Memorandum submitted by Share The Vision
1. Share The Vision [STV] wishes to submit
evidence to the Committee's new inquiry into public libraries
following full consultation with its Members. STV was established
in 1989 and is a partnership of the main voluntary sector organisations
which produce and loan alternative format reading materials for
visually impaired people [Calibre Cassette Library; ClearVision;
National Library for the Blind; Royal National Institute of the
Blind and Talking Newspapers Association UK] and the main UK organisations
of publicly funded libraries [British Library; Chartered Institute
of Library and Information Professionals; CyMAL; Library and Information
Services Council: Northern Ireland; Scottish Library and Information
Council; Society of Chief Librarians and Society of College, National
and University Libraries]. Our aim is quite simply to enhance
access to library and information services for visually impaired
people and our vision is:
Any VIP should be able to contact any Library
and Information Service of their choice and be able to request
any item in whatever format they prefer, whether for leisure,
educational or other purposes and feel confident that all reasonable
and informed steps will be taken to ensure that it is located
and retrieved, or possibly reproduced in the requested format,
and forwarded to them at their preferred location. Then we will
have a national offer to a national standard which removes the
current postcode lottery!
2. STV was pleased to submit evidence to
the Committee's earlier inquiry into public libraries in 2000.
In compiling our evidence for this inquiry we have reviewed our
earlier evidence; taken account of the Committee's recommendations
in its 2000 report; taken account of developments since 2000 to
which the Committee has referred in its call for submissions and
assessed progress and changes since 2000 upon which to base our
recommendations to the Committee almost five years later.
3. The STV Board was delighted that the
Committee so comprehensively addressed social inclusion issues
in its 2000 inquiry. We were particularly pleased to note the
following recommendations:
"(x) This Committee is concerned
that the relevant authorities recognise that different disabled
groups have specific and distinctive requirements for access to
libraries and that funding allocations reflect this fact. We endorse
the Library Association's suggestion and recommend that the Government
seek to expand the Share the Vision model to all disabled groups
(paragraph 47)."
"(xii) This Committee is pleased
to note that the Annual Library Plans include an emphasis on social
exclusion issues and trusts that that emphasis will lead to continued
improvements in this aspect of library provision. We recommend
that the implemented national library standards provide more specific
guidance on the promotion of social inclusion. We further recommend
that the Government ensure the collection and publication of comprehensive
statistics on library use by all socially excluded groups (paragraph
51)."
The question now is "to what extent did
the Committee's recommendations help to improve services for disabled
people?"
4. In May 2001 the Committee published the
Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Memorandum providing
further evidence in response to the Committee's Sixth Report of
Session 1999-2000. That response set out the Museum, Libraries
and Archives Council's plans in response to the Committee's Recommendation
(x) and the Department's own position on Recommendation (xii).
5. STV confirms that we have continued to
work in partnership with MLA and that we have made significant
progress in achieving the work programme set out in our earlier
evidence. The main achievements have been:
— Establishment and development of
Revealweb: the national database of materials in accessible formats.
This is a multi-functional, state of
the art, web-based, freely accessible service which is the cornerstone
of an integrated network of services for visually impaired people.
www.revealweb.org.uk has details of over 105,000 titles from around
100 UK organisations and is growing.
— Publication of "Library Services
for Visually Impaired People: a manual of best practice"
in 2000 and updated in 2002 as a web-based publication http://bpm.nlb-online.org
— Staff training events and seminars
around the country.
— Further research into various aspects
of service delivery to visually impaired people; most notably,
the views of users, ex-users and non-users of these services.
6. When Framework for the Future was published
in February 2003 STV was shocked that the Government's 10-year
vision for public libraries did not even mention disabled people
despite the Government's own social inclusion policies; the Committee's
specific recommendations in 2000 and the DCMS's response. Following
the submission of a detailed critique we were assured that we
would be consulted in the development of the Framework for the
Future Action Plan 2003-06.
Accordingly, we were invited to submit proposals
for funding and the following have been included in the plan:
— sustain the Revealweb database;
— update and expand the Best Practice
Manual to cover other disabilities;
— further staff training; and
— feasibility study into the potential
of publishers providing their electronic files to bona fide agencies
for people with visual disabilities in order to permit simultaneous
publication in print and alternative formats.
