Library vows to 'Decolonize' its collection!

Nazi Book Burnings

Last Friday, the Royal Holloway University of London Library, announced that it would be taking measures to 'decolonize' its collection of books. The library said that in an effort to combat 'structural racism' in British society, it would be removing certain titles from its collection. In a statement, the library said:

"We've taken time to reflect on our role in this and recognise that we must do more to combat systemic racism and support the Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) community. With this in mind, we've created a reading list of resources to help you to understand the struggle against  racism...Going forward we will be sharing details on the steps we are taking to decolonize and diversify our collections, make our services more inclusive and tackle racism and discrimination. Now is the time for lasting change."

While book burning was a craze in Nazi Germany and was often led by student activists, the actions of libraries like the Royal Holloway, look more akin to book binning. There is of course, nothing new in British libraries eliminating reading material that was considered not conducive to the tastes, of what is nowadays, dubbed by some, the 'woke' left who object to reading material that is not in line with socially liberal causes, such as feminism. During the 1960's and 1970's, many looney-left London authorities, discreetly destroyed thousands of books that were considered 'sexist', 'imperialist', 'colonialist', 'homophobic and racist.'

While it is not altogether clear what 'decolonizing' literature actually means, or what is likely to be censored, or how objective it is likely to be, it looks like Kipling is destined for the dustbin, and other famous English writers such as Dickens, Thackeray, Waugh and Orwell, might also be in serious peril of being thrown down the memory hole.

At a time when statues are being toppled and thrown into the drink, many movies and television programmes that are now considered offensive to the trendy-left, are also being purged of their content, so as to not offend left sensibilities and the so-called 'BME Community'.

Castleton Carnegie Meeting

OVER 20 local residents of Castleton turned up last night to hear that the former Castleton Library Carnegie  building may now face the prospect of serious authentic renovation, having recently been purchased by a local businessman.  The meeting was told that having confronted a possible Township compulsory purchase order being placed upon the building at the end of last year, which may have resulted in it being knocked down, the building was now save.


The building was originally named the Carnegie Library, and it first opened its doors in 1905 by the then Mayor Colonel Fishwick, with the help of a £2,500 grant from millionaire and public benefactor Mr Andrew Carnegie.  It closed finally in February 2007, and has remained vacant since.


The building has huge historical value throughout the local area and is loved by many residents who would love to see it brought back to it's former glory.   Last night's meeting was assured that the present owner, who has not yet been named, would not simply create  a façade which left the exterior of the building intact, but rendered the interior to mediocre modernity as so often happens.  We were told that most of the original interior features would retain their historical integrity.


This information was greeted with  marked enthusiasm from those present at the meeting.  The next meeting is planned for the end of March.

Tameside Libraries to close a further one day a week!

WE have received reports that bosses at Tameside Council, are planning to cut library hours for the six public libraries currently open in Tameside.  Under the proposals, all libraries will close for an extra one day a week and on one night of the week, will remain open while 8.00pm.  Staff working at the Ashton studies library and archive, have already had their hours reduced.  It is not intended to consult the public about these further cuts in library opening times.

Under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, local authorities are required to provide a 'comprehensive library and efficient' library service.  However, this is not defined in the Act and is therefore open to interpretation.  Whether Tameside Council are complying with the law is something that is open to challenge.  Likewise,  under equality legislation, local authorities are required to carry out impact assessments to establish how their proposals are likely to affect people living wthin the community.  Complaints can also be made to the Secretary of State who, for example, intervened when Sheffield proposed to close libraries.

Although Tameside Council are axing services and jobs and closing buildings, TMBC's annual Statement of Accounts for 2014-2015, shows that they have 'Usable Reserves' of nearly £205m, as of 31 March 2015.  These reserves can be 'applied to fund expenditure or reduce local taxation.'

In September 2012, Tameside Council closed five libraries and imposed cuts in opening hours on the rest.

Council to close five libraries - Opening hours to be cut!

DESPITE the efforts of campaign groups to save libraries threatened with closure in Tameside, in Greater Manchester, it seems likely that the council will give the go-ahead to close five libraries when council bosses meet next Monday.

According to reports in one local newspaper, Haughton Green library, Denton West End, Newton in Hyde, Hurst in Ashton and Mottram libraries, will all close their doors to library users on October 12.

