Proposal on library services

Details of our plans for the future library service for Oxfordshire.

Introduction

When we first started thinking about the future of our library service in Autumn 2010, we did so needing to make a significant saving from the library service. At that stage the only route available to us was to withdraw funding from a significant number of our libraries.

Understandably, there was significant public concern about the withdrawal of funding from libraries and we proactively listened and engaged with communities who were worried about the impact of losing the funding for their library.

In February 2011 we learnt that we would receive additional money from central government, and this eased our financial position. On this basis we wanted to pause and ensure that we had considered possible alternatives, and that any decision we made would be evidence-based.

Our proposal is to keep all of our libraries open, with some sustained by volunteers working alongside Oxfordshire County Council staff. This is a significantly different offer from that explored in Autumn 2010 and means that all of our libraries will be kept open and will receive substantial financial support.

Under our revised proposals all libraries will:

Have a good book stock, public access computers and online resources
Be cost-effective and efficient
Have self-service as standard
Have tailored opening hours
Offer a broad range of supporting services tailored to the community e.g. bookclubs
Work closely with acommunity support network (e.g. Friends Groups)
Encourage use of library buildings as community space.

The county council and its voluntary sector partners have significant experience of working with volunteers to enhance and improve services. We want to extend this best practice to libraries, but have listened to the public who said that they would not want to volunteer without some support from library staff.

We will work with Friends Groups to develop the sustainability of some of our libraries by increasing the use of volunteers over a three-year period. We will work with each library’s Friends Group to develop a sustainable business plan for individual libraries that reflects the needs and opportunities unique to that community.

This is a significantly different offer to that explored in the Autumn and we are confident that working with our communities we can deliver a library service that reflects the value that we and the people of Oxfordshire place on libraries.

The following proposals outline our vision for the library service, and what this will mean in practice. We want you to take an active role in its future, have your say and get involved.

Current approach to the library service

Oxfordshire County Council’s current approach to the library service was developed as a result of a Cultural Services fundamental service review in 2008 (Oxfordshire Libraries Strategy 2008-2018). Significant improvements in both customer service and performance have been secured over the past 8 years (since the Best Value Review in 2002) and we are now one of the highest performing library services outside of London.

Implementation of the Libraries Strategy to date has been achieved through the council’s Library Strategy Transformation Programme. The Cabinet member for Safer and Stronger Communities sits on the Library Strategy Transformation Board, overseeing progress and development. This work, mainly through the capital programme has resulted in the refurbishment of a number of libraries such as Thame and Watlington and the implementation of self-service in 10 libraries.

The current library service aims to: ‘Support and promote strong communities, so that people may live as successfully and independently as possible… by helping to create literate, knowledgeable, informed and lively-minded individuals, who make up a literate, knowledgeable and informed society’. We believe that this objective is still the right one.

The service provides access to books, information and knowledge, to support the recreational, cultural and educational needs of those who live, work and study in Oxfordshire. The service at the moment consists of:

43 library buildings
7 mobile library vehicles
Countywide collection of books
Online services including access to the library catalogue to reserve or renew items, to library membership and to reference and information resources
Public access computers
Targeted work to support and increase the literacy of children and adults, digital inclusion and employability
Management of the Rural Children’s Centre Mobile (on behalf of the council’s Children, Education & Families directorate)
Management of two prison libraries (on behalf of HM Prison Service at no cost to the county council)

An audit of current services and related activities has been undertaken.

The total library service gross budget for 2011/12 is £8.720 million and its net budget is £7.930 million; 9% of the service’s costs are funded by the income it generates.

How the Oxfordshire library service currently performs

When comparing against other authorities, Oxfordshire has more ‘service points’, more books overall and buys more stock (arguably a more generous ‘offer’ than most counties). The result is not surprisingly more visits to libraries and more issues per head of population (or reflecting a higher demand in Oxfordshire resulting in higher supply against the national picture). Costs are higher than the national average and income is below the national average. In particular, employee costs are higher than average, whilst property costs are relatively very low.

In terms of efficiency and value for money, it is clear that there is a wide range in the performance (in terms of volume of issues, services provided) of individual libraries. There are several ways in which their effectiveness can be compared, but the most straightforward compare input (cost or hours open) with output (visits or issues). These measures reveal a very wide range in cost-effectiveness of individual libraries.

There are a number of factors accounting for this disparity, such as the quality, accessibility and location of buildings and rent costs. Issues and visits tend to be greater in areas of higher population density, which in practice means that urban libraries tend to have higher issues and visits than rural libraries with some exceptions). For historic reasons libraries in Oxfordshire are not distributed evenly geographically, with some relatively close to each other and again this impacts on performance and value for money.

Drivers for change

Locally, we have acknowledged that times have changed since our current library network was established. Over the past few years, people have changed the ways they use our library service. At the same time, the difficult economic climate is demanding ever more effective and efficient ways of working. Meanwhile, new technologies offer opportunities to modernise, to distribute books more efficiently and to widen the scope of services provided such as access to information via the internet.

