Improving public library services in England – from regulation to self improvement.

1. Improving public library services in England – from regulation to self improvement. David Ruse, Director of Libraries Westminster City Council

2. 1964 and all that • Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 set a DUTY to provide ‘’a comprehensive and efficient service for all persons desiring to make use thereof’’. • Facilities are available for the borrowing of, or reference to, books and other printed matter and other materials sufficient in number range and quality to meet the general requirements and any special requirements both of adults and children. • Encouraging both adults and children to make full use of the service, provide advice as to its use and make available bibliographic and other information.

3. Librarians and Accountants

4. The need for Standards ‘’My statutory duty is to ensure the provision of a comprehensive and efficient public library service. However, executing this duty is hampered by the lack of a clear and widely accepted definition of what the requirement means in practice’’. Chris Smith, Secretary of State, 2001

5. The rise of the ALPS • Statutory Annual Library Plan • Context; resources; service performance; future plans • Could be up to 100 pages long! • To be approved by full Council • Submitted to DCMS for assessment and scoring

6. 2001 Public Library standards • 19 standards, covering key areas of service delivery, and defined against the performance of the top 25%. • Authorities to meet the standards within 3 years, and to set out in their Annual Library Plan how they proposed to do this. • The position of authorities against the standards would be taken into account by the Audit Commission in carrying out its Best Value inspections and audits.

7. The standards were intended to meet the following objectives: • Libraries that were conveniently located and offered suitable access for users • Adequate opening hours (what does this mean?) • The development of electronic access for users • Satisfactory services for the issuing and reserving of books (not returning or renewing and just books!) • Encouraging library use • Providing choice in books and materials • Providing appropriate levels of qualified staff

8. Some examples of the 2001 Standards • PLS 1 100% of all households in inner London to be within 1 mile of a static library 85% of all households in County Councils to be within 2 miles of a static library • PLS 7 Normal book issuing period to be 3 weeks • PLS 11 7,650 visits per head of population in inner London 6,600 visits per head of population in county councils • PLS 12 65% or more users reporting success in obtaining a specific book • PLS 14 95% of users rating the knowledge of staff as ‘good’ or ‘very good’ • PLS 17 At least 216 annual items added per 1000 population

9. BVPIs • BVPI 115 Cost per visit • BVPI 117 Number of physical visits per head of population • BVPI 118 % of users who found what they wanted and were satisfied • From 2004: • BVPI 220 Level of compliance with the standards

10. Peer Review • Assessment by a group of visiting chief librarians and elected members and other senior librarians • Review of paper-based evidence • Interviews with Chief Executive, Members, senior management, staff, public and others • Observations and feedback • Good practice and areas for improvement

11. Review of 2001 Standards • Performance against Standards had improved since their introduction in 2001 • Library visits appeared to be the standard which most authorities found most difficult to achieve, with only 21% compliance in 2005 • Average performance improved over the period with the number of PLSS being met by all authorities seeing a steady improvement year on year • Average number being met by each authority increased from 2 in 2001 to 5.5 in 2005 • Proportion of authorities achieving 5 or more increased from 4% in 2001 to 68% in 2005 • Only 52% achieved 6 or more in 2005

12. Other findings • 7 out of the 10 measures were internally focused • Only 2 measured an external focus – relating to user satisfaction • There was limited focus on quality of service • There is no assessment of costs • There is no consideration of the whole population and its engagement with the service

13. The 2008 National Indicator Set • NI 9: • Percentage of the adult population in a local area who say they have used a public library service at least once in the last 12 months.

14. Benchmark of Library Indicators • Satisfaction • Participation • Access • Resources • Quality • Efficiency

15. Benchmark examples • Satisfaction: % of residents satisfied • Participation: Interactions/1000 population • Access: % who think opening hours good • Resources: Stock per 1000 population • Quality: % users who think library is good • Efficiency: Number of transactions per member of staff

16. Cultural Improvement toolkit8 Key themes • Leadership and Corporate governance • Policy and strategy • Community engagement • Partnership working • Resource management • People management • Customer service • Performance, achievement and learning

17. But what is quality? • Compliance with National Standards? • A good benchmarking result? • A good self-assessment? • OR A SATISFIED CUSTOMER • EVERY TIME?

18. The Westminster Quality Standard • Moment of truth – our external image – clean and smart inside and out • Moment of Truth – our entrance – clean and welcoming, uncluttered. • Moment of truth – the Transition zone – ‘wow’ the customer just inside the library • Counters – or information pods – professional, uncluttered look • Managing space – layout and ambience – clean smell!, area on left of entry as high turnover/special promotions/impulse ‘buy/borrow’; • Floorwalking and customer service – you as the host – appearance, smile!, welcoming, customer radar on,

19. The Westminster Quality Standard • Information work – getting it right every time 8. Displays – delight the customer – always at least 80% full; impulse stock; professional; always 4 key displays – pyramid power display in transition; endcaps; returns trolley; at least 1 bay face out in fiction, 600’s and biography. 9. Community information – in one well ordered place; core business only in entrance and transition zone. 10. Targets – know the key targets and actual performance for the site.

20. Quality management in libraries? • Who’s afraid of numbers? – we all should be – they are not the whole story • Regulation – it was working, but now unlikely to return • Self-improvement - can it work? – Yes, but more slowly and only where there is a will

21. Quality • Starts - and Ends with: DELIGHTING THE CUSTOMER - EVERY TIME!

22. Thanks for listening! David Ruse druse@westminster.gov.uk