UNISON launched a campaign yesterday to defend the public library service against cuts and closures, deskilling of library workers and privatisation. The union, which organises a substantial proportion of Britain's library workers in public libraries, further and higher education and health, has published a report, Taking Stock: The Future of our Public Library Service(pdf) and has a five point plan, consisting of:
Adequate resources for staff, services and premises
Encouraging staff and communities to shape the library service
Libraries and councils sharing information and best practice
Catering for library users from all backgrounds
Better staff training and professional development
An update: Laura Swaffield has posted on CILIP's Update blog, complimenting Unison on a 'well-timed pre-emptive strike' and praising the report's historical approach and 'great summary of all the evidence that shows PFI is a disaster'. I'd agree, with the minor proviso that some more recent history is elided: a chronology jumps straight from the Public Library and Museums Act of 1964 to the founding of the Library and Information Commission in 1998. Quite a lot happened between those dates, for example the Green Paper of 1988, in the struggle against which Unison's predecessor organisation NALGO played a leading role. And Brighton and Hove is not a county.