Agenda item

The purpose of this report is to provide the Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee with background information and work undertaken to develop the emerging Libraries and Heritage strategy which will be considered at Cabinet on 21st December 2021.

 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

 

(a)       consider the contents of the report and presentation and provide feedback to the Cabinet Lead Member for Community Services and Safety, Corporate Director, Customers Organisational Development and Resources and supporting Officers;

(b)       decide if any further action is required to support the emerging strategy;

(c)       approve the development and content of the strategy.

The Committee had before it a report which provided members with background information and work undertaken to develop the emerging Libraries and Heritage strategy which would be considered at Cabinet on 21st December 2021.  The Cabinet Lead Member for Community Services and Safety, Councillor Fawcett, the Corporate Director, Customers Organisational Development, Claire Taylor, the Interim Assistant Director for Cultural, Lesli Good and the Director of Customer Experience & Cultural Services, Mark Haynes,had been invited to the meeting to give a presentation on the Strategy (a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the minutes).

 

Councillor Fawcett introduced the report.  He welcomed developing the Libraries and Heritage Strategy and said that he believed that Libraries provided a very important link between the council and residents across Oxfordshire.  It was a widely used and loved service with around 2.3 million library visits last year.  Oxfordshire had not had a clear Strategy in place for many years and the new Strategy aimed to give very clear direction to the services moving forward.  Officers had listened to a wide variety and stakeholders and councillors drawing up the document.  The Strategy was not the full implementation plan, if the Strategy was approved in the spring, there would be a further stage looking in much more details looking at libraries and heritage across the County.

 

Claire Taylor introduced the presentation. She reported that extensive pre-engagement and development activities had taken place.  A formal consultation on the plan would then be undertaken next year.  She welcomed the input of the Committee and undertook to bring the actions in the five-year plan to Committee following the consultation.

 

The Interim Assistant Director for Cultural, Lesli Good, then gave a presentation on the Strategy (a copy of which is attached to the signed copy of the minutes).  Key points were as follows:

 

§    22 libraries managed by county council staff

§    22 Community Supported Libraries run by staff with the support of volunteers

§    Home Library Service supporting 670 clients

§    Prison library Service in Huntercombe and Bullingdon

§    the Oxfordshire Museum in Woodstock

§    the Museums Resource Centre at Standlake, housing the reserve collection

§    a Scheduled Ancient Monument and Grade 1 listed medieval barn at Swalcliffe, providing accessible storage for large agricultural and trade vehicles

§    Oxfordshire History Centre in St Lukes Church, Cowley

§    all three museum locations and the History Centre are Accredited (meeting nationally agreed standards for museum and archive services to inspire the confidence of the public and funding and governing bodies)

§    Victoria County History, a literary charity whose purpose is to publish the complete history of Oxfordshire

§    The museum service also has a legacy responsibility for the remains of the Bishop’s Palace in Witney

 

 

 

The services were highly valued and used by residents.  Key performance data in 2019 as the last full year of operation before the pandemic was set out below:

 

·            2.3m visits to libraries

·            3.4m items borrowed from libraries

·            159,071 of these were e books or e audio books

·            166,255 searches for e magazines

·            670 housebound residents supported by the Home Library Service

·            County Library has the 4^th highest borrowing figures in Great Britain

·            8,355 events in libraries attended by 98,000 people

·            >1,200 volunteers supported delivery of services

·            127.092 visits to the Oxfordshire Museum

·            3,645 visits to the Oxfordshire History Centre (17% of visitors were first time visitors)

·            3,600 remote enquiries answered by the history centre

 

Services for children were well attended as follows:

 

·            47,000 children visited libraries to borrow books

·            1.5m items were borrowed by children

·            598 events supporting children’s reading and literacy

·            9,000 children participated in Summer Reading Challenge

·            1,780 Rhymetime, family events and Play and Stay sessions were delivered

·            26,000 children and young people (early years to Year 12) attended a class visit with teacher – for many of these it was the first visit to a library

·            1,900 Bookstart packages gifted to under 5s

·            1,500 children engaged in informal learning activities in the Museum

·            8,500 school children engaged with the museum service through loans of boxed collections of objects, workshops at the Museum and in school

 

Two workshops were held with staff, two with Friends of Libraries groups, two with volunteers and 1 with external stakeholders.  Councillors were invited to a workshop and presentations were made to all Locality Meetings.  Officers across the council were also engaged through a series of presentations.  The public were invited to share ideas for libraries, museum and history service through the Let’s Talk Oxfordshire portal.

 

The impact of the pandemic was considered.

 

Libraries, the museum, and history centre were closed during periods of lockdown in 2020 and 2021 with staff being re-deployed to support other services such as registration and making shielding calls, however the home library service continued to visit our housebound library members.  Services wherever possible were delivered digitally including Rhymetimes and activities for children, Reading Groups and some library activities for adults. Museum activities to support children learning and history centre website content were also significantly enhanced. 

