APPENDIX 12
Memorandum submitted by the Institute
of Information Scientists
PUBLIC LIBRARIES
1. The Institute of Information Scientists
(IIS), a professional body representing information professionals
in all sectors, welcomes the opportunity to submit evidence to
the Committee on the subject of public libraries. The Institute
was founded in 1958 and currently has approximately 2,500 members,
some of whom are employed in the public library service.
2. The IIS strongly supports the maintenance
and development of an effective and efficient public library service
for all citizens of the United Kingdom. For 150 years public libraries
have served an essential educational, informational, cultural
and social role and the United Kingdom has provided world leadership
in this sector.
3. At a time when all sections of society
are concerned that all individuals should be able to develop their
full potential and should be able to contribute actively and positively
to the health of society, including its economic progress, the
public library service has much to offer. The support of informal
learning has always been a cornerstone of this service, and the
priority given by government to Lifelong Learning makes it timely
to review and strengthen this role.
4. Public libraries are well-placed to reach
sections of the population which are at present under-represented
in education. Because they offer a fairly threat-free environment,
with no entrance requirements other than perhaps residence, they
can provide an attractive and accessible route into new learning
experiences. There is considerable evidence, for example from
recent studies undertaken on behalf of the Library & Information
Commission and the Department for Education & Employment,
that individuals do take these opportunities.
5. We do believe, however, that public libraries
suffer from trying to be "all things to all people".
While they are successful at the provision of informal learning,
for example through multimedia and increasingly through computer-based
introductory packages, they are less successful at supporting
progression through education (see also point 9 below). While
there are a few good examples of public libraries acting co-operatively
with local colleges to enable progression these are few and far
between. In most cases, advanced or more formal study entails
the learner making the sometimes difficult transfer to an educational
institution.
6. Part of the lack of clarity in this area
has been caused by unhelpful and faintly absurd claims that public
libraries can become "street corner universities". Not
only does this concept fail to recognise the contributions to
Lifelong Learning of higher education—and perhaps particularly
of the Open University—but it shows poor understanding of
what a university is. For example, public libraries are not equipped
or staffed to provide educational guidance, to design, deliver
and constantly update courses, to assess students' progress or
to award certificates, diplomas and degrees.
7. It would be helpful, therefore, if public
libraries were to be given a much clearer lead as to government's
and society's expectations of them. A few years ago, researchers
from Loughborough University commented "At the heart of the
issues surrounding public libraries, from their inception up to
the present day, has been an imprecise formal definition of their
role. Should they be a medium of education and instruction, an
information source, a cultural focus for communities, or an addition
to people's leisure pursuits through the lending of fiction? .
. . There is so much that libraries do and so much that they could
do".[13]
Unfortunately if they try to do everything they will do nothing
well.
8. In part this definition of role must
include the key role for libraries of acting as the intermediary
between the individual user and the vast, largely unstructured
information resources which today's world offers. Their task must
be to identify and describe high quality information resources,
to purchase access to services that are beyond the reach of individuals,
to handle copyright, authentication and authorisation issues,
to arrange the delivery from local or remote sources of many different
kinds of "document" and to provide advice, assistance
and training.
9. It follows that the role of libraries
in the promotion of education and Lifelong Learning should in
essence be a supporting one. Public libraries and educational
institutions should be encouraged to form alliances to which each
would have much to contribute, and which—as collaborations—would
offer richer resources and richer experiences than either could
offer alone. Public libraries should, as part of their contribution,
maintain and expand their role as a point of contact into learning,
usually initially informal in nature, but progression should be
planned, managed and encouraged. Implicit in this view is the
idea that, among the opportunities available in public libraries,
would be access to information and communications technologies
for basic awareness, familiarisation and training. Public libraries
already provide study space for learners involved in formal education,
but this should be better planned through collaborative agreements.
10. Within this broad framework we would
comment on the specific issues which have been highlighted as
follows.
10.1 The role of libraries in combating
social exclusion. We have referred above to the non-threatening
nature of the public library. There is good evidence that disadvantaged
groups do make significant use of the public library and we believe
that this should be encouraged, not least by highlighting good
practice.
10.2 Opening times. We believe that public
libraries should review their opening times to ensure that they
are open when the majority of their users are available to use
them, including in the evenings, at weekends and during some public
holidays.
10.3 Mobile libraries. In many rural communities
the mobile library has an important social as well as educational
role and this should be protected. Some experiments have been
carried out with mobile learning facilities and we believe that
this approach has much to commend it, although it may imply that
such libraries should be less mobile than at present, spending
perhaps a full half-day at each location.
10.4 Library closures. While it would be
absurd to suggest that no library should ever close, we are deeply
concerned that the reasons for closures are frequently either
unclear or based purely on the grounds of cost savings. We would
suggest that public library authorities should, over a period
of time, identify the most suitable locations for their libraries,
taking into account demographic factors and patterns of use and
likely use. They should then seek to match the provision of libraries
to user needs. In so doing they may wish to draw on external expertise
from the retail and other sectors. Government may wish to make
some funding available to encourage this kind of relocational
activity.
10.5 Facilities for the disabled. While
libraries have done much to adjust services to meet the needs
of disabled people, there is an enormous amount still to be done.
We would comment that, first of all, it is unhelpful to simply
speak of "the disabled" as if everyone with a disability
can be catered for by one set of actions. The needs of blind and
other visually-impaired people, of deaf people, of those with
motor disabilities and of those with learning impairments are
all very different. While we welcome initial actions by the Library
& Information Commission to undertake some work in this field,
especially in relation to blind and visually-impaired people,
far too little has yet been achieved. New technology offers much
hope for the provision of truly accessible services (see for example
the recent report from Manchester Metropolitan University[14])
but there is also a need for concerted action to raise awareness
of the issues and of solutions.
10.6 The roles of the DCMS and the Museums,
Libraries and Archives Council. Clearly the DCMS has the lead
role in government, but we would express concern that the roles
of all government departments in relation to libraries of all
types is insufficiently co-ordinated, and we believe that DCMS
should be encouraged to develop a national library and information
strategy which pays close attention to cross-sectoral relationships.
A recent consultation paper on regional co-ordination forms a
useful input to this process, but there is not yet evidence that
the issues have been debated adequately by stakeholders outside
the public library community.
10.7 The role of the British Library. We
would urge that the British Library be encouraged to develop a
leadership role in relation to library provision across all sectors
including public libraries. To achieve this it will have to foster
its credibility, for example by providing a lead—currently
being provided by the academic sector—in the development
of both electronic and traditional library collections and infrastructures
to create a distributed, integrated national resource.
January 2000
13 Kinnell, M and Sturges, P. Introduction in Continuity
and Innovation in the Public Library: the development of a social
institution ed Kinnell, M and Sturges, P. London: Library
Association Publishing, 1996, pp xiv-xv. Back
14
Brophy, P and Craven, J. The Integrated, accessible library:
a model of service development for the 21st century, British Library
Research and Innovation Report 168. Manchester: Manchester
Metropolitan University, Centre for Research in Library &
Information Management, 1999. Back
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