Last Instalment in the Trilogy - Library Use

"It's shortsighted not to view the education of a future generation of Americans as a priority for all Americans."- Mel Martinez

The final analysis document submitted to the city council's consultation as part of the Save Burnage Library campaign was the 'Library Use and Value for Money Metrics' document found at:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6EdDtBc5vwCOV9zTVktWUR2T1k/edit?usp=sharing

For the 2008 library strategy, Manchester city council's Library and Information Services (MLIS) included a number of actions and metrics which were used to indicate the value for money that Manchester City Council was getting per transaction (issues and reissues, PC use etc.).

The Save Burnage Library campaign conducted a similar assessment and what is interesting is that when the comparators are applied to Burnage Library individually, a number of factors can be see:

1. If we look at library use per 1,000 head of population, Manchester city council are not closing the bottom 6 worst performers. Nor are they closing the top 6 most expensive. Indeed, 3 of the 6 that are set to close are in the top 10 best performers whilst only 1 is in the bottom 10.
2. Looking at the cost per transaction, which is how many pounds it costs Manchester city council per individual borrowing of a book. We know that Burnage Library costs £43,000 to run and in 2012 there were 45,346 transactions (again, including PC usage, issues and resissues etc). This means that each borrow of a book costs Manchester city council around 95p per transaction for someone to Borrow a book in Burnage library. Contrast this with the Manchester average from MLIS's own library strategy, and we can see this is incredibly good value, since the Manchester average in 2005-06 is £1.55
3. Using Manchester City Council’s own indicators of ‘value for money’ defined by MLIS for the 2008 library strategy, closing Burnage library will not result in greater value for money across MLIS. Indeed, it will cost more per transaction. Each transaction costing £1.57 instead of £1.55 just by closing Burnage library alone! This is because MCC are closing some of the best performing libraries, leaving the worse performing libraries open.
4. Burnage Library is the 9th most used library per 1,000 head of population in the 23 active libraries of Manchester. So any statements about Burnage being a low performing library are simply false. 
5. The top 10 list of library utilisation is made up of 3 libraries set to close under the proposals. 
6. The bottom 10 performers (when measured using borrowing) only include one library set to close
7. An example top 10 list of library utilisation, with standardised opening times (to 35 hours a week), includes 4 of the libraries set to close and Burnage would be the 4th most used library in that list.
8. Steps could be taken to generate an extra £109,622 of income from standardising Blu-ray and DVD charges, as well as increasing AV stock lending fees by 50p.

I for one sincerely hope Manchester city council reconsider their plans and keep Burnage library open. The combination of the three impact analyses on transport, literacy and neighbourhoods and this analysis on value for money, you can see Manchester City Council would make a catastrophic mistake by closing neighbourhood libraries. 

EA

AgeUK Internet Champion 2013 backs Save Burnage Library Campaigners

"Today a reader, tomorrow a leader." - Margaret Fuller

Janet Tachamani, co-winner of AgeUK Internet Champion award for 2013, seen below with June Whitfield after received the award, was approached by campaigners for the Save Burnage Library Campaign and told of the plight of the library.

Amongst many noble things, Janet is also a 2011 Asham Prize Award winning short story writer and ex English teacher who has very kindly thrown her weight behind our campaign by championing the Save Burnage library campaign. She has written an article on her personal blog about our library.

Janet Tchamani, co-winner of AgeUK's Internet Champion Award 2013
seen here with June Whitfield

To quote Janet:

"One of the signs - so say the historians and philosophers - of a bankrupt civilisation is the destruction of libraries. Faced with forced (?) cuts to services, local authorities are seeing library closures as 'easy cuts' and one of the intended victims is Burnage Library (Manchester)."

We here in Burnage couldn't agree more!

There are some 5.2 million older residents of the UK who have never been on-line. This brings to our society a digital divide that may see increasingly more people socially isolated as more and more function is performed on-line and those citizens find themselves digitally excluded. The closure of libraries will mean that this already disadvantaged group of residents, who do not always have anywhere to turn will be disproportionately affected by the closure of Burnage Library in this regard.

