Facts and Figures (if you like that stuff)

As well as the main document, this time, the council have published a raft of useful raw data. If you like that sort of thing (which I don't). I've tried to distill something useful for Matson library users from it. And here it all is!

The council have published documents online that demonstrate:

Car ownership in Matson is at 67% the equal lowest in the county along with the city centre (which has the central library). This is why when in the last proposals they said everyone would be within twenty minutes [drive] of a library I knew they didn't know Matson.

47% of borrowers at Matson library are 17 or younger. Around 11% of Matson library users are over 65. Which goes to show that even though schools have libraries the public library matters to young people.

The number of people using Matson library over a year seems to have gone up since 2006 (15%) although there has been a dip last year. Perhaps this is due to the uncertainty? The number of books borrowed has gone down (-15%) in the same period. Perhaps people are using the library more for reference because the use of computers at Matson library is low relative to other libraries.

Those who go into the library for homework help are slightly more likely to use the books (51%) than the computers (40%) to support their learning. It seems it really is the books, rather than the PCs that are the focus in Matson library.

Matson library is the cheapest to run in the Gloucester District but the second most expensive per user. This suggests the current site is good value. Tuffley being the most expensive per user in the district. Although they are all within the normal range. There isn't much in it.

If you want to email the county council with your views use this email address:
libraries2012@gloucestershire.gov.uk

Thinking it through for Matson

Public Meeting
A small group (sixteen) of people met together to discuss the future of Matson library at St Hilda's on the evening of the launch of the new library proposals. The mood was generally positive with people talking of cautious optimism welcoming the proposals.

We had barely had time to take it all in and to properly understand the implications but it seems that Matson is now intended to have a "Partnership Library". As is Tuffley and Hester's Way. This is good news for all three communities who had been looking at the complete closure of their libraries.

Now we are being guaranteed 21 hours (currently we have 23) of open library as a minimum. We were united in being pleased that the library service is being kept but there was a good deal of discussion on the pros and cons of keeping the library where it is or moving it to another site.

Reasons to keep the library in it's current location

• The library serves an area wider than Matson and the current location was chosen to be accessible to Robinswood and Abbeydale. 
• Keeping the library where it is makes it clear that it is the council's responsibility, not the communities responsibility. 
• The building is a good size and already set-up for the current use. But there is scope to add value by getting community groups to use the library. 

Reasons to move the library
(The previous plan to have a community-run library at the Redwell Centre opens the question of the council renting space in another building, we discussed this option).

• If a move to a multi-use site means longer hours and better foot-fall the library will be used and therefore safer in the long-term. 
• Tuffley Doctors are looking at a multi-use centre including a library
• Hester's Way are looking at a multi-use centre youth/library to increase hours and use.

Clearly this conversation is going to need more people to join it so we can figure out the way ahead.

What next? 
Wherevery the library is it will need the council to be committed long-term to the fabric and stock or it will not be used. We also need to get some clear idea of what 'core provision' means.

We agreed to get more people to become 'friends of matson library' so that whatever happens we can celebrate and partner library services. We agreed to have a 'Friends of Matson Library' meeting at some point during the consultation period which begins January 30th and lasts for six weeks. We also want to ask Jo Grills if a consultation could include an opportunity for one-to-one interviews so that residents could speak and listen more freely.

We all hoped that the consulation process this time would be different than last time. There is every reason to think so, especially as an independent organisation is being brought in to run the consultation.

It was great to see friends of Tuffley library coming to support the meeting. The more we speak to each other the better we can understand all this stuff.

Over the next few weeks we need to get our heads around what is now being offered and what we want to say about that.

Matson Library Plans (nearly!) Announced

Council plans are delayed so I'm going to take a guess as to what will be announced for Matson. 

Library Move? 

It looks like the council will propose that Matson continues to have a statutory library services, staffed by a council paid librarian in a place rented by the council. But not at the current location. 

This would mean that the council would save money on staffing and premises costs but our library hours would be extended from what they are now. It also means the council have a long-term commitment to funding a library in Matson rather than setting it adrift as they had previously planned. 

In short: whatever happens next Matson is likely to have a council operated library service here in Matson for the foreseeable future. 

This would mean council have recognised that many people in our community rely on the sort of services being offered by a library and that we need those to be local. It also means that they realise the importance of trained and qualified staff. 

Sadly it also would mean the present library building will become vacant. I hope that as a community we can take some responsibility for ensuring that space continues to be an important community building in some way.  

The council document will be available here at 6:30 tonight so we can still review them this evening. 

Public Meeting

7pm Monday 16th January

St Hilda's Hall, Redwell Road, Matson

All Welcome !

