A Future for Libraries

We highlighted the publication of the MLA/Local Government Group Report on the Future Libraries Programme (FLP) in the last issue of Audiences News.  It’s a very good read, and not just for people working in or interested in libraries.

Local Authorities face huge and growing pressures on finances.  Library usage in many places has been falling rapidly in the last decade while costs to support an aging and increasingly inadequate physical infrastructure continue to rise. 

Many people care deeply about libraries.  Some feel libraries need to evolve rapidly and diversify.  Others feel equally strongly that libraries have lost their way and the decline in usage is because they have ceased to focus on a high-quality book offer.

Mix that cocktail of declining usage, increased costs, falling funding and a divided sector, and you create a potent and highly unpalatable brew. 

But as recent campaigning has made very clear, there is voluble support for libraries, even by people who haven’t visited one for years.  As the report says:

‘Public library services are one of the most highly valued local authority elective services. They attract a wide spectrum of the community, from young to old and from all backgrounds. They are valued not just for the range of services they provide but also for the shared public spaces and focal points they provide in communities – from town and city centres to urban neighbourhoods and rural villages. As a result, any proposed changes to library services can spark voluble campaigns and legal challenges, as has been the case over recent months’.

The FLP report doesn’t pretend to offer simple solutions, but it does sensibly suggest Local Authorities facing incredibly difficult decisions should examine fours ways of modernising rather than cutting services:

1.       service location and distribution

2.       new provider models

3.       shared services across council boundaries

4.       empowering communities to do things their way.

For me, underpinning  all of these is a strong evidence base that puts the needs of current and potential customers at the very heart of library services.

David Brownlee, Chief Executive