APPENDIX 1
Memorandum submitted by Camden Public
Library Users' Group (CPLUG)
INTRODUCTION
Camden Public Library Users' Group (CPLUG) was
formed in February 1998 as a federation of library users' and
friends' groups in the borough of Camden. Its aim is to help maintain
and improve the library service in Camden. CPLUG promotes the
establishment of users' groups and supports their activities.
It also carries out research into library matters. CPLUG follows
standard democratic procedure and has a steering committee of
officers. As a federation it represents members of the individual
users' groups, who number some 3,000 library users.
1. LIBRARIES
AND THE
COMMUNITY
We see no compelling rational argument for closing
small local libraries, nor for amalgamations which, on common
sense grounds, seem more likely to end up as less cost effective
than in situ improvements. CPLUG has consistently stressed
the importance of local public libraries. Central libraries can
hardly be "flagships" without "fleets" of
branch libraries. We summarise our position as follows:
1.i Public Spaces
CPLUG argues that in a rapidly changing world
subject to processes of globalisation, commoditisation, and individualism,
public libraries offer safe spaces founded on considerations of
the social: they are oases of public interest in cultural landscapes
increasingly shaped by commercial and private interest.
1.ii Social Inclusion
There are a number of categories of persons
for whom public libraries, especially branch libraries, are the
only freely accessible places in which a good mix of people from
all walks of life and backgrounds may be found: elderly people
whose family members are not close at hand, newly arrived refugees,
unemployed people, for example. There are few institutions better
equipped to address questions of social exclusion than libraries.
The basic argument here is that branch libraries contribute to
social solidarity, being amongst the few places in which links
can be made across generational, ethnic and/or gender boundaries.
For these and other reasons they make vital contributions to community
mental health, cultural vitality and the well being of civil society.
1.iii A Sense of Locality and Identity
Modern societies have increasing difficulty
in providing people with a sense of belonging and attachment to
locality. In our view it is such an awareness which gives rise
to a sense of civic social responsibility and well being. Local
libraries have a significant positive role to play here which
the closure of branch libraries will help to undermine.
1.iv Democratic Vitality
The foundation of any democratic society requires
an informed population. On this ground alone we should be pouring
money into libraries rather than stifling them of funds.
2. LIBRARIES
AND EDUCATION
In our view libraries have a central and distinctive
role to play in education policy—especially when the particular
and complementary roles of branch libraries, central libraries
and the home are fully understood. We feel that well thought out
national and local policies on public libraries are still regrettably
underdeveloped.
2.i Reader Development
At CPLUG's seminar[1]
McKerney described her work with various types of people—from
the 14 year old school drop-out who became interested in the poetry
of WH Auden to members of the University of the Third Age who
enthusiastically attend courses run at local libraries—and
put forward the idea of reader development. She argued that in
addition to holding the public good in mind, we should understand
the value of libraries to the development of individual readers.
Sometimes such individuals may have missed out on other educational
frameworks. For them the library acts as a sort of "educational
safety net" along the lines publicised by the Secretary of
State's remark about "Street Corner Universities".
2.ii School Students
Libraries have traditionally been sites for
regular, supervised visits by parties of school children. We regard
the abolition of this important initiation into library use as
a scandal. It has a discriminatory impact on disadvantaged children,
the effect of which is to discourage them from using libraries
as they grow older, and so contributes to the figures of declining
library use.
2.iii Knowledge and Information
We have drawn attention to the dangers of confusing
knowledge with information. We suggest that public libraries are
institutions which need to be guardians of this distinction, and
places which offer the means to acquire knowledge as well as some
information.
2.iv Lifelong Community Learning
Public libraries, especially branch libraries,
are centres of community learning and culture in which the wisdom
and experience of the community may be explored and shared. The
sheer number and variety in the past year of public talks by local
people, organised by friends' groups, attest to this.
3. INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY3.i Background
In the welter of Government proposals for a
People's Network, Lifelong Learning, Social Exclusion and Best
Value etc the purpose and community role of our public libraries
is in danger of being lost. There is an enormous amount of Internet
activity amongst professional library organisations and funding
for digital library research has been considerable. Conversely
there is only a small amount of user-led online activity and little
analysis as to which of the needs of library users can be met
successfully by information technology and which cannot.
CPLUG supports the introduction of some information
technologies in an ordered and considered way. However, we ask
the larger question, why are libraries becoming the dumping ground
for these policies, and expected to provide computers, train their
users, and lessen the divide between the information rich and
information poor (terms which are much over-used and risk confusing
a much more complex picture)?