Last year the council began consulting library users about the future of Tameside libraries and set out three options as part of a cost cutting review. One option involved closing eleven libraries and retaining Ashton and Hyde libraries as 'centres of excellence'. A second option involved closing six libraries, and the council's preferred option, involved keeping open the main branches in Ashton, Denton, Droylsden, Dukinfield, Hattersley, Hyde, Mossley and Stalybridge, with reduced opening hours. All three options involved closing the five smaller neighbourhood libraries.

Around 2,000 people took part in the consultation process with 63% voting in favour of the council's preferred option.

Although council chiefs have yet to meet to make the final decision, library staff have already been issued with details of the new library opening hours for Tameside libraries:

Ashton library is now to close every Monday and will open between 10-3 on Saturday's, instead of of 9-4.

The Local Studies and Archive Centre based at Ashton library, will now close every Monday and Friday and will now be open between 9-5 on Thursday instead of 9-8 and will be open between 10-3 on Saturday instead of 9-4

Denton libary will now close every Tuesday and Wednesday and will open between 10-3 on Saturday's instead of 9-4.

Droylsden library is to close every Tuesday and Wednesday and will open between 10-3 on Saturday's instead of 9-4.

Dukinfield library will now close on Wednesday's and Friday's and will open between 9-8 on Monday's and between 9-5 on Thursday's instead of 9-7.30.

Hyde library will now close on Thursday's and will open between 9-5 on Wednesday's instead of 9-8 and on Saturday's between 10-3 instead of 9-4.

Mossley library which is to be moved to the George Lawton Hall, will be closed on Tuesday's and Wednesday's and will be open between 9-5 on Monday's instead of 9-8, and on Wednesday's between 9-8 instead of 9-7.30

Stalybridge library will now be closed on Thursday's and Friday's and on Tuesday's will now be open between 9-5 instead of 9-8 and between the hours of 10-3 on Saturday's, instead of 9-4.

The hours at Hattersley library remain unchanged.

While the council's consultation exercise on the future of council sevices has been dubbed by them the 'Big Conversation', it is very much a one sided conversation with the council setting the agenda and deciding where the axe will fall on jobs and services. Although they say that voters should blame the Tories for the cuts, they frequently turn a deaf ear to residents suggestions about how the council might make saving without the need for closing such things as libraries.

In letters to the local newspapers, which the council invariably ignores, local residents frequently complain about why they should be paying over £1.25m each year to support 57 councillors who do less work nowadays, since this Labour controlled council for over 20 years, has been devolving itself of responsibility by privatising and outsourcing jobs and services to trusts and private and arms-length companies. Others have also questioned why the council is closing libaries when it as 'usable reserves' (rainy day money) of £1.38m which can be used to fund services. Members of the public have also questioned why the council who are aiming to save £900,000 by closing five libraries, has spent £4m on a little brown bin for Tameside residents to dispose of household waste, when they already have a bin for this purpose. Other critics complain about the £176,000 a year that is spent on the council's propaganda sheet the Tameside Citizen and the annual salary of Stephen Pleasant, the Chief Executive of the council, who receives £192,469 compared with the Prime Ministers salary of £142,500 per annum.

Although the council argue that there isn't the money available for libraries, they can certainly find the money to pay themselves and the money to fund their pet political projects.

Save the Castleton Carnegie Building

TODAY supporters of the old Carnegie Library building in Castleton, Rochdale, were at Tesco's in Sudden trying to rally support for the building which is now derelict.  The library service was moved some years ago by the Council to another building near the Castleton swimming baths.  The Carnegie building was sold but has not been put to any use since.

Now a group of 22 residents have formed a Friends group and want to restore the building and open a Heritage Centre, and small Museum to Andrew Carnegie, hoping in the process to give the structure back to the people of Castleton in Rochdale.  This group of Friends is asking for local people to come out and support this proposal to 'acquire the building and sympathetically renovate it in order to make it the centrepiece in the regeneration of Castleton'. 

