Barcodes being removed!

Facts That Are Now Very Critical

• In British Library, the assets are owned by the ICCR which is under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India
• Assets created with donor assistance in an establishment of a host country, is not usually repatriated, except when it is in foreign embassies / consulates. Here it is also an educational resource.
• The assets of the ICCR are Governmental assets and stripping of any asset from a State has to be backed by sound reasons and done only by following transparent procedures

• British Council, the funding agency has moved out and hence the implication is just that their financial support will not be there in future. The 'No Objection' from the British Council to transfer the books and furniture is welcome

• The Library Management is employed by the ICCR.
• It is the ICCR / Library Management that has the authority to negotiate the terms with the State Government, instead of taking cover under the British Council.

But ICCR’s silence to the requests from CM, members and even applications under RTI is suspicious.

• Unbundling and fragmentation now planned is to create chaos and kill the new establishment from the very beginning. At the same time, the act of just giving the books would look gracious, though virtually.
• The Government also has considerable stakes in the present library premises.

ICCR should transfer all the assets in the library to the State Government ‘as-is-where-is’ to form a new organization (say a Public Trust) and to restore normal operations immediately from the present premises

Text of report in newindpress.com

ICCR reply leaves many questions unanswered
Friday February 8 2008 09:34 IST

Express News Service

TPURAM: On January 10, four days prior to a reply by ICCR for a query submitted by a library member under the Right to Information Act, ICCR programme director Padam Talwar in a letter instructed T K Subramoni, librarian of the British Library, Thiruvananthapuram, to kindly bring it to the notice of all concerned in British Library, Thiruvananthapuram, that the library will close down on March 31, 2008.�

A member in November sought details under the RTI Act, including the �nature of entity, organisation, governing and management structure� of the library.

Other details sought were about the role of ICCR and details of the 1971 agreement between ICCR/Government of India and the British Council for managing British Libraries in India.

The ICCR is mum on most of the queries. The reply from the ICCR also says that the library is �not a public authority under the provisions of the RTI Act 2005, as it is not owned, controlled or substantially financed by the Government of India or through the funds provided by the Government of India to the ICCR.�

Also, the ICCR is silent on why the decision to close the library was taken by the British Council when the ICCR website states that the library comes under it. With most of his questions unanswered, 'Save our Library' is now planning to file an appeal.

The High Court recently issued a notice to the British Council after another library member filed a petition against the hasty decision of the Council to close the library.

The recent government decision to take over the library had come as a good news for members who had kicked off a campaign to retain it in the capital.

Why this discrimination by the British Council to Trivandrum

The British Council refuses to allow transfer of membership from the present library to the new entity. But the press release on their website clearly shows that they allowed this in Nepal
Click http://www.britishcouncil.org/nepal-learning-library-change-refund-faqs.htm

BL TVM in Public Domain - What's next for Professional Management - Click on the Images for news

Letters from Scotland

Several people in the U.K, and from other parts of the world, have supported us .

Two of them have been part of the campaign right from the start, and given us valuable insights into the inner workings of the British Council.

Neil Robertson, Development economist and member of the UNESCO Scotland standing committee, has written to and personally contacted dozens of key officials, writers, the press and others in the U.K, for our cause.

David Blackie, International Education expert and Director, IE Connect, has blogged about our camapign continuously and supported from the very beginning.

In his latest post in his blog 'The Language Business', he says

"They keep the books, they keep the premises, they keep something that they cherished. It clearly didn’t suit the British Council who wanted to close this library like all the others, but this time they ran into passion, commitment, solidarity and a real interest in – and love for - books. And so they folded.

Let this story be a lesson to all those who deal with the appalling British Council. Stand up to them at all times. Any BC manager may try something on, or make a really crass or damaging decision, and he or she will then go on to another place, another job, and try and advance their careers elsewhere, and leave people to live with the consequences of their narrow ambitions and short-term expedience. These people must be resisted, they must be forced into an acceptable degree of transparency, and they must be held to account.

For now, and especially for the doughty campaigners in Thiruvananthapuram, it’s time to celebrate! Congratulations! "

Neil, when informed about the British Council's decision to handover the library, wrote:

That is indeed excellent news ....... I have passed your message on to Joanne Orr of Unesco Scotland and it is excellent that the AJ Cronin omnibus edition mentioned by Yasho in one of the more poignant postings on your campaign website (which touched a chord in Scotland) will now be returning to library shelves in Kerala!

Please pass on warmest congratulations to everyone in the team! And if I ever get to Trivandrum I promise I will call in on the library which sounds indeed like it is a 'cultural landmark', that has now inspired the world!

Please keep in touch and keep us posted on progress.

Yours aye,

Neil

Meanwhile , lets also keep in mind that the Campaign is not over yet. So many issues are yet to be resolved. There are reports that The British Council might backtrack yet. The MoU is still to be signed. Memberships refunds haven't been stopped. The new structure is still to be finalised. There are reports that some of the assets might be sold off... Seems we're far from done.

