff, including a further reduction in staffing after Laing & then Carillion took over

• less access to information about the service

• more temporary staff to plug the gaps, often ill-equipped to carry out the job as unaware of information requested

• a major reshuffle of staff, moving staff to areas they are unfamiliar with, and breaking up working teams.

• no increase in self-serve, and none in Central Library where self-serve might help alleviate the long queues due to far fewer staff now man a tiny section of the extensive counter area which was fully manned in previous years.

• loss of phone access to branch libraries, only just reinstated but poorly advertised so most are unaware
•  time-intensive and prescriptive study pass system in Central Library, where students must register each day for a pass, seek a pass for breaks (half-hour max), and queue for access to colour-coded tables. ‘Yellow tables’ are out of bounds for studying, ‘blue tables’ are for studying and ‘red tables’ are the most prized of all – giving access to a plug socket!
• faltering IT. The new PCs installed are often out of service. The library loans system even broke down for a week at one stage, leaving branch libraries piled high with books awaiting scanning back in and leaving staff to manual record loans. The system often freezes. Paid late fees do not clear, and so on. Wi-fi access installed but little advertised, leaving some unaware.

It is hard to see any improvements other than access to Wi-fi so far but easy to see the further deterioration in the library service.

From this:

To this

And from this

To scenes like these

A lot was promised and assurances were given that the contract would be monitored stringently.

When Croydon Labour gain access to the books next Wednesday it will be interesting to see what they find and what steps they will put in place to correct the situation.

Watch this space!

Carillion’s Curse…part 1

Having visited Croydon Central Library three weeks ago with a fellow Croydon library campaigner and leaving truly shocked by what we saw, I visited again the following week with an experienced library worker, Alan Wylie, of Stop the privatisation of Public Libraries to take another look, and made a repeat visit last week.

On the first visit things were truly dire.

On the revisits some hasty changes have taken place, but not sufficient to cover up the mess. Some things were the same or worse.

The most striking difference last week was the number of staff present, far outnumbering anything I’d seen before. It is assumed that after the letter in the Croydon Guardian, and the expanded version of letter posted on the Croydon Guardian website, as well as the tweets and comments about the situation prompted Carillion into damage-limitation overdrive.

But on returning last week, numbers of staff had dwindled again.

It’s hard to describe the mess we found on all three occasions, and I bet some would just not believe what we saw. Take a look and judge for yourself.

You are NOT welcome to Croydon Central Library

Shutter down, and has been for at least three months, according to library users.

A week on….. ‘Please use the other entrance’ sign now displayed.  Still there last week and no move to get it opened.

That “other entrance” referred to is what locals know as “the exit”! I now know that I’ve turned away from the library on several occasions in the past few month’s thinking it had already closed. How many others have been affected?

Lighting, surroundings and outlook

The lighting is dim on all floors. I was struck by the cruel irony of library users, huddled by windows on shabby and sparse seating, seeking natural light in order to read, and in so doing, looking straight out on the shiny new council HQ opposite, which we are told was built at nil cost – thanks to Laing, and which was furnished at a cost of a mere £3.1 mill.

There is money in Croydon.

 It seems it’s just a case of priorities.

And, perhaps, what your builder mates want to fund….?

Some of the seating was in a poor state and, at times, oddly placed.

Ripped seat cushion by a partly dismantled shelving unit, complete with metal shelving protruding beyond wooden side of unit.

This was an improvement on the previous week though, when this metal jutting out at child eye level was not even masked up. See below.

Another chair placed below low level book displays, making it impossible to use as a seat.  There were notices everywhere saying that seats should not be moved.

There were signs everywhere, advising of the systems in place, not to move chairs and tables, where to go when stations on different floors were unstaffed and that staff were no longer able to help on matters such as booking PCs.  There was odd signage too, referring to not plugging in lap tops at points where no sockets existed.

‘Do not move these chairs’ sign, by a pillar with no chairs.

This sign, on an upper level,  is a significant addition. Previously a new system had been instigated. It was up to the library staff to provide the code for the public toilets to anyone who wanted to access them.  This includes library users as well as anyone else using the Clocktower building.

At least people using the library on this floor did not need to join the queue to request the code, as was the case previously.

Both the men’s and the women’s toilets were in a complete state on the second week we visited. Stocked with toilet tissue but sanitary bins in the women’s facilities were overflowing, toilet paper strewn on the floor, the stench in both was overpowering. There is also a sign in both to advise that perfume and deodorant is not to be sprayed to avoid affecting people’s allergies. Never mind the stench and unsanitary state they were in!

Study pass system still in place, but now with an explanatory note added underneath.  

This sign further restricts access to the library.

  

By the second and third week someone had been let loose with the black and yellow striped masking tape. It was everywhere, on both floor, fixings and on walls. 

 Here are just two examples.




















The escalator had been repaired on the second visit but the lift was still out of order last week. 

New, long overdue IT, out of order

With a complete refresh of PCs promised as part of the deal struck with Laing, now Carillion, it seems hard to justify so many machines out of order….

