MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY THE DEPARTMENT
FOR CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT
THE ROLE OF THE DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE, MEDIA
AND SPORT (DCMS) AND ITS KEY PARTNERS
DCMS
1. The Secretary of State for Culture, Media
and Sport has a direct responsibility for the public library service
under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964, though the service
is delivered by local authorities. Public libraries make a key
contribution to both the Government's wider policy objectives
and to DCMS's objectives for the cultural sector. Specifically
they contribute in a very major way towards the promotion of education;
access; social inclusion; and modernisation.
2. On education, public libraries play a
major part in underpinning formal education provided by schools
and colleges, and in delivering wider lifelong learning opportunities
to everyone. Our work to develop a National Grid for Learning
recognises this role, and will enable public libraries to become
part of a fully integrated network of learning centres. The developing
public libraries IT network forms an integral part of that vision.
3. On access, public libraries allow everyone,
irrespective of their age or background, to have access to a wide
range of information, knowledge and services. The developing public
libraries IT network will help bridge the gap between the information
rich and the information poor. Public libraries will have a major
role to play in ensuring people who cannot afford access to new
technology are not left behind, and are able to participate fully
in society. They also retain their key role in ensuring general
access to more traditional library services, including, most importantly,
book lending.
4. On social inclusion, we want public libraries
to develop their role as institutions at the very heart of the
communities they serve. This means thinking afresh about ways
in which the traditional services of a public library can be enhanced,
particularly in rural areas. Many authorities are already thinking
about this, for example, by looking to develop libraries as one-stop
shops providing a range of local authority services.
5. Finally, public libraries can play an
important role in modernising the delivery of local authority
services to the public. But, for libraries to be in the vanguard
of this change, they must first modernise themselves. This means
more than improving the physical infrastructure and services,
and training staff. It entails continuing changes not only within
the pubic library service itself, but also within local authorities
more widely.
RESPONSIBILITIES
OF LOCAL
LIBRARY AUTHORITIES
6. Library authorities (County Councils,
Metropolitan District Councils, London Boroughs and all other
Unitary Authorities) have a statutory duty under the Public Libraries
and Museums Act 1964 to provide a comprehensive and efficient
public library service. The day-to-day management of library services
is for those library authorities, and they must make their own
decisions about the detailed nature of the services that they
provide. The Department values this devolved decision making process
and does not, therefore, seek to intervene in the local service
so long as authorities meet their statutory duties.
ADVISORY BODIES
7. In addition to our in-house professional
Chief Library Adviser, Peter Beauchamp, the Department can call
upon:
The Advisory Council on Libraries (ACL)
8. The ACL is the statutory body which advises
the Secretary of State about his duties under the Public Libraries
and Museums Act 1964. The body continues to provide valuable advice
and meets about four times a year. In recent years we have sought
to enhance the ACL's role by bringing it closer to the heart of
Government, so that it can provide direct confidential advice.
We have done this by reviewing the working arrangements and membership
of the ACL in order to allow it to respond to developing issues
more rapidly.
Library and Information Commission (LIC)
9. The LIC was set up in 1995 to provide
advice to Government on library and information issues. It has
devised a national research strategy for the sector and has published
two reports on the development of a People's IT Network embracing
the cultural and educational sectors.
Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLAC)
10. The LIC will be replaced on 1 April
2000 by the MLAC, a new Non-Departmental Public Body, which will
provide strategic leadership for libraries, museums, and archives,
and provide advice to Government on policy for the sector. MLAC
will operate on a UK-wide basis and will have responsibility for
funding a number of client bodies and for administering various
funding programmes. It will inherit from the LIC the responsibility
for administering a budget for research and statistics (a responsibility
which was previously transferred from the British Library in 1999).
OTHER KEY
PARTNERS
11. The Department ensures that it maintains
close liaison with the local authority community through the Local
Government Association (LGA), as well as via direct contact with
local authorities themselves. We also maintain cordial links with
the library profession through corporate membership of the Library
Association (LA), and the involvement of our Chief Library Adviser
in their committees and working parties. Both the LGA and LA have
been fully involved in the development of Public Library Standards,
and in the implementation of the Annual Library Planning process,
which underlines this close partnership (see paragraphs 13-17
below).