Manorama News reports

Source :Manorama News
Date:03/02/2008

BC and Government support for this Great New Beginning, but not the ICCR

"British Council will give the books, the Government can keep the premises (constructed in 1928) that it ultimately owns and to have a professional body in place, members can keep something that they cherished......" - But Why Books and Furniture alone ? Why not the IT infrastructure and the members who want to continue ? What's use of a an Automobile without the engine and the passengers ? Why is the present library management insisting on keeping the new set up out of the present premises that was refurbished recently with huge investments? Is this the best practice to help the government to manage a transition ?

The Library Management (officers of ICCR) and those in their regional office in Trivandrum are canceling memberships and are creating a disastrous situation to leave the Government and vast majority of members to live with the consequences of their narrow, over-ambitions and short-term goals. They must show an acceptable degree of reasoning and transparency in sale of assets including those recently acquired. They must be made accountable. Why does the present library management insist on destroying an establishment just before handing it over to the sovereign Government? In Mergers, Acquisitions or Takeovers, entities are not dismantled for the sake of it. Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) which is supported with public funds should also take a call on this in response to the CM's letter..

Links with BC's educational / e-learning networks using the IT and other infrastructure currently available will be mutually beneficial. Why should Trivandrum be left to re-invent these legacy systems, links with the Association of British Scholars, so on and so forth ? Firewalls to restricted BC resources and paid services will be easily possible. We were not asking for investments from the BC. The request was always for preserving the institution in its entirety. British Council would be generous to also donate the existing IT enabled Library Management Systems and show a more gracious approach in strengthening co-operation with the Government and People of Kerala . That's what an international charitable organisation usually does. The BC would certainly not take it back to the UK.

A Great New Beginning !

April 1 , 2008 - Same library , Same collections, Same place - new management!!!

Government Meeting with the British Council

The Chief Minister Shri V.S Achuthanandan, Minister for Law Shri M Vijayakumar, Shri P.J Thomas IAS -Chief Secretary, Shri K Jayakumar IAS - Addl Chief Secretary , Smt Shiela Thomas IAS - Principal Secretary to CM, ShriAjayakumar IAS - Secretary IT, Shri K Padmakumar - Secretary RIAB , met a delegation from the British Council represented by Mr Rod Pryde - Director BC India, Mr Chris Gibson - Director BC South India.

After the discussions, the British Council agreed to handover the collection of 28,000 books, DVDs, magazines, and the infrastructure to an entity to be formed by the Govt.

This new institution might be named Trivandrum International Library (TIL).

Availability of the exisiting premises, in Govt owned land, should not be a problem.

The new library under an autonomous , professional structure is expected to commence operations on 1st April 2008.

Lets request all members to hold on to their memberships till the new arrangements are worked out.

UK education services of the British Council are expected to be retained in the future setup, in return for this gesture from the British Council.

Save Our Library meets the C.M

31/01/08 -
Mr Venugopal, K Padmakumar, George, Krishna met the Chief Minister Shri V.S Achuthanandan on Thursday.

The C.M, who has always shown keen interest in the matter, listened to us and promised all help to retain this institution here.

Candle Light Vigil

Last Thursday, some of our members organised a candle light protest at the British Library , Thiruvananthapuram.

Photo Courtesy: 'Mangalam'

See links below for mention about Trivandrum Library closure in the Wikipedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Council#Criticism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Council#Historical_anecdotes

"............"In March 2007, the British Council announced its 'intention to increase its investment in the Middle East, North Africa and Central and Southern Asia'. This will largely be funded by cuts in other services, libraries and office closures across Europe. In June 2007, ....."

"..........British Council libraries and offices have also been closed in a number of other countries judged by the British Council to be of little strategic or commercial importance as it refocused its activities on China and The Gulf where it can get a 'bigger bang for the buck'..............."

News that appeared in the "PRIVATE EYE"

BRITISH COUNCIL

WHILE the British Council has been fighting its corner to remain in Russia, elsewhere in the world it seems only too willing to shut up shop. In India the council announced last month that it was closing the libraries it runs in Thiruvananthapuram and Bhopal. The decision came as a complete shock to library staff and the Indian Medical Association described the potential loss of the library’s collection of books and journals as “a major blow” to medical students. The Kerala state government is trying to find a way to keep the library open in Thiruvananthapuram and has said it is prepared to run the library itself, if the British Council will just agree to leave behind its books and equipment.

The council says it “is changing the nature of its work” in the region and instead of the library, it would be sending Education UK councillors “to hold public seminars in popular venues” in Bhopal, Indore and Thiruvananthapuram. The role of Education UK is to attract international students (and their fees) to British universities, so these seminars will be recruitment exercises, not educational events. Meanwhile in Malaysia, the council told readers that the last date to borrow books from its library in Kuala Lumpur was 15 April, claiming that it is no longer needed because residents of the Klang Valley have wide access to information via other libraries and bookstores “as well as the internet”. Not to worry though, the council reassured, it will continue to “provide useful reading materials on UK universities” and tourist information about Britain at their offices.