This Friends Group say:  'We would like to create a Heritage Centre with a small museum to Andrew Carnegie who gave the money for the library to be built in 1904.'  It was closed as a library in 2006 and the service was moved.  Membership of the Friends of the Carnegie (Castleton) costs £2 per year for adults, and 50p per year for children.  Membershiop fees to be sent to Friends of the Carnegie (Castleton), c/o Mrs. M. Williams, Treasurer, 20, Crescent Road, Rochdale OL11 3LF.
E-mail friends.carnegie@zen.co.uk
www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/sites/the-friends-of-carnegie-castleton

Local MP besieged by library protesters in Haughton Green. Hurst library to be sold to 'McDonald's'!

Last Friday, angry residents in Haughton Green, Denton, confronted Andrew Gwynne MP, demanding to know why their local community library was being closed by Tameside Council. He was also handed a petition containing the names and signatures of 1,457 people who are asking the council to reverse their decision, and to keep their library open.

Gwynne, who was clearly flustered by questions from placard waving protesters, said that libraries and other services were closing in Tameside because the government had slashed the council's budget by £100m. When asked why the parliamentary Labour Party was not speaking out about the cuts and doing more, he said they were speaking out, but were being outvoted by the government who had a majority of sixty. When asked why the local Labour council had been silent about the cuts which they were imposing on the people of Tameside, he told the questioner that they ought to take the matter up with their local councillors. Gwynne told library campaigners that the "worst cuts are still to come" and said he'd only been aware that Haughton Green and Denton West End libraries were being closed, when a local newspaper had contacted him for a comment. He said he would be contacting the council for a full explanation and for the reasons, why they were closing both libraries, which he was opposed to.

Although the council are currently carrying out a questionnaire based consultation exercise, they have already decided to close five libraries - Haughton Green, Newton, Mottram, West End, and Hurst. Dukinfield library could also close. Yet, in spite of these closures, the questionnaire says that Tameside Council is looking to "redesign its library service" and describes these savage library cuts, as "A NEW OFFER FOR TAMESIDE LIBRARIES" the "development of the new vision" offering a "high quality service for all Tameside residents." This bull-shit, is the language of the council's "Big Conversation" with the public. In Tameside, public services don't get cut or closed, they get "redesigned". A source has told Northern Voices that the council is to sell Hurst library, to McDonald's. Moreover, most of what the council is offering is already available in libraries and what people don't often realise, is that in filling in the questionnaire, and expressing a preference for one of the three options put forward by the council, they're effectively voting to close libraries and to cut council jobs.

Unlike Tameside councillors, who are provided with a free laptop or desktop computer and a £250 a year broadband allowance, many people in areas like Haughton Green and Hurst, which have beeen designated as areas of 'social deprivation', may not have internet access or even a computer, and they rely on their local library for access to computers and the internet. Food banks, have already been set up in Haughton Green and Hattersley, to distribute food to people in need.

According to research by the trade union UNISON, since April last year, 100 libraries across Britain have already closed and another 600 are also under threat. In Tameside, the council have now axed more jobs than almost any other authority in the north-west - only Rossendale, in Lancashire, have lost more staff - and they are busily outsourcing jobs and services, to private contractors like Carillion. Since May last year, the council have cut 1,384 full-time jobs and they recently announced that they want to cut a further 600 jobs.

Like many council's, Tameside say they have been forced to make these cuts because the government have cut their funding. Yet, it is the lollipop ladies and the librarians who are losing their jobs in Tameside and not the councillors or the 'fat cats' in these council's. While libraries close in Tameside, Tameside councillor's are given iPads and the choice of a iPhone or a Blackberry ostensibly, to cut down on paperwork and to promote the council's "green credentials." It is also interesting to note who is paying off this deficit, brought about by the greed and incompetence of Britain's bankers and the government's 'light-touch' regulation - it's certainly not the rich!

In May, Michael Meacher, the local MP for Oldham West and Royton, wrote to the Guardian newspaper stating that 77% of the budget deficit is being recouped by public expenditure cuts and benefit cuts, and only 23% is being repaid by tax increases. More than half of the tax increase, is accounted for by the VAT rise. While people lose their jobs and see their benefits and public services cut and their wages frozen or cut, the richest 1,000 persons in Britain, just 0.003% of the adult population, have seen their wealth increase over the past 3 years by £155bn.

Tameside libraries facing closure as spending cuts start to bite!