Prior to the expansion of computers, libraries
were expected to provide books but not to teach literacy. Whereas
now they are being asked to provide computers and de facto
computer support. The question arises why are libraries being
targeted as the major access point to computers for schoolchildren
and students outside school hours. It seems that with the demise
of affordable Adult Education there is an obvious need for cheap,
available computer training facilities beyond what libraries can
provide. CPLUG has in the past made various proposals for the
constructive use of the time libraries are closed and we would
like to see this extended to schools' computer resources when
schools are closed.
Thus, whilst we favour IT provision where a
demonstrable demand exists, this has to be on a carefully monitored
basis, especially in view of central government moves to make
domestic computers widely available. Whether or not this will
have any other than rhetorical effect on the exclusion of the
so-called information poor except, of course, in rendering them
more vulnerable to the exploitation of the market remains to be
seen.
It is further, a sad commentary on contemporary
cultural values that planners need to be reminded that libraries
exist primarily to provide reading material, only a fraction of
which is for information in the narrow sense. The idea of transforming
libraries into cyber cafes is misplaced and pandering to ill-informed,
trendy market-led forces.
3.ii.i IT Strategy
In its haste to introduce computers into public
libraries, Government is in danger of being led by the technology
market rather than following a well-researched and considered
information strategy. In our seminar, Frank Webster warned that:
The market model of information dissemination
is increasingly that of the Blockbuster video chain . . . (and)
. . . in the ascendant. If libraries don't ask what it is they
are about, then they meet the challenges of commercialisation
unprepared and incapable of doing more than adapting to a business
agenda.
We believe the DCMS is making two serious errors
in its approach to information and information technology, short-termism
and a confusion between an information strategy and a new media
strategy.
3.ii.ii Short-Termism
Within 10 years, public access to computers
will have grown enormously. Many if not most of the population
will either have a computer at home or have access to the Internet
through their TV set. Indeed the Government has plans to give
away thousands of computers in the immediate future. We consider
it short-sighted to install whole suites of 10 or more computers
in libraries which are already far too small and victims of years
of neglect. This short-termist strategy is typical of the approach
that sees technology as an answer to all existing problems. Unfortunately,
experience has shown that the introduction of technology into
any organisation changes its structure and creates more problems
than it was designed to solve.
Furthermore, at the moment library staff bear
the brunt of trouble-shooting and assisting the public with the
new technologies. They are being forced to learn themselves how
to use the new technologies at the same time as having to help
the public. This is enormously demoralising to staff and frustrating
for users.
3.ii.iii Separating Information and Media
Strategies
There is danger of confusing information strategy
with new media strategy. The former covers Internet access, e-mail
charging, information retrieval and information resources that
can be offered to users. The DCMS needs to be aware of the increasing
commercialisation of information, and remind itself, as Webster
argued, to hold hard to the ideal of information as a public good.
On the other hand, a new media strategy should
evaluate the new electronic forms of media such as video conferencing
and Digital Visual Disks to see if they are (a) appropriate for
library hire, (b) mature and stable enough to buy into, (c) whether
the returns generated justify their introduction, (d) to whom
they are targeted and whether this reinforces inequality?
3.ii.iv Computers and Library Space
In Camden, for example, there are current proposals
for the development of learning centres in six out of 13 libraries.
These developments are effectively threatening to invade a disproportionate
amount of library floor space. In Regents Park library, for example,
the learning centre computer suite has removed over one third
of space previously devoted to bookcases, tables and chairs. In
Camden Town, the children's library has been squeezed into a corner
the size of a large playpen.
In its eagerness to embrace suites of computers,
the Library Service is thus missing a crucial point: schoolchildren
doing homework or research need desk space as well as a computer.
For many, the desk space is more important than access to a computer,
especially if they share a bedroom or find it difficult to study
at home. If there is no room to study quietly, we are denying
schoolchildren a vital resource, contributing to the very inequality
the Library Service proposed to ameliorate, and alienating schoolchildren
and thus preventing them from getting the library habit.
We strongly believe that the number of computers
in any public library should be limited to a reasonable proportion
of floor space, agreed with users and appropriate to the overall
size of the library concerned. Moreover current partnerships with
schools be extended to examine the possibility of the computing
resources of schools being used outside school hours. These could
be used for Adult Education and the general training needs of
local members of the public.
The CPLUG Committee are Tom Selwyn (Chair),
Ioan Lewis (Vice-Chair), Clair Drew (Secretary), Alan Templeton
(Treasurer), Caroline Read and Enid Evans (Archivists).
January 2000
1 A public seminar was organised by CPLUG at the London
School of Economics, on 23 October 1999 under the heading "Do
Public Libraries have a future?" Speakers also included Professor
Frank Webster and Richard Proctor. Back
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