Popular local authors Phil Rickman, Rebecca Tope, Carol Peacock, Quentin Letts; and Jon and Heather Hurley will be joining in celebrations for the official opening of the refurbished centre, which now boasts a new exhibition space, new library area as well as a suite of customer service points.

Work from Herefordshire’s Young Poet Laureates will be on display and Bookstart bear will be at a special storytime for under 5s at 2pm. The celebrations kick off from 11.30am with the official opening at noon and all friends and supporters are welcome.

For the whole of February, Herefordshire Council’s library service is offering a voucher for a free rental of an audio book, a DVD or a game if you introduce a new member of your family or a friend to the library, and what’s more they will get a voucher too. There will also be special National Libraries Day postcards asking people to say what they love about their library.

Customers are encouraged to visit the centre to see the wide range of surgeries designed to support the needs of the local community. Surgeries are held weekly and will be showcased across the launch week on the following days:

• Councillor surgery – Saturday 4 February 10am to 11am

• Housing advice surgery – Wednesday 8 February from 9.30am

• Planning applications surgery – Thursday 9 February 2pm to 4pm

Councillor Roger Phillips, Herefordshire Council’s cabinet member for enterprise and culture, said: “In Herefordshire, we are fully committed to keeping all of our libraries open and sustainable into the future which is why we have combined our library service customer services team. “This reduces our running costs and means we can keep all of our permanent libraries open, unlike many other authorities who have been forced to close these vital community services.

“We have also been able to use the old shelving at Ross library, which had to be removed because it would not fit the reconfigured space, to improve the facilities at both Bromyard library and the children’s library at Hereford.

“I am delighted we have such a wealth of popular writers coming along to the official opening and I hope as many residents as possible will come along to meet them as well,” he added.

Councillor Philip Price, Herefordshire Council’s cabinet member for corporate services and education, said: “As part of our strategy to provide better services for customers, this new centre will provide a one-stop shop for residents who want to take out library books or use the council’s other services such as advice on housing and making planning applications.

“By combining the library and customer services centre, we have reduced our running costs while still ensuring residents enjoy the same level of service,” he added.

•a Gallery on the Ground Floor for exhibitions and displays (which all are welcome to visit)

•an Events Area for school visits, and lectures and presentations

•a Microform Room, Multimedia Room, Music Resources Room, the Teaching Resources Collection, Assistive Technology Booths and other facilities

•PCs on every floor

There are also more informal areas including The Hardback Café on the Ground Floor (which is open to all), and the ‘Break-out’ Room on Floor 7, where students can enjoy panoramic views of the city while reading, working on a laptop, or engaging in quiet conversation. There are over 1,200 study spaces: from traditional silent study rooms to interactive areas for collaborative projects, supported by information technology. The entire building has comprehensive wireless network coverage, and there are also sockets to plug in your own laptop throughout.

The building was designed by Danish architects Schmidt Hammer Lassen. It received a rating of ‘excellent’ in the leading industry measurement of environmental standards, BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).

£4 million grants for English museums.

With thanks to Terence Blacker – quoted in the Independent last December.

“A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life-raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind, hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen instead”

Caitlin Moran in the Times last December

As we indicated previously, Conservative MP Justin Tomlinson is the Chair of the APPG and hosted the launch last December.  The purpose of this All-Party Group is to set out a pro-active and positive agenda to promote libraries. The group can set the agenda and share best practice. Already topics up for discussion will be skills in the sector, school libraries and library services and public libraries. A total of 59 MP’s and Lords have signed up for the Group.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey was also at the launch and said that he supported library campaigners, but that it was down to individual local authorities to decide how they deliver services. (Sounds like a bit of a cop-out to your editor). However, he went on to say that the Government would not make it easier for local authorities to shirk responsibilities with the comment that “It is important to realise that Libraries are still a £1 billion service. We have maintained the statutory duty for local authorities to provide a comprehensive library service and that is non-negotiable. But local authorities are in the driving seat for running libraries.” (Ah, now there’s the rub……). But at least the profession now has a powerful advocate in high places and a means to guide the APPG in the right direction. HLUG will be watching with interest.

She has very kindly supplied advance notice of a coffee morning/launch of the exhibition which will be held and of their Libraries Day events. HLUG members can be sure of a warm welcome to any of the events which are listed below:

* On Tuesday 31st January RLDG will host a coffee morning from 10.30-12.30 to launch the exhibition – Ross Library: Past, Present and Future. The exhibition will be displayed for two weeks until Saturday February 11th.

* On Saturday 4th February Ross Library has invited local authors for celebration of National Libraries Day – details to follow.

