S.L.A.M. are raising the following petition to be sent to Surrey County Council regarding its proposals for the library service. As well as individuals, local associations and groups with an interest in saving our council run libraries are being asked to raise the issue at their next meeting and sign the motion also.
Show the County Council that you care about the way our library services are provided to the people of Surrey. Show them that libraries are important not only to you, but also to future generations of library users.
Text of petition.
We the undersigned petition Surrey County Council to withdraw their current proposals for changes to the library service and undertake a full, open, public consultation on the future of Surrey libraries.
We are NOT in favour of the Surrey County Council proposal to completely withdraw paid professional staff from any of our libraries.
We believe the council should continue to provide management and paid professional staff in every library.
We do not believe that we were sufficiently consulted with regarding these proposals and call for their withdrawal whilst a full, open, public consultation takes place on the future of Surrey’s libraries.
The electronic version of the petition can be signed here on the Surrey County Council website.
A paper copy of the petition can also be downloaded and printed off here, for collecting handwritten signatures.
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Public libraries are protected by law
Originally posted on the Voices for the Library blog.
This letter is reproduced with permission from Mr. Francis Bennion, a retired barrister and active writer and academic, who drafted the Bill which later became the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, the law which makes public libraries a statutory service. It is in response to the article written by Caitlin Moran, which is reproduced with her permission here.
I read Caitlin Moran’s account of the debt she owes her threatened public library as the only alma mater she has ever had (The Times Magazine, 13 August 2011) with particular sympathy. Nearly half a century ago I was struggling to draft appropriately the Bill that became the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. I was instructed to draw a reasonable line between the requirements of the public and the limited resources of local authorities. The Act is still operative. Various attempts to enforce it by judicial review are pending.
The Act says a local authority which is a library authority must “provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons . . . whose residence or place of work is within the library area of the authority or who are undergoing full-time education within that area”. Its stock of “books and other printed matter, and pictures, gramophone records, films and other materials”, must be “sufficient in number, range and quality to meet the general requirements and any special requirements both of adults and children”.
[Under this provision a severe reduction now in the public library facilities which were being provided by a particular library authority two or three years ago is likely to be unlawful. This is because there is a presumption that the earlier provision did not exceed what was required under the Act.]
The Act also says that the Government must “superintend, and promote the improvement of, the public library service provided by local authorities in England and Wales, and . . . secure the proper discharge by local authorities of the functions in relation to libraries conferred on them as library authorities”.
It does not appear that the statutory duties I have mentioned are being adequately fulfilled at present. The Act does not contain any provision for reduction of the duties because of a need for “cuts”.
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Published in The Times 16 August 2011. The important passage in square brackets was omitted.
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