All this follows the closure of offices in Nigeria (see Eye 1120) and the bizarre move into a reality TV scholarship contest in Ghana (Eye 1196). The British Council continues to declare that its purpose is to win friends for the UK abroad and that its “conviction that cultural relations can help individuals and the world community to thrive, [makes] the British Council a good partner”. But it is becoming increasingly clear its main aim is to sign up lucrative foreign students for UK universities.

Note:'Private Eye' is a is a British satirical magazine-newspaper which is on sale in supermarkets all over Britain and read by most journalists and politicians.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Private_Eye

Photos

The 2nd meeting at the Press Club - photos by George..

and by Tarun...

What's Next from Within ?

Events Unfolded as follows

• Helplessness to avoid closure was always projected even to the CM citing BC's policy ?
• ICCR has an important role, But opportunities to save the library were never told ?
• Efforts to prepare an alternate proposal were stalled by incongruous and incomplete reply, even to an RTI petition ?
• In spite of all efforts to save the institution, steps to sell assets and cancel memberships continued. - More loyal than the KING ?
• The spirit behind the urgent notice ordered on 18th January 2008 by the High Court is being disregarded and hasty destructive actions continue ?

Isn’t it appropriate to cooperate to retain the library ? This is what we expect even at this stage.

The High Court Petition

One of our members filed a petition with the Kerala High Court on Thursday.

The Hindu report, given below, has the details.

High Court notice on move to close British Library

Special Correspondent

Kochi: The emotive issue of the prospective closure of the British Library in Thiruvananthapuram has reached the Kerala High Court, with a petitioner pleading against the loss of the “cultural landmark.”

Justice Antony Dominic on Monday issued notice to the Central and State governments and the Director-General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) on a writ petition filed against the closure move.

The petitioner, Mini Sreenivasan, a member of the library, stated that the British Council had started the library in 1964 along with such libraries in different cities. In 1971, all the libraries except the ones in the metropolitan cities were handed over to the ICCR, an autonomous body under the Ministry of External Affairs. Later, the libraries administrated by the British Council were named British Council libraries and those administered by the ICCR British libraries.

The library in Thiruvananthapuram had around 6,500 members and a collection of around 28,000 books used by a large number of students.

The petitioner said the Country Head of the British Council announced in Thiruvananthapuram the decision to close down the library by March 31, 2008. The move had provoked protests, leading to the formation of a Save British Library Forum.

The petitioner said the library management was going ahead with membership fee refunds and introduction of voluntary retirement schemes for the staff. There was a move to sell the books. If it was closed, Thiruvananthapuram would lose a cultural landmark, she stated.

The petitioner said the Central government had a constitutional duty to avert the closure. The public, who were the direct stakeholders, had the right to know the reasons for the closure. In spite of requests, the management had not provided any reason.

The management’s argument that the County Head of the British Council had the right to close down the library was not reasonable. The British Council could only close the British Council libraries administered by it and not the libraries administered by the ICCR since 1971. The petitioner said the closure decision was illegal.

Original article - http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/22/stories/2008012256632200.htm

End of the road..?

I feel very guilty about writing negatively about what might be our collective failure...my own life is so consumed by my work as a clinician that I barely see the sun. I end up doing precious little of anything else. But are we giving up? Is there a way we can request a moratorium on closure so that we can look at alternative arrangements- for the library and its staff now that they also are apparently in the lurch?

BC in Malaysia

David Blackie's excellent blog has this post on the situation in Russia.

In the comments to this article, a reader has posted up a leaked internal memo from British Council Malaysia setting out the secret strategy for closing BC libraries in South Asia (apart from Burma) .

Email to staff
Dear Colleagues

This is to inform you about major changes in our library provision in KL next year and the impact on staff.

The British Council continuously reviews its services against demand and value for money as the world changes. As part of this we are reviewing library provision worldwide, as in many countries costs are going up, membership is falling and there are many other sources of books and information for people – public libraries, bookshops, internet. In countries where this is the case, we are redeploying our money into other activities – mainly regional projects – which can provide more impact for our target audiences.

In East Asia we will only continue with libraries for the general public in Burma. In other countries – including Malaysia – we will restrict provision of information services to members of our teaching centre. We need more discussions with staff and customers to work out exactly whether these services are just the current ones provided by our ELLZ or whether they will include some magazines and English readers, and how we best use the space released.

We will make an announcement for the public later this month and will not accept new members from the general public by the end of November. We will stop the service to the general public at a date to be fixed in April or May 2008.

We have explained to staff in the library that their jobs are unlikely to continue beyond next May and they have the option of taking a redundancy package or of applying for vacant jobs during the next six months. We currently have four vacancies at grades H and J and will provide coaching for library staff in applying for jobs and doing job interviews.

I would be grateful if you would not talk about this to the public until we make our public announcement. If you have any questions from the press at any time please refer them to Reezal Esa and do not answer them yourself.

We will be keeping you updated as we plan these changes in more detail. In the meantime, if you have any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to write or speak to me.

Best wishes

Gerry( Country Director BC Malaysia)