Strategies for the future of public libraries

Nick Poole, Chief Executive, CILIPCILIP Wales Conference 2016

Public libraries aren’t dying – they’re changing (again)

Times like these calls for solidarity and empathy – personally and professionally.

This downturn in the fortunes of public libraries is longer and deeper than many of those that preceded it because it is the product of at least 3 waves of change: technological change, social change and economic change.

This too shall pass...

“Approximate Statistical view of the Principal Public Libraries of Europe and the United States of America” (Edwards,1849)

We’ve been here before (many times)...

Report from the Select Committee on Public Libraries; together with Proceedings of the Committee, Minutes of Evidence and Appendix (23.06.1849)

• A National Strategy for public libraries

• Public use of University Libraries

• Public Access to the British (Museum) Library

• Responsibilities of Local Councils

• A ha’penny tax to fund & furnish buildings

• Crowd/private funding for book stock (!)

Radical librarianship...

Report of the Parliamentary debate:

• “it was argued that...the rate paying middle and upper classes would be paying for a service that would be mainly used by the working classes. One argued that the "people have too much knowledge already: it was much easier to manage them twenty years ago; the more education people get the more difficult they are to manage.”

Radical librarianship...

Royal Charter:

“To work for the benefit of the public to promote education and knowledge through the establishment and development of libraries and information services and to advance information science (being the science and practice of the collection, collation, evaluation and organised dissemination of information).”

• Unite all persons engaged or interested in information science• Promote improvement of knowledge, skills, position and qualifications• Promote study and research in librarianship and information science• Promote adequate & appropriate provision of library services• Scrutinise legislation affecting the provision of library and information services

CILIP’s role...

Policy priorities by GE 2020

Britain’s social and economic

future

Knowledge, data &

information assets

World-leading innovation

infrastructure

An advanced skills workforce

A society built on equality,

opportunity & justice

Health

Innovation

Security

Govt.

Learning

The Library Network

Smart Cities

Rural economies

Regulation

Learning & education

Growing the profession

Skills for Business

Info Literacy for all

Privacy & Intellectual Freedom

Sustainable Devt. Goals

Life chances for all

We want every single last member of society to have the opportunity to learn, to read, to discover and to get on in life. We want them to live in an equal, democratic and prosperous society.

A key way of achieving this is to secure a modern, sustainable, universal public library service that meets the needs of local communities.

That includes literacy, opportunities for creativity, safe welcoming places, learning, digital inclusion, business support or promoting health and wellbeing, alongside a whole raft of other new & exotic functions...

What do we want?

Strategies for the future of public libraries..

Visions!

The question is less strategic than tactical – it’s less about what public libraries will look like in future and more about how we

organise ourselves to get there faster & stop losing services and jobs in the process...

Less of this...

Librarians

Library users

Library leaders & sector bodies

Councillors

Politicians

More of this... Communities

CouncilsProfessional librariansUser needs

Clear statutory duties (Local & National)Evidence-based policy, planning and investment

Clear statutory duties (Local & National)Clear outcomes-based quality standards

Transparent and accountable monitoring regime

Coordinated marketing, promotion & high-profile partnership

Inclusive professional development, training & qualifications

Local leadership and delivery

UK-wide support, investment and opportunity

Four Nations

Which future do we want?Single services? Fragmentation? Partnership?

Independent, self-regulated single library services (eg. for England) delivering against contract

Fully-devolved, based on 2-3,000 ‘independent service points’ delivering integrated services for the Local Authority

National/regional/local partnership to deliver a joined-up library service which benefits from UK-wide brand, national governance/leadership (in each Nation) & localised delivery models

Our tactics have to yield money, but whose money? Our strategy is extremely confused:

• A redistribution or ring-fence of existing spend by Local Authorities?

• UK Government intervention in Local Authority spend?

• Relaxing of Austerity policy in relation to centrally-distributed funds?

• Release of additional ring-fenced money from the Exchequer?

• Distribution of Treasury money via project funders?

UK Government will not intervene in Local Authority expenditure in this Parliament so our best tactics are to convince Councils to maintain investment, encourage Government to increase the availability of project funds & support the overall effort to ease austerity

Money

Which comes first?

Value

Support

Money

Influence

We’re underway already...

Governance & leadership

CILIP plays an active role on behalf of our profession in the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce, even where this isn’t always easy.

There are no easy solutions, but there are some clear points to navigate by:

• We need professional librarians to deliver professional services

• We need to support and promote positive change

• We need to ensure that we retain the connection to professional ethics

• We need to be inclusive while promoting the value & status of professional librarians

Advocacy

Advocacy

Advocacy

Advocacy

Visibility

Visibility

Visibility

Development

Workforce

We want to go further...

Can we open up insight into the health and priorities of the sector by aggregating data on usage, trends and impact into an Open Public Library Dataset to be shared for creative & commercial re-use?

Can we learn from the insight and data of library system vendors to gain a better real-time understanding of what’s happening?

Aggregate data

Can we use contemporary approaches to data analysis and visualisation to help all stakeholders get a better, evidence-based insight into the real strengths, opportunities and challenges for public libraries?

Analyse and visualise data

A UK Public Library Dashboard?

Partnerships that scale?

The process we’re going through is a process of change, not an existential threat. There will always be public libraries, there will always be an audience who need what public libraries uniquely deliver.

In Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland, you’ve already made key decisions about how you want to take control of that process of change. Hopefully in England, this is what is happening through the ‘Ambition’. None of these futures are certain, and we can have a positive impact on all of them.

This is not a decision about whether libraries are important, but of how they will be funded, governed and developed in the future. We need to organise ourselves tactically, effectively, positively and with unity of purpose to ensure that those decisions are made by and with professional librarians.