Library Services

Debate between Andrew Smith and Lisa Nandy

Tuesday 25th January 2011 Westminster Hall

[Lisa Nandy]

I do not welcome the future libraries programme when the libraries in my area have, it seems, no future, because of the incredible reduction in the council budget. I shall talk later about ways in which libraries can be improved and about work that is happening. However, I urge the hon. Gentleman to understand that libraries cost money to run and cannot simply be run by volunteers on thin air.

We all know the value of libraries. That is not in dispute. It is clear that they have a particular impact for the disadvantaged. Catch22, a charity that works with young people, sent me in advance of the debate compelling evidence of the value of libraries for young homeless people in my Wigan constituency, particularly in relation to the internet. One in five people still does not have access to the internet. At a time when six people are chasing every job in Wigan, taking away internet access does not just feel like a kick in the teeth—it is a kick in the teeth. Catch22 sent me the story of Sam, aged 20, who said:

“My life is made more difficult by not having access to the internet or a PC...It seems that everything now requires the internet; often other organisations tell me to look online to find information. This includes the Job Centre, Housing Benefit, choice based lettings, Sure Start, health information. On occasions when I have not had enough phone credit to contact an agency by phone, they have suggested that I email them. If I can’t afford credit for my phone what makes them think I can afford the internet? I do not see how I will be able to save up to buy a PC in the foreseeable future as it is difficult to manage on benefits. I do want to better myself, but it is all a struggle.”

[Mr Andrew Smith (Oxford East) (Lab)]

I warmly congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this enormously important debate. Further to her last point, does she agree that libraries are a sanctuary and haven for many young people where they can do their homework when they do not have the right conditions at home and the school library is not open? To deprive them of that, especially in the most disadvantaged communities, as Oxfordshire county council proposes to do with its closure of libraries in Blackbird Leys and Littlemore, as well as in Bury Knowle and Old Marston, is a disgrace.

[Lisa Nandy]

I agree with my right hon. Friend and know, having worked with many disadvantaged young people in the Oxford area, that people often make the mistake of thinking that Oxford is an entirely affluent area when in fact there are significant pockets of disadvantage. I am sure that libraries are a huge asset to those young people in trying to better themselves.

Libraries also obviously provide clear benefits for older people, children and single parents, but they are not merely havens for those groups. They are the heart and soul of communities. I shall not bore hon. Members with my love of libraries, which I expect is the same as theirs, forged since early childhood. I shall not explain how I have kept libraries going in my area by paying fines over years; they can rest assured that I have done my bit. The women from Standish library who are running a campaign to save it came to my surgery and explained eloquently why it is the heart and soul of the community and how it brings people together. They told me that removing the library would be like ripping the heart out of their community. That is why campaigns are springing up around the country and it is why the people of this country fought so hard in the first place for free public libraries to be established. We should pause to recognise what a struggle that was.

The Public Libraries Act 1850 was much disputed. It was a huge victory and marked a clear step forward in the advancement of working people. It was part of an era of enlightenment and social progress. It is a bitter irony that the Liberals fought for those libraries against their Tory counterparts, and that today we witness the spectacle of a Tory-Liberal coalition presiding over the unravelling of that landmark legislation.

In the north-west, that history could not be more important. Manchester central reference library was the first free public library to be established under the Act. Salford colleagues would probably remind me that Salford managed to establish a free public library under an earlier museums Act, but Manchester’s was the first free public library to be funded by public subscription under the 1850 Act.

Opening the library, the Conservative politician Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton said:

“I call it an arsenal for books are weapons whether for war or self defence.”

Incidentally, Charles Dickens also attended the opening of that library, and talked passionately about the advancement of working people, and the step that had been taken. It was in Chethams around the corner, the first free library in the English-speaking world, that Marx and Engels researched the “Communist Manifesto”. I appreciate that that argument might not appeal to the Minister, but it is important to note that the history of working struggle was rooted in one of the first free libraries in the world. Free public libraries marked a huge advance towards a better, more enlightened society. We have continued to build on that legislation and progress ever since.

Now the Government seem hell-bent on unravelling 160 years of progress, but I want to tell Ministers that the evidence suggests that once those libraries are gone, they are gone for ever. Ministers should think carefully before they take such a step.

[Lisa Nandy]

I am sorry that the hon. Gentleman is upset that my remarks are partisan, but this is politics, and people make political choices, which is what I want to point out.

I am sure that many hon. Members and the Minister will want to point out that library use has declined and that some library services have declined as a result.

[Mr Andrew Smith]

To return to the point made by the hon. Member for Aberconwy (Guto Bebb), does my hon. Friend agree that the strength of the huge community campaign that is growing up around the country—more than 300 people met in Oxford town hall last week—is that it is non-partisan in the sense that the campaign supporters include many Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Greens and others, as well as Labour supporters, who are appalled at what the coalition Government are doing?

[Lisa Nandy]

That is also the case in my constituency. Those people are all united in a desire to protect their library services. They do not care whether a Conservative, Liberal or Labour Government are doing this; they value their libraries and want to see them protected.

The argument that library use has declined has been much overstated. Last year, 83 million children’s books were issued by libraries across the country, just 10% fewer than a decade earlier. If we consider the pressures that libraries are under—from cheaper books, online texts and different forms of borrowing—it is not their decline that is remarkable but their very survival.

In my Wigan constituency, library usage is up by a phenomenal 17% in six years as a result of the investment programme under the stewardship of Rodney Hill, the director of our culture and leisure trust, who himself used to be a librarian and who understands only too well the value of libraries.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lisa Nandy]

I have heard a great deal of talk in this debate about the use of volunteers. I am interested to know whether other hon. Members share my sentiment about the use of volunteers. I presume that the Minister is dissociating himself from the view, and I am grateful to him for that, because it is insulting to skilled librarians to suggest that they can be replaced simply by volunteers.

[Mr Andrew Smith]

I know that in the Minister’s own county, the leadership has suggested that volunteers could provide services that were previously provided by librarians.

[Lisa Nandy]

I thank my right hon. Friend for that. I expect that the Minister will go back and have strong words with his colleagues as a result of this conversation.