NEWS: Lottery

Government upholds additionality

So how do you get around it?

A new scheme to train teachers in information technology, funded from National Lottery sources, will also be open to librarians. But the government has offered little hope that its review of lottery funding will mean any substantial improvement of the position of libraries.

Speaking at the launch of The People's Lottery on 23 July, Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, once again referred to libraries as being 'the people's universities', a new catch-phrase with a familiar ring, but he made quite clear that the 'additionality principle', which prevents them from applying for lottery funding on the same basis as other cultural institutions, will remain firmly in place.

He was reminded by the Record that on 18 October, in his last few hours as Shadow Heritage Secretary, he had stated categorically that an incoming Labour government would resolve this anomaly. 'If you can fund a new theatre,' he said on that day, 'why can't you fund a library? It's a nonsense.'

Now in power, he is singing to a different, and more familiar, tune, with a lyric in which the word 'additionality' features strongly.

It is clearly important to keep lottery funding separate from funds from Treasury sources and it appears that no exception can be made for libraries without setting a precedent which would erode this distinction.

Ross Shimmon, who was part of a LA deputation to meet the Secretary of State the day after the launch, said that, in spite of this disappointment, there are positive aspects to the paper. 'What is encouraging is that the document reflects the importance of libraries in a wide range of activities, in health information, IT and education,' he commented.

While it is disappointing that no change has been made to the legislation it could be argued that libraries have spent too much time complaining that they are not elgible and not enough time thinking creatively about how they can apply. Because libraries are still eligible for funding for certain things, indeed the literature officers of the Arts Council of England and the RABs are looking to actively encourage libraries to make more applications. Library authorities can and do get quite substantial sums for quite central areas of their work. It is a matter of understanding the criteria properly and using them to your own advantage.

A list of 'projects with a library element' obtained from the Arts Council contains twenty eight entries. Add to this the Bradford project to build a dedicated poetry place, which for some reason does not make the list, and allow for a couple of others which may have slipped the grasp of the Council's search engine and you have a figure of around thirty.

Certainly this is not much to show for two years' worth of funding but the funding system is aware of. What is more important is who has got money for what, because what they can do, you can do likewise.

A number of projects are larger projects by arts organisations, which provide for some library element, like theatre company Welfare State's plan to establish a centre for artists, or the Peterloo poets to establish a poetry centre, both of which include a library.

But one project which leaps off the page is Suffolk's success in securing £266,100 to 'provide public, multimedia work stations through its library service (including schools, prisons and the housebound)'. Part of the project is to commission a video company and ten artists to create CD Roms 'to enable the public to see and explore artist and their work', which clearly provided the tie in with the arts which the Arts Council were looking for.

Libraries are not eligible for funding from lottery sources towards their 'core activities', however the definition of 'core activities', may be narrower than you might have expected, as the success of this application indicates. You might see providing computer workstations and showcasing the work of local artists as a natural part of your service, but it is not regarded as a 'core function'.

Indeed when the 'core services' were last defined, by then Secretary of State Virginia Bottomley they were seen as being: 'providing reading for pleasure; enlightening children and developing lifelong reading skills and habits in adults; encouraging lifelong learning and study; providing reference material including public information about local and national government and EU publications, current affairs and business information; providing materials for the study of local history and the local environment.'

At the time of their publication, there was much discontent about how narrow they were. What was missed was that this very restriction represents an opportunity as far as lottery funding is concerned because all functions outside of this are consequently ruled in.

The largest amounts of money available to libraries have been to create, expand or enhance performance and exhibition spaces, as with Hereford & Worcester (£358K), Knowsley Borough (£367K) and Lancashire (628K), while Stockport Borough secured 73K for upgrading the exterior and interior of one of their libraries by building in a public art aspect to the development.

It takes some cunning, and you may require some help from someone from the arts sector to address the Arts Council's concerns, but your local literature officer is waiting for your call.

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Last updated: 29 July 97