12. We aim to ensure a joined-up approach
by forging and maintaining close links to other government departments,
particularly the Department for Environment, Transport and the
Regions with their lead responsibility on local authority funding
and policy, and with the Department for Education and Employment,
to cement our links with the education sector (see paragraphs
28-29 and 33-34 below).
PROMOTING ACCESS
Annual Library Plans and National Library Standards
13. Since 1998, the Secretary of State has
required all library authorities to produce an Annual Library
Plan which includes standing information about each library service,
along with reviews of past performance and strategies and targets
for the current and future years. The exercise has been generally
welcomed by local authorities and library professionals, and has
served to raise the profile of the library service, as well as
improve local planning processes.
14. We ensure that the system is jointly
"owned" by library authorities by providing each of
them with detailed and confidential feedback on their plans, and
by providing them with the opportunity to feed in views and comments
to help refine and evolve the process. In addition to the individual
feedback, we prepare an overall report on the plans. The 1999
edition is to be published shortly. As the system beds in we expect
the management discipline of planning to have a positive impact
on service quality. The report also highlights the need to place
a greater emphasis on service improvements in plans, and the performance
information they contain will be used to monitor the forthcoming
Library Standards (see paragraphs 15-17 below).
15. We are currently working, alongside
the LGA and the Library Association, to develop a nationally applicable
set of library standards. The Audit Commission and the Society
of Chief Librarians are also involved. The standards will provide
a clearer definition of what is meant by the existing statutory
requirement that library authorities must provide a "comprehensive
and efficient" library service, set in the modern context.
This will greatly strengthen our ability to ensure that services
are satisfactory, and will cover, inter alia, opening hours,
book purchasing and access to ICT services.
16. As well as providing a definition of
the minimum acceptable service, the standards will set out to
encourage good practice, so that authorities are actively discouraged
from levelling their services down to the minimum. It is also
likely that the standards will be reviewed over time.
17. We will be consulting widely about the
draft standards when they are prepared (early February), including
user groups, unions, and other interested parties such as groups
representing disabled users. 2000-01 is likely to be a pilot year,
to assist validation of the proposed standards and their phasing
in. We understand that the LGA are likely to welcome this, partly
to ensure that authorities have sufficient time to assess the
requirements and to comply with them.
Opening Hours
18. Physical access to libraries is only
available when they are open, and we recognise that the public
have legitimate, and growing, expectations that public services
should be open at times that suit users, rather than providers.
For this reason, we will be looking into how library authorities
can be encouraged to adjust and extend opening hours. As stated
above, minimum specified opening hours are also to be among the
new library standards.
Mobiles
19. Mobile libraries have traditionally
provided a service for rurally isolated communities, and there
is also widespread use of mobiles in urban and suburban hinterlands.
In many areas, mobile and housebound services overlap, with individual
users receiving a service in their home from the mobile library.
20. The mobile library service performs
a valuable and cost-effective function, and provides an important
community link, fulfilling a key social role for its users. Mobile
library staff are often an unrecognised arm of welfare services.
Disabled Access
21. Library authorities have a good record
in providing specific services to housebound and disabled people.
The social inclusion in public libraries policy (see paragraphs
22-23 below) asks authorities to consider what more can be done,
for example by asking the users themselves what they need, and
in terms of using volunteers to enhance this service. It also
encourages all library authorities to undertake the work necessary
to ensure that their premises comply with the access provisions
of the Disability Discrimination Act.
Combating Social Exclusion
22. A number of library authorities are
very active in helping to combat social exclusion, but the evidence
is that activity is patchy and unco-ordinated, and there is more
that can, and should, be done to address this important issue.
23. In order to give better guidance to
the sector, in October 1999 the Department published its draft
policy guidance Libraries for All: Social Inclusion in Public
Libraries. The aim of the policy is to encourage library authorities
to adopt a strategic approach to social inclusion, and to develop
their own policies. This should help to ensure that public library
and information services are readily available to everyone, with
social inclusion issues underpinning all aspects of library provision.
24. The policy was developed in consultation
with an advisory group, chaired by DCMS, but including professional
librarians, representatives from the Library and Information Commission,
the Library Association, Heritage Lottery Fund and the Community
Development Foundation.
25. We have invited comments on the policy
by the end of January 2000, and we are encouraging authorities
to adopt the policy at the earliest opportunity. In due course
we will also be considering how to evaluate how successful they
have been in combating social exclusion.