Over the next 4 years, Oxfordshire County Council has identified that it needs to find savings of £119 million a year by 2014/15 due to the reduction in the funding that it receives from central government.

The county council is determined to emerge from the difficulties arising from government grant cuts with modern, high-class services for future years - this very much includes our library service.

In March 2010, the then government issued ‘The Modernisation Review of Public Libraries’ policy statement. This brought a new focus for potential areas of library development including:

‘Operating services with limited public resource’
‘Becoming a 24/7 service’
‘Maximising digitisation opportunities’
‘Enabling libraries to demonstrate to citizens, commentators and politicians that they are still relevant and vital’.

More recently, Ed Vaizey, Minister for Culture, has set out a national vision of libraries as ‘facilitators of a national passion for reading; supporting literacy and providing places where anyone can go to access information and entertainment, go online and find out about public services and citizenship’.

Most importantly we have listened to the people of Oxfordshire, who have written to us in their hundreds and who have come to meet with us, to tell us what they want from their library service.

Minimum requirements of a library service

The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 places a statutory duty on Oxfordshire County Council to provide an ‘efficient and comprehensive’ library service. The Act outlines 4 key areas that a comprehensive library service must deliver:

Securing and keeping a wide range of free resources, including books and other printed matter, sound recordings, films and other materials, to browse and borrow in sufficient number, range and quality
Meet the general requirements (and any special requirements) of both adults and children living, working or studying in the local area
Free independent information and advice
Encouraging the use and participation of the service, for example, through clear and easy ways to join, access, shape and influence the service.

The precise scope and size of the service is not specified and the legislation does not set specific minimum service standards.

The most recent challenge to a library authority under the legislation (Wirral Inquiry 2009) indicated that to ensure it meets the general duty, an authority should identify the specific and local needs of adults, children, young people of all ages and demonstrate that having done so, it provides services to meet these needs in the best way possible, with the resources available.

What the public (both users and non-users) want from a library service is an important consideration. A research report conducted by MORI on behalf of the Museum and Library Archives (‘What do the public want from libraries’) conducted in November 2010, highlighted a number of important features to note. The research highlighted that the public value:

A good book offer
A pleasant (library) environment
Friendly and knowledgeable staff.

The study also found that the public see libraries’ core purpose as:

Reading
Learning (particularly children’s education)
Finding information.

The research also suggested that libraries could successfully broaden their appeal to non-users by:

Providing some unique services beyond the core offer (activities, crafts, genealogy, learning)
Communicating more proactively with both users and non-users about what they offer.

Analysis of Oxfordshire library service requirements

With the legal and customer requirements in mind, a zero-based quantitative analysis of library requirements was undertaken based on where people live, work, study and shop. The results of this analysis were used to shape and assess the proposals to develop the library service.

In addition to the zero-based analysis, the following information was also considered:

Our current strategic approach to the library service (as set in 2008 and as revised in the Business Strategy December 2010)
An audit of the current library service and activities
Comparisons against other authorities
Customer feedback (Children’s Plus Survey October 2010; Public Library Users Survey October 2009 and feedback received from the council’s library announcement 26 November 2010)
Existing demand from current users
Opening hours
Timetable, location and duration of stops of the mobile libraries
Use of technology
National studies and reports, including:
- Museum Libraries and Archives (MLA) MORI national research ‘What do the public want from libraries’ November 2010
- Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) ‘Modernisation review of public libraries’ March 2010
- DCMS Local Inquiry into the Public Library Service Provided by Wirral Metropolitan Borough Council
Dialogue with the MLA regarding our current service, review methodology and proposed changes
Capacity to innovate and make service enhancements.

An initial Service and Community Impact Assessment has also been undertaken (and revised) as part of this process.

Our findings

We carried out a zero-based quantitative analysis for the library service. By this, we simply mean that we tried to think about the criteria we would use for the service as if we were starting entirely from scratch – and then applied these criteria to our current network.

The criteria we used were these: ideal libraries would be located in the areas where the most people already (1) lived, (2) worked, (3) studied, (4) shopped (5) travelled. For each existing library site, we drew a circle around a half-mile radius, and looked for how many people lived, worked, studied or shopped in that area and how accessible the site was by public transport.

The analysis enabled us to give each library a score from 1 to 100 according to its potential usage.

This analysis was then sense checked to see if the results would significantly vary if we:

Changed the criteria to a mile
Tested it against current usage
Took out shopping
Ranked the values 1 to 43 rather than scaled them from 1 to 100.

This did not materially change our results.

The libraries fell into 5 groups, each group sharing similar scores and characteristics.

To assess which libraries form part of our ‘comprehensive and efficient service’ (our legal duty) we then tested the cumulative impact of removing each group(s) of libraries from our network.

We consider that the removal of groups 1 or 2 would have a significant impact on the comprehensiveness of our service. The libraries in groups 1 and 2 currently account for 82% of all issues, 88% of visits and 84% of users. The removal of either one of these groups would have a significant impact upon the service.

