On the 15^th February, Cllr Eyre clarified the position with respect to the future of the libraries.  He was clear that no libraries would close.

In summary, from 1^st April all Community Managed Libraries will cease to be run by DHA and will be handed back to Derby City Council. The Council will run them with the current volunteers whilst the Expression of Interest process is undertaken; this will then result in the handover of the library to a community group. This is expected to take 4-6 months.

What Cllr Eyre didn’t tell the Cabinet, and the public, is that when the Council hands over the library to the community group it will cut all ties with the Central Library service and other critical Council resources. More specifically:

• No stock will be available from other libraries. The library will be able to retain its existing stock but it will not appear on the Council’s library system
• Van delivery service will end
• All IT will be withdrawn including access to the central Library Management system, use of library cards, access to networked computer facililties, internet, printing, scanning and wi-fi.
• No access to online library resources, e.g e-books and e-magazines.
• No paid staff support previously given to DHA by Council library professionals
• No new books

Comment

Ripping out all of the IT, and cutting access to any other libraries, and their stock, will test the resources and ingenuity of any voluntary group and render the creation of a fully functioning library almost impossible.

These places will be libraries in name only

The implication was that something approximating to the DHA style offer would be possible into the future. Nothing was explicitly stated, but perhaps it should have been, to avoid any ambiguity.

It feels like the Cabinet and the public have been misled by this omission.

Postscript

The Tories don’t want to be seen to close the libraries and the current process will delay the inevitable to a point well after the election when it will be someone else’s problem.