Library Closures and Service Cuts
26. We take any proposal by a library authority
to reduce expenditure on libraries very seriously because of:
— the Secretary of State's statutory
duty to ensure that library authorities comply with the law; and
— a much wider interest in the health
of libraries as key deliverers of national and local policies.
27. Our overarching policy is that service
changes, that may include closures, are acceptable where they
form part of a considered review aimed at improving and modernising
the library service as a whole, and accompanied by appropriate
and sustainable levels of investment. While in many cases modification
to, or reversal of, proposed cuts follows the Department's involvement,
ultimately decisions about closures remain for the authorities
concerned, unless a breach of the statute is threatened. As stated
above, the introduction of national standards will help identify
whether this is the case.
EDUCATION AND
LIFELONG LEARNING
28. Delivering access to learning resources
is one of public libraries' existing strengths: they provide ready
and free access to a vast amount of knowledge and information
and allow people of all ages the opportunity to maximise their
educational opportunities. They are particularly effective in
providing access to learning for those who may be less comfortable
in a more traditional or formal educational setting, and in allowing
learners to set the pace and direction of their learning.
29. Libraries have begun to expand the range
of educational services they offer and develop their appeal to
people whose educational choices might otherwise be limited. Among
the services available are after-school clubs and homework centres,
IT resource centres and local history websites, specialised facilities
for disabled library users and outreach to housebound users via
the mobile library service and laptop PCs. Libraries have strengthened
their links with education services at local level to offer a
coherent, but varied, programme of learning to young people.
National Year of Reading/Read On
30. The traditional strength of libraries
in promoting reading and literacy puts them at the forefront of
the Government's drive to improve levels of literacy. The 1998-99
school year was designated the "National Year of Reading"
as part of the Government's Literacy Strategy. Libraries led many
of the imaginative and popular schemes developed for the Year,
and received a significant share of the £750,000 pump-priming
funding provided by the Department for Education and Employment.
31. Libraries worked in partnership with
national and local businesses, leisure centres and sports stars,
community groups and the media. Librarians used their expertise
to promote reading in factories, supermarkets and health centres,
as well improving their links with the education sector. Many
of the partnerships formed continue and will help to carry foward
the work of the National Year of Reading into the follow-up Read
On progamme.
DCMS/Wolfson Public Libraries Challenge Fund 2000-01
32. For 2000-01, the £3 million a year
DCMS/Wolfson Challenge Fund will be directed towards projects
supporting reader development (£2 million) and the enhancement
of libraries' history collections (£1 million). This follows
the success of the National Year of Reading, and the wider growth
of reader development as a key part of the work of the modern
librarian. Both reading promotion and ICT service development
(the focus of previous DCMS/Wolfson funding rounds) contribute
to developing the educational and social inclusion potential of
public library services.
Study Support
33. 25 per cent of Library Authorities have
homework clubs—these range from simple provision of the
right kind of environment for young people to work, to highly
developed library based learning centres equipped with ICT and
staff trained to help young people use it. Many of the latter
focus on assisting young people who might otherwise be excluded
from access to ICT. The New Opportunities Fund (NOF) runs a £205
million programme to develop Out of School Hours Activities and
libraries have been among those applying for funds to develop
study support services further.
LIC Education Task Group
34. Following a recommendation arising from
the Comprehensive Spending Review, the Libraries and Information
Commission established a task group to explore the scope for greater
co-operation between the library and education sectors. The group
will provide advice to the Secretaries of State for Culture, Media
and Sport and for Education and Employment on the ways in which
co-operation between the education and public library sectors
can be stimulated and improved to support lifelong learning. The
group, including representatives from both sectors, is, at the
time of preparing this submission, preparing its report to submit
to DCMS and DfEE.
ACCESS TO
AND AWARENESS
OF NEW
TECHNOLOGY
35. DCMS's role in developing public libraries'
ICT capabilities fits into both the Department's aims in respect
of education and access, and the Government's wider Information
Age strategy announced by the Prime Minister in April 1998. As
part of the Information Age announcement, DCMS published its response
to the Library and Information Commission (LIC)'s report New
Library: The People's Network which had set out a vision of
a UK public library ICT network offering free local public access
to information and learning resources, supported by trained staff.