We consider that the removal of groups 4 and 5 would have a minimal impact upon the comprehensiveness of our service. The libraries in groups 4 and 5 currently account for 13% of issues, 8 % of visits and 10% of users. The removal of either one or both of these groups would not have a significant impact upon the comprehensiveness of our service.

We consider that the removal of group 3 would have a low impact on the comprehensiveness of our service. The libraries in group 3 currently account for 6% of issues, 4 % of visits and 5% of users. The removal of this group would not have a significant impact on the comprehensiveness of our service; however, it is worth noting that these libraries have a greater potential number of users than those in groups 4 and 5, and this is a challenge that we need to work with communities to address.

As a final stage we checked that groups with specific needs would not be adversely affected by our proposals. The service has strong targeted support for older people, for people with disabilities and for children. The service meets the needs of deprived communities through core library provision, so it was essential that all areas of deprivation had a library in them. When tested all of the areas of deprivation fell into either groups 1 or 2 with the exception of Berinsfield. The needs of deprived communities must be met through our core service and so for this reason Berinsfield is included in our core offer.

The goal of this quantitative exercise was to provide an equitable and transparent way to think about our library service. By taking this analysis and sense-checking against other methodologies, the data supports, and gives evidence, for the proposed vision for the service.

Our proposal

In February 2011 we learnt that we would receive additional money from central government, and this eased our financial position. On this basis we wanted to pause and ensure that we had considered all possible alternatives, and that any decision we made would be evidence-based.

We have challenged the way we currently run our library service to ensure we deliver a cost-effective, high-quality service that is fit for the 21st century.

We are proposing to:

Rationalise our management support
Expand the use of volunteers
Assess our current procurement arrangements
Continue to exploit existing and new opportunities to generate income
Work collaboratively with other service providers such as Oxford University, voluntary and community organisations
Work collaboratively with private sector developers and businesses to address changes in future population
Continue to work with other library authorities to ensure that we benefit from best practice and opportunities to review and develop services.

This is a significantly different offer from that explored in Autumn 2010. Under our revised proposals all libraries will remain open and will:

Have a good book stock, public access computers and online resources
Be cost-effective and efficient
Have self-service as standard
Have tailored opening hours
Offer a broad range of supporting services tailored to the community e.g. bookclubs
Work closely with a community support network (e.g. Friends Group)
Encourage use of library buildings as community space.

We will fully fund and resource all of the libraries that form part of our comprehensive and efficient library service. These core libraries are:

Abingdon
Banbury
Berinsfield
Bicester
Blackbird Leys
Botley
Carterton
Chipping Norton
Cowley
Didcot
Eynsham
Headington
Henley
Kidlington
Littlemore
Neithrop
Oxford Central
Summertown
Thame
Wallingford
Wantage
and Witney

For those libraries which fall into groups 3, 4 and 5 we would propose to provide a fully supported infrastructure (building, ICT, book stock and the installation of self-service). We will also work with each library to establish a Friends Group to enable us to shift the balance of staffing in these libraries towards volunteers over a three-year period.

For group 3, this would mean one third volunteers and two thirds paid staff.

These community plus libraries are:

Chinnor
Faringdon
Grove
Wheatley
and Woodstock

For groups 4 and 5 this would mean two thirdsvolunteers and one third paid staff.

These libraries are:

Adderbury
Bampton
Benson
Burford
Charlbury
Deddington
Goring
Hook Norton
Kennington
North Leigh
Old Marston
Sonning Common
Stonesfield
Watlington
Woodcote
and Wychwood.

There are some libraries in all five groups where we know there are opportunities to use the buildings in a different way and to work with the community and other partners in a more effective way. We are committed to exploring these opportunities in all of our libraries.

As part of our comprehensive and efficient library service we will continue to provide services to groups and people who may struggle to get to a library such as young people and their parents or carers, older people and those with disabilities. We will provide tailored support that best meets the needs of these groups by:

Ensuring the cost-effective and efficient use of our mobile library service
Developing and extending our home library service for those with limited mobility
Developing and extending our current book deposit scheme to allow us to provide access in areas where there is currently no service.

Future service enhancements – our aspirations

We want to make sure that this valuable service is sustainable – one that is relevant and available to future generations. We will continue to challenge the way that the service is delivered to ensure it is fit for the 21st Century. In particular, we will continue to explore opportunities to further improve and extend the service by:

investigating the provision of free WiFi across the network
re-designing our website to make sure people can easily access the library service online
facilitating direct communication with the public and library customers through social media
delivering eBook and eAudio downloads via our website
incorporating complementary services (such as coffee shops) into our library buildings
develop the use of our libraries as community resources
working collaboratively with community groups and other service providers to target hard to reach groups, e.g. locating and resourcing the library service in other ways, using other community buildings (such as Children’s Centre, Adult Learning Centres, Early Intervention Hubs) where people already access services.

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