Library's go against conventional wisdom

We live in a world where shopping is seen as redemptive, "it provides job's" we are told, "it stimulates the ecnomomy," they say. And in a time when the economy is failing us all some say it needs stimulating more than ever.

What this means is the more invidiualistic we are the healthier our economy is. Because individuals don't share resources, they buy them privately. The more private we are the more we have to buy stuff the healthier the economy is.

The trouble is sharing makes for healthy communities. And libraries are all about sharing instead of privately buying.

So if sharing is healthy for communities and not-sharing is healthier for capitalist economies what can we do to square the circle.

In Matson we experience alot of what's bad about the capitalist system. Many residents are in casual labour, because it suits capitalism to have a flexible workforce. Many residents have had their welfare privatised, because it suits capitalism to make money out of people's needs.

Many residents struggle to pay library book fines and so use of the library drops away.  In conversation with Jo Grills the other day she suggested the idea of fine-amnesties (bring your books back with charges dropped) and I suggested text-reminders (like you might get from a dentist). Her idea is more practical and has that added virtue of being about forgiveness of debts, which, as someone who says several times each day, 'forgive us our debts as we forgive the debts of others', appeals to me!

We also talked about the difficult of using a library with chaotic opening ours and wondered if a multi-use building would allow the library to be open for longer and more regular hours. Why settle for what we've got when we could have something even better?

Libraries are as important and go against the wisdom of our times. So it takes a new kind of wisdom to see them through the difficult times ahead. I'm confident we can do it together.

Public Meeting for Matston Library's Future

You are invited to 

A public meeting on the future of Matson Library

Monday 16th January 7 pm

St Hilda's Hall, Redwell Road 

(Parking at the Redwell Centre if needed) 

Agenda: Gloucestershire County Council's New Proposals for the library

The meeting is not only for Matson residents but for anyone who cares about the future of Matson library. The Council will be publishing there draft proposals on or before the date of the meeting before they go to the council cabinet on 20th January then public consultation on 1st February (ish). It is vital that we let them know our views before it goes to the cabinet.

This meeting will be a safe place, among friends and neighbours, to listen to one another and work out what we think about the future of our library.

Everyone is welcome: just turn up. 

Hopes for a Win/Win for Matson Library

Residents and councillors sat together today, Thursday 5th January, ahead of new proposals for the counties libraries. Both sides said they hoped for a win/win solution which would be positive for Matson and realistic for Gloucestershire County Council.

The new proposals will replace the "Meeting the Challenge" document, drafted by Cllr Antonia Noble but rejected by residents and by a High Court Judge as unlawful, draconian, and unfair on the most vulnerable in society. Mark Parker, who has been involved in the project from the beginning said he was keen to learn from the past but look to the future.

Keith Hebden, curate at St Katharine's Church, Matson and Liam Kelch, Chair of The Matson and Robinswood Neighbourhood Project arranged to meet with Jo Grills, the new head of library services, with Mark Parker, who steers the Big Community Offer, also taking part.

Mark and Jo welcomed the "positive approach" and that residents are willing to tell them "what they think the priorities are." Liam Kelcher stressed the stressed the need for a library service that was accessible to people from the areas around Matson, including Abbeydale and Abbeymead. Keith Hebden said that he believed a "win/win solution goes beyond compromise to a solution from which both parties come out better off than they were before."

Jo Grills, who has only recently taken up her new post will be visiting Matson next week to see Matson Library for herself and to meet other community groups ahead of the formal consultation in February.

Rough Timetable
Proposed Plan for Gloucestershire Libraries           c. 13th January
County Council Cabinet vote on proposals                  20th January
Six Week Consultation*                                          c. 1st February

When the proposals are published ahead of the Council meeting I will post a summary here and a link to the councils e-copy of the document. We will also make sure hard copies will be available for scrutiny around Matson and Robinswood and invite groups in Abbeydale to do the same.


*I'm still not sure what they mean by consultation

Were you there?

In March 2011 around 70 people came to Matson library for a vigil.

These people were from across the political spectrum from Labour councillors to Conservative Party members and activists. From those of faith to those of good faith. From senior citizens to babies in prams.

They sang a moving adaptation of the negro spiritual 'Were you there when they crucified our library?' They named those who crucified the library - an innocent victim of an unjust system.

Closing down libraries won't make investment bankers more honest, or corporations less greedy. Targetting public services for demolition won't bring down house prices or make shareholders more ethical. But it provides a welcome distraction for the powerful who fear any change that brings about justice. 

Were you there that evening? Post your memories of the event and why public services, like our local library, still matter and are still worth fighting for, here.