 

During the pandemic, the library service saw an exponential increase in on-line membership and e-book borrowing.  From November 2020 during the second lockdown libraries offered a ‘click and collect’ service where residents could ask library staff to select books for them to collect from our largest branches and a small number of free PC bookings were made available in recognition that some residents were facing prolonged digital exclusion due to lack of personal devices and/or connectivity.

 

As a result of the pandemic, they had identified some drivers for change, including putting more of an offer online, there was a need to merge physical with virtual for a seamless experience for customers.  In terms of community need, there was a need to focus local services on local need with increased profiling.  Widening access also needed to be addressed in terms of equality, diversity, and inclusion.  There was also a need to be mindful of population growth and better use of properties was also being looked at. The Strategy was based around three themes; people, place, and partnerships.

 

During debate, members made the following points and observations:

 

·            In relation to consultation, the importance of engaging and consulting with ‘casual users’ of libraries was raised.

·            Further data on quantity of staff employed was requested.

·            Widening access hours needed to be given further consideration (for working people).

·            Rural services needed to be given further consideration.

·            The Committee indicated that a different word than ‘modern’ should be used in the vision document.

·            The Committee queried whether libraries could be used by small businesses and other community groups and that libraries as a shared space should be explored further, including Wi-Fi, photocopying etc.

·            The Committee felt that, particularly in rural areas, libraries could be used by youth groups and early years provision and could become hubs; widening access needed to be looked at including opening hours.

·            Members queried whether any counties could/had been identified who were bucking trends with the number of visits/book withdrawals to draw on best practice.

·            The issue of the ability for people to reserve books and rotating stock was raised.

·            Members queried whether the strategic themes had been linked to desired outcomes.

·            Members queried what was being done in relation to the prison service and meeting their needs.

·            Members queried whether consideration was being given to the placement of libraries for new developments.

·            Members queried whether there was any data around how many of the 2.3m were ‘repeat customers’ and whether there would be comparative data on before and after the Strategy.

·            Members queried whether officers were speaking to other heritage sites across the County that were not under Council ownership.

·            Members queried whether there were staff in the team who had the expertise to expand digital capabilities and what proportion of the budget would be spent on it

·            Members queried what co-location would look like, for example cafes, children’s services.

·            Sharing economy and circular economy – was the library looking at sharing of other things.

·            Members queried how consultation and engagement was undertaken and whether there was going to be in-person workshops at libraries.  Had any work been undertaken with coms on how best to achieve it.

·            Members queried whether co-location had taken account of people working from home.

·            Members queried whether there could be a mobile delivery and return service for Rural Areas.

·            Members requested that coms were increased around the County’s Heritage Services.

·            Members welcomed the format of the Strategy.

·            Members queried whether there could be more interactive sessions to increase usage by children.  (engage playgroups further mobile services outside playgroups and schools) and queried whether there was any data on whether there was an age where children/adults dropped off.

·            Members queried whether the library box collection service could be expanded.

·            Members queried whether there was any plan with regards to retrofitting libraries to meet the Council’s Climate Action targets and queried how books were moved around the county.

·            Members queried what opportunities there were for moving books to schools and what life the books had.

 

Claire Taylor reported that one of the main outcomes of the Libraries Peer Review had been to look for good practice elsewhere and that details would bet set out in the final document.  Each vision would have clear priorities including an Asset Plan for each of 44 buildings – looking at co-location, usage and opening hours. There was a need to look at staffing requirements relating to service requirements.  Lessons learnt from the Pandemic would be expanded upon.

 

Lesli good reported that there was currently a good library management system, but that she was going to ask the new Library Services Manager to look at stock and how the Council engaged with the local community. The Asset Management Plan would look at the placement of libraires.  Heritage – the County Museum Service provided advice and support to Council and voluntary led museums – but there was a need to increase the level of engagement with partners in the sector.  The skills set of staff to deliver the Strategy needed to be looked at, with a view to investing more in staff and imbedding it into the service.  The Digital Inclusion Strategy was looking at making a space in the County Library for engaging people in a broader range in technological uses.  There were however, some capacity issues around space.  Officers were also looking at physical assets, for parenting classes and youth group etc.  Officers were also using the let’s talk Oxfordshire portal to engage and see what they wanted to see at the Libraries.

 

Mark Haynes explained that he had been working with Adult Social Care Team, Children’s Services and the Transformation Board to increase the range and scope of services provided. They had also been talking to Age UK and The Community Information Network.  Co-location with other Councils was also being considered.

 

Claire Taylor reported that the Consultation Strategy was considering making libraries a welcoming, open place to engage.  In relation to the operational issues raised by the Committee, she undertook to produce a note on the operational side of Library Services and invited members to visit and see how the libraries operated.

 

Following the question and answer session, the Committee AGREED to submit the points above to inform the emerging Strategy.