Memorandum submitted by Suffolk County
Council
In evidence to the Select Committee enquiring
into the state of public libraries, I should like to provide the
success story of Sunday Opening in Suffolk. I enclose a seven
minute DVD in evidence, and summarise it in writing in this letter.
In the summer of 2003, Suffolk County Council
embarked on an ambitious programme to open all its 44 libraries
on a Sunday, probably the first county in England to do so.
The changes were brought in to ensure that Suffolk
libraries met the Government's public library standards and followed
the advice of the Audit Commission in its 2002 report "Building
better libraries".
An average of 5,200 people visit a Suffolk library
every Sunday.
BACKGROUND
In November 2002 Suffolk County Council decided
to extend library-opening hours in order to meet the relevant
Public Library Standards and help attract people who do not normally
use the library service. The target markets were families, school
and college students, people in their twenties and thirties, and
people from ethnically diverse communities. There was also an
emphasis, but not an exclusive one, on those communities most
in need.
The basis of the Sunday Offer was to be: routine
transactions on a self-service basis; a new relaxed ambience and
Look and Feel; learning and arts activities; staff to provide
information and advice; and participation by the voluntary sector
and community agencies.
We invited town and parish councils to help
fund even more hours, and to consult locally about the detail
of the opening hours. We bought in professional marketing, targeting
some of the marketing at the poorer communities of Suffolk.
From August to October 2003 we implemented a
27% increase in library opening hours at an extra cost of £378,000
per annum ie less than 5% of the library budget. We employed only
extra frontline staff and made no additions to the management
or administrative infrastructure. We achieved some of these additional
opening hours at no extra cost, especially during weekdays, by
reorganising staff rotas. We also developed innovative ways to
recruit, train and pay staff, particularly for Sundays, though
these techniques are influencing our total staffing approach now.
These changes enabled Suffolk to meet the Public Library Standards
on opening times, and helped the county council improve access
to services.
The extra opening hours included every library
opening on a Sunday as well as most libraries opening for some
additional hours on a week day, evening or on a Saturday. The
specific times were chosen, after extensive consultation, with
the aim of attracting people who do not typically use the library
service.
SATISFACTION WITH
SUNDAY OPENING
91% of Sunday customers are very or fairly satisfied
with the hours we open on Sunday. We have no benchmark to judge
this against, but it seems to confirm public support for Sunday
opening.
TARGET AUDIENCES
ON SUNDAY
Our target audiences for Sundays are: families,
school and college students, people in their 20s and 30s, and
ethnic minorities. We have been successful in attracting families
with young children; noticeably, more fathers with their children
visit on a Sunday.
We are successful in attracting school and college
students and people from ethnic minority communities. However,
we would like to be more successful in attracting single people
in their 20s and 30s.
In total 2,200 people have registered on Sundays
since opening was introduced. This suggests that we are making
some headway in attracting new customers.
SUMMARY OF
SUNDAY OUTCOMES
Since September we have been reaching our target
of visitors and exceeding it as an average. Bearing in mind how
difficult it is to build library audiences, we are very pleased
with this achievement so far.
Of our target customers, we have been successful
so far in reaching families, children, young people and people
from ethnic minorities, but less so in attracting single people
in their 20s and 30s.
We aimed to attract new customers and people
who had lost the library habit. Many people who visit on Sundays
do so during the week as well. However so far there seems to be
an upturn in the number of new customers we are attracting.
SUNDAY OPENING—HAVE
WE PROVIDED
THE SERVICE
WE SAID
WE WOULD?
Activities
Up to October 2004, 4,400 people had attended
ICT sessions on Sundays and more than 3,600 had attended other
sorts of activities. These are staff intensive activities that
reflect the commitment to offer a different type of "offer"
on Sundays. Some of the participants will have been children and
young people but many are from other target groups.
Look and feel
We planned to offer a relaxed ambience on Sundays,
with music, Sunday papers and refreshments. We have done this
successfully in many libraries, but still need to embed this approach
everywhere, especially through continued staff training.
FURTHER INFORMATION
I enclose a seven minute DVD produced to give
a flavour of Sunday opening in Suffolk libraries. We will be very
happy to provide more information or host visits if required.
Can I also urge the Select Committee to consider
evidence from Aarhus in Denmark. This city, which partners Suffolk
and other Eastern Region authorities in LearnEast, is an inspirational
model of how library services might develop in the future. It
has recently received a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Award
for its extensive training and technology programs, and its commitment
to delivering innovative library services to disadvantaged refugee
and immigrant communities.
11 November 2004
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