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UK library service in 'terminal decline'
Download full text as PDFA new library agency should be created to rescue a public service which is in terminal decline, according to a new report called Overdue: How to create a modern public library service, published by Demos in partnership with the Laser Foundation.
Charles Leadbeater, the report’s author, was directly involved in producing the new framework document for the Department of Culture Media and Sport and has now delivered a hard-hitting analysis of the state of public libraries.
‘The library service is sleepwalking to disaster and it needs to wake up to that fact,’ says Leadbeater. ‘Unless decisive action is taken now, the decline of our public libraries could become terminal by the end of the decade. If that was allowed to happen, Britain would be writing off vital social and cultural assets.’
Overdue recommends the creation of a new national library development agency (NLDA) which would bring together all library stakeholders from national and local government. A crucial job of the new agency would be to create a national libraries network to tackle the fragmentation of the existing services.
The new library agency would also be responsible for turning round the recruitment problem in the library service which is failing to attract new talent. Overdue argues that libraries have suffered from poor management development and a lack of young graduates becoming librarians.
Having set out the current library crisis in stark terms, the report goes on to describe a 10-year strategy for transforming the service. It recommends the creation of ‘library hubs’, based in shopping centres, which combine learning and leisure. These library hubs would complement community outreach work.
‘Public libraries used to be central to the life of many communities but they are now increasingly marginalised,’ says Leadbeater. ‘These days people can get books and information from other sources. Libraries need to respond by making themselves more attractive, while building on their traditional strengths.’
Overdue was commissioned by the Laser Foundation, a grant-making body committed to library development, to raise the alarm about the impending crisis and start a debate about the future of public libraries.
‘The government’s framework document was a brave attempt but turned out to be short on vision, and even shorter on funding,’ says Professor Fred Bullock, chairman of the Laser Foundation. ‘Charles Leadbeater’s report does not pull any punches and many librarians will be alarmed at his conclusions, but this should trigger a realistic debate about the challenges facing the service.’
Key recommendations in the Demos/Laser report include:
- Create a national library development service (NDLA) to coordinate the work of library stakeholders, including the DCMS, Department of Education and Skills (DfES), the Treasury and local authorities;
- The new NDLA should form a close working alliance with the DfES to help achieve key education and learning goals;
- Set up a ‘transformation fund’ to enable local authorities to devise strategies to meet public need and, in some cases, provide finance;
- Broker agreements between the 149 library services for online content and access to databases.