John Dolan, fresh from the headship at Birmingham, has started work at the MLA (Museums, Libraries & Archives Council). Elspeth Hyams asked him what we can expect from him.
‘For the first few months or weeks,’ John stressed, ‘what I am interested in is listening to people. I am not going to make all-knowing statements about library policy in the future, but build on where we are now.
‘It’s a brand-new role – an opportunity to make a fresh start, having a person who works with the key public body for libraries alongside our national professional association, the organisation of chief librarians, the organisations that oversee public libraries (such as the Local Government Association) and the culture department.
‘We have to plan our future – it won’t happen for us.
‘It has to be defined by us, but defined by the needs of the country. It’s about future economies, demographies, the culture and direction of the country, the country in its international position, alongside the potential of global communications.
‘That’s the kind of direction I think we have to think of, whether it’s a village library, a mobile, a local branch or a city centre library.
‘We have to think about partnership on the economy or
health, or lifelong learning or education. Partnership between different types of library. And a very intimate crossover with archives and museums. My job is to, if you like, look across that landscape to see where paths cross.
Can the profession cope?
‘Everyone else has to change; we have to change too. I think by and large we are very willing to change, if we can provide the leadership to convey that in a dynamic way to staff – beyond instruction, if you like.
‘For instance, one of the things I most enjoyed about the People’s Network – I was one of the people assigned for three months to the original working group – was the consultation.
‘It was exciting to go all over the country and meet so many people and find them so responsive. And when the report came out, they were completely positive – beyond anyone’s aspirations.
‘In the first few weeks I’ll be testing out that sort of approach, on my immediate colleagues in MLA and on librarians and our partners around the country – getting them to help me set the parameters within which they want me to articulate the policies and direction of libraries.
‘I’ll be asking what they are able to deliver, and what they are being asked to deliver.
‘We’ve got Framework for the Future for the current period. My role is not cutting into that agenda. It is to look at what might be the post-Framework direction.
‘It’s policy, rather than planning. I’m not going to say: “There’s poverty, therefore libraries need to do more for literacy.” I’m more likely to say: “There’s poverty, therefore we need to develop policies for libraries that fit in the wider framework of policy development for tackling poverty.”
‘That’s not to be wishy-washy. It’s to establish high-level direction around themes like learning, information, creativity – understanding the opportunities offered by technologies, building on the insights we will get from working with new partners like the BBC.
‘I’m not going to be too abstract – there’s no point going around saying it’s important to read, or something vague like that. You have to come down to earth at some point.
‘[My job] is certainly about looking at the sort of resources we need – but let’s get the agenda first instead of simply saying we haven’t got enough money.
‘I know we haven’t enough money now. I was doing cuts in Birmingham before I left. I’m talking about five years’ time when, we hope, we are seen as a key player in the delivery of learning, information, creativity and services to all.’
So – what are the big issues? ‘Twenty per cent of people,’ says John, ‘have functional difficulties with literacy, numeracy, probably an even greater num-ber with information literacy.
‘The country is becoming increasingly rich in its cultural diversity. These are real things to be addressed, and turned into real opportunities.
‘Diversity is a national issue. We can’t just leave it to the Bradfords, Birminghams and Tottenhams any more. It’s part of national life and a national agenda item for information and cultural services like libraries.
‘We very often list the people we want to target in terms of needs. We put diversity alongside, say, poverty. Poverty is something to be tackled and undone. But diversity is something to be relished and built upon. The more we see it as a problem, the more we’ll have a problem.
Rich in young people’s energy
‘This country is also fabulously rich in the energy it could draw on from its young people – in Birmingham a quarter of the population is under 16, 44 per cent under 30. We could be a huge part of that. The library needs to be turned round to meet that market and that need.
‘We’ve also got early years children, and families. We could solve half the nation’s problems if we concentrated on them. If they are reading at three, think what they will be at 16 or 18.
‘At the other end, we’re talking about people growing older. Clearly there’s a whole powerhouse that is going to drive national policy agendas.
‘The interests, aspirations and needs of older people will change as time goes by. We need to look to the future to know what kind of services we develop for them.
‘In the midst of all that remains the wonder of literature. We talk so easily about libraries these days without mentioning literature and the novel and poetry and the creative experience of either writing that stuff, reading it, seeing it performed, picking it up on the web or watching it on a screen.
‘It remains a huge opportunity that we’ve only partly exploited.
‘We’ve become the experts in giving people access to books. Now what we can do is build on all those other ways to give access to creative writing, and experience in creative writing.
‘That can be part of our strength in the future. At the moment, we do that intermittently – but the great book events are not library-based. Things like our work with publishers might throw up some opportunities ... but I’m getting too specific.
‘Literature is one of our unique selling points. Very often we say we want to do other things, but I don’t think we see the connection between literature and health, literature and creativity, literature and the economy, the creative industries and the economy, literature and the cultural life of communities. The word is at the heart of all these opportunities.
‘ICT is also right at the heart of what we are about.
‘But what we are really about is people. We have a huge part to play. How we change to play that huge part is my role to investigate and articulate.
‘In local government, libraries are already among the most customer-oriented and locally defined services. The localism agenda is evolving nationally as well as locally. If the library cultural experience can be drawn on, local government will benefit enormously. I don’t think that always happens. Managerially and politically, we’re missing a trick.
‘One of the peculiarities about the new job is I won’t have staff. In Birmingham, I had something like 4,000 (some of them indirect). It will be peculiar to have no one to blame!
‘I will need CILIP members and all their colleagues to be my eyes and ears on the ground.’
Updated: 14 November 2008