Promoting what’s on offer

Displays were poor.  Shelves were untidy.  On the first visit, books on all floors were piled high, less so on subsequent visits, but nothing like how the library had been run prior to it being de-staffed and hand over to the builder’s, Laing and now Carillion.

Take a look.

New books display

Very odd end of unit displays were created. Can you spot the theme? Harmonica DVD with the Bumper Book of Pub Favourites. The book ‘Keeping Canaries’ teamed with Paul Potts DVD, replaced with ‘Idiot’s Guide to Online Geneology’ in subsequent weeks.

So what exactly are Croydon getting for their money?

And the big question now is will Croydon Council, now in Labour control, be able to reverse some of this damage?

Elizabeth

Blaming hard pushed staff is not the answer

Further to the letter that appeared in last week’s Croydon Guardian, an online version has appeared. This expands on the text in the printed version, adding,

“All the students I met that were being told off for sitting at empty tables were exceedingly polite to the aggressive staff.  A student sat on the floor, which they were told off for, joked and I quote: “I’m on the library’s most wanted list!”. 

I urge other students to stand up against the staff, and to write in to your local papers and complain to the library so that we stand together against this unjust dictatorship. We may be young and studious but we deserve to study, and to be heard, as soon we will be the generation in charge.”

This puts an extremely different slant on the letter.

Yes, the study pass system does not work. It wastes a great deal of time for both staff and for library users. Those applying need to do so daily and are required to log out each day.

Yes, the colour-coding of tables is a nonsense, creating an unwelcoming environment for users and a headache for staff who it appears must enforce Carillion dictat.

Colour coding – No expense spared on this exercise.

Do NOT, under any circumstances, use this table to acquire knowledge or to better yourself. Knowledge is over-rated. Love Carillion x

But the library user who wrote this letter needs to speak with other users of Croydon Central Library, as we have.

Library users hate the system.  They do not understand what purpose it serves BUT they do not blame the staff for this. 

When we visited last week there was not one member of staff on duty in the Children’s Library, nor on another floor. That’s two out of three floors/library areas we visited, unstaffed.

Any user needing assistance in these areas was directed to the Reception desk on the ground floor, manned by just two members of staff, dealing with a queue of users who were borrowing, returning, making enquiries and reservations and applying for or returning their study passes.

And who carries out these extra Reception desk duties? Not more but far fewer staff than before; just two members of staff on the day we visited.  And service with a smile was what we received.

The library users we spoke with were aware of the deterioration in the service but often unaware of the reason behind it.  They were acutely aware of the lack of staff and the bizarre systems put in place BUT not one that we spoke with placed the blame on the staff.

You can’t blame the staff. If they could speak out I bet they’d say that they are as unhappy about the situation as the library users are.

Staff in Croydon libraries have done an admirable job, delivering the level of service they do, under intolerable conditions.

Croydon library users know it and stand firm in their support for the staff – the few staff who remain, that is.

JLIS, now Carillion. What next?

The saga of Croydon Libraries continues…

The background

Croydon outsource libraries, without consulting properly and ignoring the responses of those consulted.

The service in libraries was cut to the bone, before outsourcing, through a major reduction of experience library staff and librarians, major book cull, reduced promotion of events, limited access to working PCs and a system for loans, returns and reservations that has seen library users unable to get access to the books they want or left with heavy fines for books returned but not processed on the system.

The procurement process faltered. The companies applying were all asked to re-tender, adding to the delay and the expense. As predicted, JLIS won the contract, though quite how this win was achieved when Wandsworth chose GLL to run their libraries in this joint procurement process.

Private Eye, 10th January, 2013

The future?

Despite JLIS fighting hard to win the contract, just three weeks in, it came to light that Carillion have taken control of Croydon Libraries, outlined here.

Staff were unaware,

“…members of staff at the libraries were not informed of the sale and only realised a change had taken place after they noticed their emails had changed…” 

John Laing no longer sees libraries as core business,

“Adrian Ewer, chief executive of John Laing, said running libraries no longer fitted the company’s core strategy.”

And Carillion, who have no history of running library services, are trying to get to grips with what it means to run a library service.

 “A spokesman from Carillion said they are undertaking an operational review to gain an understanding of the library service and it will ensure all staff are kept fully informed of any future developments.” 

In the meantime, Croydon residents and the staff in Croydon libraries are left with the shambles.

Private Eye, Issue 1352, 1-12 Nov. 2013

What next?

Have what little say you can on New Addington Library

The closure of the purpose-built New Addington library is not negotiable, according to sources. The decision was taken without any consultation with library users and local residents.The closure of the library, which many suspect is to make way for a Tesco store or similar, is being pitched to the public as a relocation.

The library will be moved into the nearby CALAT (Adult Education) building, joining CALAT, Job Centre Plus and The Little Stars Nursery, who currently occupy the space. In addition to adding library services the centre will also provide housing and council enquiry services and will be renamed The New Addington Hub.  That’s an awful lot to pack into an already well-occupied and well-used space!

The move has been delayed several times, originally announced by Cllr Sara Bashford back in January 2012, via the local press when she struggled to come up with feasible responses to the obvious questions a move like this raised, such as exactly where would the library space be allocated within the building and she was unable to give any reassurances regarding book stock. Admitting she simply did not know what space the library might be able to occupy seems a very inadequate level of detail on which to base such a major decision.

