Lewisham Library User Groups successfully saved
three libraries from closure in November 1999. Blackheath
Village and Manor House Libraries have produced a
document outlining their successful strategy.

You can obtain a copy by contacting the Users &
Friends of Manor House Library on
020 8852 9301

or email their Chair at
mhlibraryusers@yahoo.co.uk

The Performance of Lewisham Libraries
The recent performance of the 12 Lewisham libraries is charted at LewPerformance.htm.

With the exception of the Forest Hill Library and the Downham Mobile Library, the general trend, for both issues and visits, is gently downward with the two parameters being fairly well correlated. The performance of the Forest Hill Library has suffered a catastrophic collapse and the Downham Mobile Library is experiencing a performance recovery, after a similar violent downturn. Mobile libraries operate in a different, less benign environment to fixed site libraries and, as a result, their performance is frequently different from the general trend within a borough.

The libraries with possible exceptions to the good correlation between issues and visits are Grove Park and Sydenham Libraries. Historically, the number of issues from a public library tended to track the number of visits to that library. However, this correlation has broken down where good computer access has been provided for the library users – computer only related visits tending to become a significant proportion of the total. The fact that this has not happened in Lewisham could be explained by less than adequate computer provision and/or by extremely good lending stock provision/management. Sadly, the latter possibility is not applicable to Lewisham.

AT. Sep. 07