On Saturday 9th, the Friends and other supporters gathered at the library to perform a re-enactment of the opening ceremony in 1906. 'Andrew Carnegie' and others expressed their hopes and wishes that the library would be maintained in perpetuity by Lambeth council - however the ceremony also marked 100 days since the library was closed by the same council.
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Lambeth's reasons for closing our library on 31st March were not financial.
Lambeth insist that our library was closed at the end of the 2015/16 financial year to save money. I cannot see any justification for this assertion. Except for trivial savings on utilities there has not so far been any reduction in expenditure. But Lambeth are paying for a security guard and foregoing the hire fees paid by desk space users, a total of about £2150 a week.
Before the closure the number of staff employed by Lambeth Libraries was reduced from 120 to 80, in response to the cuts; but the closure has not yet resulted in any further reduction. Eventually there might be a reduction equivalent to the three staff in our library, saving about £2,800 a week. But by then more desk spaces would no doubt have been in use if the library had remained open. There was also other income from the library and Lambeth have the cost of relocating the Home Visit Service. At most the saving from closing our library will be trivial.
Calculations of the above income and expenditure figures are here.
Stephen Carlill
The two-day exhibition on Lambeth’s and GLL’s plans for the future of the Carnegie (building, not library) showed that Lambeth’s plans are still at a very early stage. The display consisted of four panels which revealed little or nothing new; even the outline floor plans were the same as published two months ago. You can view the panels here: Carnegie exhibition.
Lambeth officers, local councillors and GLL representatives were on hand to answer questions; but visitors found a lack of consistency in the replies, and in some cases profound ignorance. The Friends had produced a double-sided leaflet listing concerns and questions visitors might like to ask. This is here and here.
Visitors were invited to leave comments on a postcard; we look forward to publication of these; what has been photographed and tweeted so far reveals strong opposition and disdain.
There are serious problems with these ill-conceived plans, and to insist on imposing them would be disastrous. Once again, we invite Lambeth to work with the Friends and Carnegie Library Association for a holistic, sustainable and popular development to benefit the whole community.
Congratulations to Stella Duffy, a keen supporter of the Friends, on being made an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours. Awarded for services to the Arts, the citation lists her as “Writer and Theatremaker”, which gives only a small idea of her many accomplishments.
Stella has long been associated with Carnegie Library, hosting workshops, giving readings and attending events over the years. As Director of Fun Palaces, she inspired the hugely successful Fun Palace Day at Carnegie Library and all Lambeth Libraries on 3 October 2015. More recently, she spoke at rallies and signed up 220 authors to a letter supporting libraries and opposing closures.
A full appreciation will appear in our next Newsletter. In the meantime, we salute our dear friend and neighbour on her well deserved honour.
Lambeth have announced that they will be putting on an exhibition about the possible future uses of the building instead, it seems, of the public meeting they were promising for many months. The exhibition will be on Tuesday 21 and Wednesday 22 June. A copy of their flyer giving details is here.
The Friends' committee prepared a leaflet giving questions visitors to the exhibition may want to ask. This is here and here. In the meantime it is hoped that local people will appreciate that the Neighbourhood Library promised by Lambeth is defined by Lambeth to consist only of books, computers and Wi-Fi access in a room used for non-library purposes. A Neighbourhood Library does NOT INCLUDE a room or a part of a room set aside for library use. The Culture 2020 Report approved by Lambeth's Cabinet and, subsequently, full Council proposes that these books etc be located in a gym lounge. The initial floor plans disclosed recently show a library element mixed in with ‘flexible community space'.
Any further plans disclosed by Lambeth will need careful scrutiny. The current proposal is to let the whole building to Greenwich Leisure Limited as a Healthy Living Centre comprising a range of uses. They would not get just the basement for use as a gym.
Jeff Doorn, Chair
In a posting on their website dated 2nd June Carnegie Community Trust accuse the Friends' committee of lying, but there is no indication of when or where the statements objected to are alleged to have been made, and there is no distinction made between the Friends and Defend the Ten, a separate organisation.
If there is any assertion in anything written on behalf of the Friends which it is felt needs justification I would be grateful if this could be brought to my attention. We do usually give chapter and verse for anything we publish, and would be happy to remedy any apparent omission.
The CCT posting contains many more inaccuracies than we have time to correct at present. The matters concerned have already been dealt with in detail previously. However, I should mention some aspects which are likely to jump out at readers:
1. There seems to be an attempt to distract readers from the basic fact that Lambeth acknowledge that they have the money to run all their libraries but CHOOSE instead to spend this money on subsidising gyms. (Culture 2020 Report paragraph 5.8)
2. CCT refer to a proposal for an “endowment” fund and say this could have covered staff salaries. At no time was it suggested to the Friends that the fund could pay for library staff. We were invited to establish a volunteer-run library. This had already been rejected by our members in general meeting. No other Friends group would agree to volunteers replacing professional staff. (The proposal did not go ahead anyway because it was to be funded by selling off Waterloo and Minet Libraries which proved to be impractical.)
3. The CCT claim the Friends want only a library and nothing else. We have never said that; instead, we have consistently proposed developing the library for compatible wider use. The charity we set up with eight other user groups, Carnegie Library Association CIO, will do just that.