Janet Tchamani, we both thank you from the bottom of our hearts and salute you for the support you bring to our campaign!

Save Burnage Library

Councillor Murphy Meeting

Why Libraries? Because ...
"Even the most misfitting child
Who’s chanced upon library’s worth
Sits with the genius of the Earth
And turns the key to the whole world"
- Ted Hughes

Today's meeting with councillor Murphy, excellently chaired by our very own Colleen went very well. The turnout was excellent and the presentations given by everyone before handing over their consultation elements were outstanding. It was fair to say that Councillor Sue Murphy, deputy leader of Manchester city council, with Neil MacInnes, head of libraries, got some very strong messages from the local residents about the feelings of Burnage residents, the impact the closure of the library would have on them, the sense of neglect that they feel the council has towards them amongst many many other views.

There was some concerns at the beginning that we wouldn't have enough chairs, but we managed to squeeze everyone in. The children who stood up during the presentation to say their piece did an amazing job! I for one, want to thank them so much for their hard work on the day. It really did so much for everyone there. We couldn't have done it without you! :-)

The above quote is particularly poignant, since this was read out to close the meeting. It was such a good quote that I thought it was worth sharing across the board.

Thank you so much to all the Burnage residents who attended today and to cllr Sue Murphy and Neil MacInnes and of course, to everyone for their time on a weekend.

You're all stars!

***UPDATE 06/04/2013*** By popular demand, I've been asked to send my poem to the local media. So I've designed a poster around it in case anyone can make use of it.

However, because you've been such a loyal bunch, especially in showing your support, I'm revealing the poster here first.

There is a link to a better quality one available for printing. It has been designed for A2 sized paper, but an A4 one is available here:

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6EdDtBc5vwCS3RKZUJ5LWtneEk/edit?pli=1



EA

The Borrowers!

"It's necessary to start most work alone. But I'm tickled to death when I can pull somebody in or join someone, whether it's borrowing poetry or travelling with an associate."
- Jenny Holzer 

The Big Burnage Borrow Begins!

The uptake was excellent. We received a very short notice message at 1:30pm that the MEN would be in attendance at Burnage Library at 2:30pm. Out campaign list emails and text messages to mobile and land-lines had been working flawlessly for the duration of the campaign so far. It was critical it didn't fail now! 

The message was written to all supporters and broadcast around. The emails sent without problem. The broadcast text was the next job.

The messages was written straight into text. The send button was pressed and all we could do was wait.

10 minutes past and the hourglass on the phone was still sending them. Then the time appeared next to the message and we knew it had gone. We breathed a sigh of relief.

At 2:30pm I made it to the library. Outside our faithful and hardy supporters stood with our trusty banner as others went inside to borrow books. Initially, I picked up my allocation in small books but then had a second thought as I am quite a portly chap and could carry heavier books. Plus, I didn't want it to seem like I was borrowing Mr Men books and leaving some others to carry much heavier publications... that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

fig 1 - The first shelf is empty

The queue started to grow. The MEN photographer was here at 2:30pm on the dot as promised. He took pictures of all the borrowing and the queue, which by this time was quite substantial. John Leech MP and councillor Bill Fisher were in attendance and spoke to me about a report I had written. Several pictures were taken of all of the contingent and at one point it was difficult to manoeuvre around the library for the bodies :-) Needless to say, we were delighted with the turnout and at such short notice too!

The MEN photographer took pictures of us, the children, balloons that people brought, our placards, the queue, the library staff etc. etc. (between you and me, we may have a new face of the campaign :-)

fig 2 - More empty shelves :-)

The borrow continues until 12pm on the 6th April. At 2pm tomorrow in Burnage Library is the meeting with MCC Deputy Leader Sue Murphy, who heads up the consultation. We want to show our support so if you can, come and borrow some books between now and 12pm tomorrow and if you can spare the time, stay for our campaign meeting 2pm - 4pm, 6th April in Burnage Library! 

A Big THANK YOU to everyone for the support they will give this weekend. We have two weeks to make our voices heard!

EA