Elinor says that she hopes that some HLUG members will be able to come, browse through the exhibition and confirm your support for our work.

This submission ran to four A4 sides so a summary of it is shown below. If anyone wishes to see a full copy, they can contact either John Hitchin, our Chairman  at johnhitchin@ereal.net or myself, as editor of this website at joan.williamson2@virgin.net

1.Summary.

This submission to the committee is made by the Hereford Library Users’ Group (HLUG). The background and experience of the Group is explained followed by our comments, views and recommendations on each of the four issues to be considered by the Committee. These can be summarised as:-

1.1 HLUG believes that the future needs of our children and grandchildren, who have no vote, must be safeguarded by those such as members of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee who can influence democratic decision-making.

1.2 It is clear from our studies of library developments across the UK that many local councils have difficulty in recognising the vital contribution that libraries make to their locality and the benefits they can bring.

1.3 The Committee should visit a range of libraries, large and small, old and new, to see the wide range of essential services that can be provided by a modern library and the difficulties that many libraries are meeting, as inadequate facilities and closures prevent them from giving an adequate service that matches good modern practice.

1.4 Libraries appear to be regarded as an easy target for financial cuts and proposals are being put forward by local authorities without adequate consultation or appreciation of the likely results.

1.5 Regarding the alternative methods of managing libraries that many Councils are considering, it is difficult to see what benefit there is in separating library, archive and similar services from direct Council control. Indeed, it must be questionable if Councils can meet their statutory requirements under the 1964 Act if they hive off these services.

1.6 With the present concentration by the government on raising the standards of education and training, it is our view that now is not the time for libraries to be closed or services reduced; on the contrary there needs to be more recognition of the vital contribution that libraries make in this area and every effort should be made to develop the role of the library rather than diminish it.

1.7 We would propose that some form of Library Audit should be established by DCMS that is charged with the regular and comprehensive review of library services being provided by local authorities. This should not just be the receipt of reports but supplemented by actual inspection with subsequent sanctions being imposed where it can be shown that they are not compliant with the Act.

Councillor Roger Phillips told BBC Hereford & Worcester that “Some twenty communities in the county have expressed an interest in running their own library and we are working with them to see how the library service can support their plans by providing regular stocks of books and simple systems for them to track where borrowed books are.”

A similar scheme has taken off in the village of Wellington where the library is situated in the village shop.

Editors comment: It is to be hoped that there is a pool of volunteers available for each location otherwise the schemes will ultimately fail through lack of suitable help.

To quote Boris “Public Libraries have a fantastic range of books to inspire and open minds, just as the great Victorian philanthropists like Carnegie envisaged”

He is also quite correct that public libraries can offer a host of other services such as on-line searching, books groups and job searching. And extra volunteers are also a way of increasing staff numbers at busy times and also carrying out tasks that trained staff may not have time to do. But they shouldn’t be allowed to sideline the skills of trained professional staff.

Perhaps Boris should make a trip to Hereford and encourage our Council to take positive action to improve our library!

The letter, posted on the site of Friends of Gloucestershire Libraries campaign group has already been widely endorsed by campaign groups including Campaign for the Book.

The letter tells the minister that “countless” library users from all over the country have written to him over their concerns over library closures during the past year and asked for his intervention. But his inaction on the issue has left them forced to fight “long, stressful and costly legal battles” which would not have been necessary had he and his department “fulfilled their duty to superintend”.

The letter concludes: “It is time to act Mr Vaizey. Those who rely on public libraries across the country, including some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged members of our communities, need your support and firm reassurance that you will superintend in line with your responsibilities as secretary of state.”

Jo McCrum, secretary of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group of the Society of Authors, added her own comment to the letter, saying: “Libraries are, and should remain at, the heart of each community. They provide essential services for all, but particularly for children, elderly and unemployed, and should be supported—not undermined. Along with theatres, museums and galleries libraries preserve, inform and develop our cultural heritage. How can we become a literate, intelligent and productive nation without this shared resource?”

Katherine Langrish wrote: “Free access not only to books themselves but to the informed advice about books (such as what to read next, suggestions about which books a child might cope with at various ages, how to use a catalogue, where to find further information, etc) which a trained librarian can provide, seems to me such a basic necessity for a country which hopes to promote literacy, that I can hardly believe we are having to argue for it”.

Indeed HLUG have already composed a reply to the Culture, Media & Sport Committee which they have just sent today with copies to our local MP and Councillors responsible for Culture and Libraries. We feel that many local councils have difficulty in recognising the vital contribution that public libraries make and the benefits that they bring. We will keep readers posted on our 2012 activities and any response we get from the CMS Committee.