Since then there has been an extensive cull of books in preparation for the move, leaving row upon row of empty shelves and top shelves ‘filled’ with books displayed, front on, to help fill the void. The valuable courses run at the CALAT Centre have been cut also, as has much of their teaching space, in order to accommodate the new hub.

The latest news though is that a consultation has been launched to find out what library users value, and copies are available in the library yet a press release regarding this is yet to be released.

The consultation is pretty basic. The council are not asking what impact this new arrangement might have on you, the resident, but then it is very difficult to say with such scant information.

If you wish to have what little say the council will permit you to make, you can find the adults’ and the children’s consultation documents on line here: http://www.croydon.gov.uk/democracy/consultations/newaddington

The closing date is 21 October, 2012 – a Sunday when not one of Croydon libraries is open to receive your response and Royal Mail will not be delivering.

Unfortunately the hard copies, only just hitting libraries this week, already muddy the waters as they are clearly printed with the closing date of 30th September. No doubt residents will be delighted to learn that that Cllr Tim Pollard, who replaced Cllr ‘Booktoken’ Bashford as lead in the area of libraries, is carrying on the Croydon tradition of flawed library consultations.

Transparency and Accountability -The faceless, nameless Croydon spokesman speaks

Croydon library users have grown increasingly concerned about books being boxed up across the borough as no one has seen anything quite like it before.  Previously, any unwanted books have been put on public display for sale.

Croydon Council is aware of the concerns and have contributed comments to an article on the Croydon Advertiser website,  Croydon Council denies book sales mean closures. At the point of posting the website is down so we reproduce the article below. 

So let’s examine the facts.

The Advertiser reports that concerns, or as they put it, ‘rumours’, “have reached a crescendo in recent weeks after library users noticed books being sent away from libraries.”

As a campaign group we are not aware of any library users being concerned about books leaving library premises, just a genuine concern about the visible effects of this unprecedented cull of book stock.

The Advertiser claims that a spokesman for the council stated  that the library service has simply changed the way it handles unneeded stock. This unidentified council officer claims that instead of trying to sell unused and tatty books to library users, libraries sell their books to company Revival Books, which recycles or donates the books.

We think this story again demonstrated the Advertiser’s unwavering trust that what they are told by the council is completely true and warrants no further investigation.

Here’s what Revival Books themselves claim to do. You can find Revival Books here: http://www.revivalbooks.co.uk/Site_3/Libraries.html, and we quote,

“We seek to find a second life for as many of the books as possible and we sell these in retail outlets or on the Internet.  Working with a paper recycling partner we recycle any books we do not use and these books are pulped for on-going use.”

So Revival Books do not, as the Advertiser claims to have been told by this faceless, nameless council spokesperson, just recycle or donate the books that they collect.  Where is the economic sense in that? Their prime motive is to sell off, for profit, any book stock they can through a network of retail outlets and on the internet. And if you click here you can see a list of all those currently for sale.

It’s not just the new practice of boxing up stock that is concerning residents, it is the sheer scale of the exercise that is causing alarm, evidenced by the appearance of rows of empty shelves in some branches and the complete removal of carousels, previously packed full of paperbacks, in at least one library. 

The Advertiser goes on to report that this faceless, nameless spokesperson claimed that,

 “the new approach generates money and means none of the books has to go to landfill.”

Surely this is a terrible admission that the council have been dumping all their excess books in landfill sites whilst expecting residents to recycle. Did the reporter not think to question this?

The faceless, nameless council spokesman goes on to offer,

“There aren’t going to be any closures. There are clearly some people out there who are deliberately trying to raise concerns by getting library users needlessly worried about non-existent library closure plans.”

Croydon Library Campaigners were first to break this story and we know residents have made direct contact with the Advertiser to pass information to them.  Why is it that the Advertiser declines to speak with the residents and campaigners highlighting these issues and swallows completely the clearly flawed offerings of a council spokesperson who is clearly unwilling even to be identified?

Let’s not forget either that it was the Advertiser who broke the story of New Addington Library closing, which we have already covered here http://soslibrary.blogspot.com/2012/01/no-libraries-closing-in-croydon-hip-hip.html. How can the same paper print something that directly contradicts their own exclusive about the New Addington closure?

The Advertiser is also the same paper to report positive progress on Upper Norwood Joint Library, which we covered here. Given the evidence it seems this is anything but the case.

And we also put our questions to Cllr Bashford, where we covered the issue of the concerns on the massive cull of book stock, which we reproduce again here:

Certainly the book stock being removed is not being replaced with anything like a similar volume of new stock.  No wonder residents and campaigners are concerned, and rightly so. 

If the council really wishes to allay residents’ fears wouldn’t the easiest option be to give residents clear and correct information?  

No wonder this council spokesperson wished to remain nameless. Shouldn’t this coyness to be named, coupled with all the glaring flaws in what he had to offer, have given rise to caution before the Advertiser went on to print yet more incorrect information?  We certainly think so.