Dear Library Lover

By now you may have heard that the library IT system has gone down and there may have been a catastrophic loss of data. (As part of the subcontracting of virtually all Barnet services, this IT system is managed by Capita.)

We understand that they may have lost up to two years of data, and visitors to the library who ask for their cards to be checked have been told that the system will be down till April at least. Library workers are currently unable to collect any fines or check the catalogue or order books from other libraries.

This, of course, has massive implications for the proposed model of Open libraries – opened and shut by computer. The pilot project running at Edgware library testing that system has been closed down because it operates using the same system.

More details are available

in this post from local blogger Mrs Angry, and here is a link to a brief article about it from a local journalist

We are at a key moment in our campaign. Councillors are about to make a decision to go ahead with these dreadful plans. Please urgently write to the councillors listed below, who are on the committee, and to your own ward councillors if they are Conservatives, asking t

hem to give you answers to some of the following questions (please do also ask questions that occur to you, and please rephrase the questions below in your own words):

1. Ask them to seriously consider cancelling or at the least postponing the Open Libraries system they will be called on to consider for implementation at the CELS meeting on 23 March.

2. Ask them how they can have confidence in a system of libraries run by computer when it has apparently failed on such a monumental scale.

3. Ask whether they are willing to take personal responsibility for the destruction of the library system and the ensuing damage to the community, and particularly to children’s activities and literacy.

Members of the CELS committee – both Labour and Conservative. NOTE Daniel Thomas is Deputy Leader and the Conservative candidate in the GLA elections this spring.
Reuben Thompstone (Cons) - [email protected]
Bridget Perry (Cons) - [email protected]
Rebecca Challice (Lab) - [email protected]
Alison Cornelius (Cons) - [email protected]
Daniel Thomas (Cons) - [email protected]
Helena Hart (Cons) - [email protected]
Anne Hutton (Lab) - [email protected]
Kathy Levine (Lab) - [email protected]
Ammar Naqvi (Lab) - [email protected]

Please also write to the Conservative leader of Barnet council:
Richard Cornelius [email protected]

We will be staging a protest at the Town Hall before the CELS Committee from 6:20pm on Wednesday, 23 March
Please come along if you possibly can, it is really important that we use this last opportunity to try to sway the Barnet administration from the disastrous course they are walking into. Hendon Town Hall is at The Burroughs, Hendon, NW4 4AX. The 143 bus stops there and the Northern Line stop of Hendon Central (Edgware branch) is about 10 minutes walk away.