A new film documentary showing how local action helped save one of Britain's libraries provides a template to fight philistine authoritarianism, says Dick Skellington.
In 2011, I wrote a post for this blog on the crisis in library provision in the small Buckinghamshire town of Stony Stratford where I live. In an attempt to prevent closure by Milton Keynes Council, residents began the 'Wot no books' campaign, and borrowed all the books leaving the shelves empty. The event caused an international storm.
Suddenly, Stony Stratford, a town more famous for being the home of the Cock and Bull story, and the place from where Richard III seized the princes before incarcerating them in the Tower of London, was making headlines across the world. I promised I would update blog readers .
In 2013 the library was saved. The Town Council decided to purchase the building, taking over responsibility for its maintenance. The deal, struck early this year with Milton Keynes Council, promised continued library provision in the town. The Milton Keynes Council library staff would provide professional library services as long as the Town Council assumed the responsibility for the upkeep of the premises. This autumn the Town Council sought to make improvements to the building, installing new windows and improving disabled access, and broadening the Library's role in the community. FOSSL (Friends of Stony Stratford Library), the support group which led the 'Wot no books' campaign, continues to work hard to ensure our library is the hub of our thriving community.
Last year more than 200 libraries closed in Britain. By 2016 it is expected that a quarter of our libraries will be lost. Over one thousand will be forced to close due to cuts in local authority provision.
Earlier this autumn Lincolnshire County Council announced plans to close 35 of its 45 libraries in the hope of saving £2m. The response from the public has been overwhelming with so far over 30,000 people signing a petition against closure, with protest marches through the centre of Lincoln. Similar public outrage has occurred wherever local authorities have sought to cut libraries, all across the UK.
Librarian numbers have fallen as branches close, down 8% in the year to March 2012 compared with a 4.3% fall the previous year, while the number of volunteers working in libraries continues to rise – up by 8.9% this year – as councils hand over responsibilities for local branches to residents. In Stony Stratford the Town Council and FOSSL persuaded the MIlton Keynes Council to retain a professional library presence.
Visits to libraries across the UK have also dropped, down 2.4% to 306.6m and down 6.7% compared with five years ago, when there were 328.5m visits. Adults are borrowing less fiction – down 5.4% – and less non-fiction – down 7.3% – with the only growth seen in borrowing of children's fiction, up 0.3%.
But libraries are no longer used merely for borrowing books, and Stony Stratford's library is no different. Over the last 10 years, five main users of libraries have been identified. "Career builders", who use their libraries' resources to write CVs and practise interviews in meeting rooms; "health detectives", who track down information about particular conditions; "little learners", 5-10 year-olds who love reading; "friend finders", who use libraries to meet people in their local communities; and "research sleuths", who track down information about their family or community histories.
With Stony Stratford library now safe for the foreseeable future, the Living Archive, a charity which over 30 years has generated a rich local archive, has produced a stunning documentary Wot no books? Saving Stony Stratford Library. It charts how the town came together and over a few days emptied the library of books. News organisations were alerted, and as the cameras flocked to our town, the rest, as they say, is history.
It is well worth the 25 minutes it takes to watch the video to experience the importance of local action, and how, because the community fought for its prized asset, it was saved. The documentary demonstrates why the people cared and how they overcame the threat. For those hundreds of communities whose own libraries may be threatened, this film gives advice, support and inspiration.
Dick Skellington 20 November 2013
The views expressed in this post, as in all posts on Society Matters, are the views of the author, not The Open University.
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Wot no books? Saving Stony Stratford Library
Cartoon by Catherine Pain