It is fair to say that MLA has taken this opportunity
to address Recommendation (x) of 2000 and has consulted with representative
organisations for other disability groups. STV Board has accepted
the equity of this approach and has readily agreed that Revealweb
should include coverage of materials designed to meet the specific
needs of people with other disabilities such as hearing impairments,
dyslexia and learning difficulties. Nevertheless, we have not
secured funding for our specific proposals to further improve
services for visually impaired people and we feel we are now obliged
to either wait for the other groups to catch up or seek £100,000
funding from non-public sources for our Gateway Project to permit
all public library service points to become the gateway to the
whole range of services available to visually impaired people.
We are also extremely concerned that the ongoing funding for Revealweb
is only guaranteed until 2005-06 and its future funding thereafter
is very uncertain.
7. Turning to the Committee's recommendation
(xii) on public library standards, we fear that the current position
may not be as positive as previously. There is no doubt that we
have to await the publication of the proposed Local Impact Measures
to be reassured that Public Library Authorities will be required
to address the needs of "all socially excluded groups".
In the meantime it is worth pointing out that the DCMS's "Appraisal
of Annual Library Plans 2002: report on key issues" stated
that only 30% of authorities had responded "at least satisfactorily"
in including "local targets for service to people with disabilities"
as required in their Annual Library Plans. That is why, in submitting
comments on the draft new standards we stated:
"The current PLS 9 states `In addition,
in order to meet the requirements of the Disability Discrimination
Act 1995, an authority should allow requests for items in alternative
formats which meet the needs of people with disabilities'. Will
this wording be retained in the revised document? We certainly
hope so because it is important not to mistakenly signal to some
colleagues that it is no longer a requirement."
The new Public Library Service Standard 5 makes
no such reference and new Standard 9 makes no mention of providing
large print books as the previous standard did. Therefore, we
believe that the interests of disabled people have not been protected
and advanced at this stage.
8. However, we are pleased to report a major
development, which was included as a desirable objective in our
2000 submission. The passage of the Copyright [Visually Impaired
Persons] Act 2002 with all party support has facilitated the speedier
production of alternative format materials for visually impaired
people. We are now pressing the Government to extend this exception
to people with other print disabilities as is permissible under
Article 5.3.b of Directive 2001/29 EC on the Harmonisation of
Certain Aspects of Copyright and Related Rights in the Information
Society. This would allow organisations such as Calibre Cassette
Library to lend audiobooks produced under their Copyright Licensing
Agency licence to people with dyslexia and encourage public libraries
to use their assistive technology to make copies for people with
learning difficulties.
9. Overall, we can identify that positive
progress has been made since 2000 and we believe there is some
evidence that public libraries are more willing to address the
requirements of disabled people as recommended by the Committee
in 2000. However, forthcoming research from the Library and Information
Statistics Unit at Loughborough University will show that only
4.6% of the titles published in the UK ever become available in
one or more alternative formats, whether produced by the voluntary
sector or commercial publishers of large print and audiobooks.
This situation is unlikely to improve unless Central Government
takes the sort of positive action which is commonplace in other
countries and contributes directly to the funding of the production
of alternative formats. Therefore, it is essential that disabled
people and the intermediaries who serve them are able to use Revealweb
to identify and locate what is actually available.
10. We would request the Committee to consider
the following recommendations:
(i) That the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport be requested to ensure that permanent on-going funding
is made available for the maintenance and development of Revealweb
as the national database of accessible formats for disabled people.
(ii) That the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport takes a lead in attempting to secure a centralised Government
funding pool in order to support the production of more titles
in alternative formats accessible to disabled people.
(iii) That the Department for Culture, Media
and Sport ensures that the new Public Library Service Standards
and Local Impact Measures do not ignore the legitimate interests
of disabled people and members of other socially excluded groups
and positively promote much needed improvements in alternative
format stock provision, inter-library lending, OPAC and website
accessibility etc . . .
(iv) That the Department for Trade and Industry
contribute to removing the barriers faced by some disabled people
by seeking to amend the Copyright, Designs and Patents Acts 1988
to extend the exceptions permissible under Article 5.3.b of the
Directive 1001/29 EC to include people with other print disabilities
in addition to visual impairment.
10 November 2004
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