The People's Network
36. The DCMS response to New Library
endorsed LIC's vision and committed Government to establishing
two lottery funding streams to begin realising the library network
as part of the wider National Grid for Learning. These streams,
created under the New Opportunities Fund (NOF), were £20
million to train public library staff in ICT and £50 million
to create digital content to be delivered over the network. To
complement the curriculum based learning resources on the schools
element of the National Grid for Learning, it was proposed that
content on the library network should focus on "lifelong
learning". DCMS asked the LIC to do some further work on
how to implement the network and this produced a further report
Building the New Library Network, which was used by NOF
as the basis for developing guidance to applicants on the two
funding streams.
37. Early in 1999, consultation began on
a further NOF funding stream of £200 million for Community
Access to Lifelong Learning (CALL). This stream will, in funding
the development of learning centres and networks across the UK,
help to develop the infrastructure for the New Library Network.
DfEE Learning Centre initiatives
38. Further funding for the creation of
learning centres will be available from a £252 million Capital
Modernisation Fund (CMF) stream managed by DfEE. Libraries will
be among the organisations bidding for these funds, which will
be targeted on deprived areas of the country. To ensure that the
CMF and CALL funding streams are delivered in a complementary
and coherent way, a co-ordinating group has been set up by DfEE
and DCMS. This is one of a number of contact points between the
two departments, ensuring the sharing of information in developing
policies on information and learning resource delivery.
Network Development Unit
39. The LIC and its successor, the Museums,
Libraries and Archives Council (MLAC), have been given a strategic
role in planning and implementing the New Library Network. A Network
Development Unit was established by the LIC in 1999 and is headed
by Chris Batt, the Chief Network Development Adviser.
40. One of the Network Development Unit's
first tasks has been to undertake an audit of public library ICT
services. Preliminary results from this suggest that around 41
per cent of library service points now offer at least one Internet
connection (compared with 5 per cent in 1997). Some of the new
facilities have been developed with the support of funding from
the £3 million a year DCMS/Wolfson Public Libraries Challenge
Fund which the Department has run, in partnership with the Wolfson
Foundation, since 1997-98. In 1998-99 and 1999-2000, the Challenge
Fund focused on public library ICT projects which could act as
"pathfinders" for the New Library Network. 21 projects
were funded in 1998-99, and a further 18 are currently underway
having received awards from the 1999-2000 Fund.
THE BRITISH
LIBRARY
41. The British Library Act 1972 established
a national library of the United Kingdom, consisting of a comprehensive
collection of books, manuscripts, periodicals, films and other
recorded matter, whether printed or otherwise. The Library's duty
is to act as the national centre for reference, study and bibliographical
and other information services, in relation both to scientific
and technological matters and to the humanities. Items in the
Library's collection have been donated to the nation or acquired
by the taxpayer. In addition, copyright law provides for a copy
of every United Kingdom printed publication to be deposited with
the Library.
42. The Library receives grant-in-aid from
the Department to enable it to build, preserve and provide access
to its collections in support of research, the wider library network
and wider educational goals, through its reading rooms, through
its exhibition galleries and loans to other institutions, through
the services of the Document Supply Centre and Patent Express,
and through provision of information and bibliographic services.
The British Library's services are heavily used by institutions
of education and learning, other libraries, industry and the general
public.
43. In 1998-99 there were 416,418 reader
visits to the Library and 4,456,867 items were consulted. The
Library's Document Supply Centre satisfied 4,385,174 requests
and earned some £20 million a year from services such as
loans and photocopying of material.
44. The new St Pancras exhibition galleries
opened on 21 April 1998, giving the Library a proper space to
display for the general public items from the world's greatest
collection of books and manuscripts. The galleries are open seven
days a week free of charge and the Library estimates that it received
250,000 visits to its exhibitions in 1998-99. The Library also
runs public tours of St Pancras, and over 20,000 visitors participated
in 555 group tours in 1998-99 while, in the same period, the Library's
programme of 171 public events attracted over 31,000 visitors.
The Library's education service has supported over 270 school
visits and workshops at St Pancras and produced a new teachers'
pack for visiting schools, and new activity sheets for children
visting the exhibition galleries.
45. We announced on 18 November that the
management arrangements for the British Library are to be examined
and reviewed as part of the quinquennial Finance, Management and
Policy Review. Individuals and organisations with an interest
in the Library have been asked for their views on the Library's
peformance. The Department aims to complete the Review early this
summer.
January 2000
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