Many of the borough libraries in the one party state of Tameside in Greater Manchester, could be facing the axe as the council seeks to cut its £3.5 million annual spend on its library service by a minimum of £900,000.

The Labour controlled council currently runs 13 libraries and a home library service. Though the council says that no decision to close libraries has been taken, a report submitted to the Executive Cabinet in November, says:

"It is likely that the number of libraries we provide will need to be reduced."

Libraries which are most risk, are those like Dukinfield, where the report says that customers "are most likely to use another library", whereas, customers using Droylsden and Mossley, are thought to be less inclined to use another library.

While the council have already cut staffing levels in libraries, resulting in savings of over £200,000, the report says:

"It is likely to be necessary however to decrease staffing further in future years and every opportunity will be taken to achieve this through the natural turnover of staff."

Other cost-cutting measures outlined in the report, involve using volunteers to run libraries in place of paid library staff and using community groups, to run libraries from their own buildings. Sharing buildings with other public and private sector providers, to provide a library service, is also one of the other alternative models under consideration.

Plans have already been made to relocate Hattersley library to the new Tesco superstore being built on Hattersley. In addition, reducing library opening hours is also considered an option as well as the use of technology to reduce costs. The report says that the use of e-books and e-reader would reduce costs significantly as well as the greater use of the internet, to access library services.

The role of customer service officers, who work in libraries and offer advice and help with enquiries, is also under review. In a letter to all customer service staff, Adam Allen, Assistant Executive Director for Cultural & Customer Services, says:

"It is recognised that telephone and web based interactions are significantly more cost efficient than face to face contact and are becoming the contact methods of choice for some customers. In order for the service to be affordable going forward, it is necessary to maximise the opportunities to steer customers to use these channels of contact."

The letter says that though customer services staff will be situated at the most convenient location, Ashton Customer services will be the central hub for face-to-face contact and that this will only be provided to those that need it. Also, an appointment system will be introduced as well as a call centre to deal with a range of enquiries from customers.

Kieran Quinn, the leader of the council, is keen that people should have their say about cuts in services and this week the council launched 'The Big Conversation'. However, when it comes to having a conversation with the public about cutting the number of Tameside councillors and their allowances in order to save public money, it's noticeable how he turns a deaf ear to the issue. Perhaps this is understandable when one considers that both himself and his wife Susan, who is the Mayor, last year claimed £67,917.96 between them. His deputy leader, Councillor Taylor, has also claimed £234,810.34 in allowances over the last eight years.

Across the country, campaigners are taking action to stop library closures. Recently, the High Court ruled that the decision by Gloucester and Somerset council's to close libraries was unlawful because they failed to assess the impact library closures would have on the poor, elderly and disabled. In Suffolk, proposals to close libraries were withdrawn following action by protestors.

SAUSAGE ROLL SUBVERSIVES DO BATTLE FOR LOCAL LIBRARY

Citizens of Penrhyn Bay stage sit-in!

ARMED with sausage rolls, balloons, banners and appropriately designed Royal Wedding paraphernalia, a determined bunch of local residents in Penrhyn Bay staged a sit-in last Friday at their local library branch. Their aim is to block a plan by the Borough of Conwy in North Wales to close half the local libraries in the area.

Reports suggest it was a scene akin to an Ealing Comedy, as just before the Penrhyn Bay library branch closed for lunch on the 6th May, the disgruntled crowd of locals moved onto the premises to do battle for their precious local bibliotheca. The cheerful local librarian present loyally stayed at his post while his masters, skulking in their public offices, took the best part of an hour to show their faces. Prior to that they issued threats over the phone and when that didn't work they sent for the police.

Half an hour after the protest began a smiling, good natured bobby appeared whose first utterance was: 'This must be the most civilised protest that I have ever witnessed'. It seems that no names were taken either by the library management or the police, and that the manager had to be brought over at the request of one of the protesters. Once there she was invited to sign their petition against closure, which she declined to do. Meanwhile, a spirited atmosphere of protest songs and the munching of sausage rolls prevailed. The event will be covered in the local media, including the North Wales Weekly, and further action is planned by the citizens of Penrhyn Bay to advance their cause.

If you are interested in getting involved in the campaign to save the Penrhyn Library, phone Chris on 01492 547590.