Synposis of report - What inhibits the success of libraries in meeting changed needs?
4. WHAT INHIBITS THE SUCCESS OF LIBRARIES IN MEETING CHANGED NEEDS?
4.1
First and foremost, the lack of adequate funding to create welcoming spaces, provide an exciting range of books and other materials and the desired level of opening hours, are all major barriers to many children and young people. Add to that the concerns of many parents about complex joining procedures, fines, and charges for damaged books, and the declining use of libraries is entirely comprehensible.
4.2
The quality of service offered to children and young people is variable and will depend on the commitment of local members and library managers to giving priority to their needs. The lack of a national quality framework, against which local performance can be judged needs to be addressed urgently.
4.3
Where good practice is taking place, there is still not enough impact evaluation, reporting of outcomes and dissemination widely, so that lessons can be learned. Even when evaluation has proved the value of the activity, long term sustainability has been a problem and embedding the lessons in mainstream services has often been frustrated. There has been a reduction in research projects aimed at disseminating learning in recent years.
4.4
The pre-eminent importance of the early years and the need to build on schemes such as Bookstart is a priority. Despite DCMS funding, there is an overall budget gap which means that there is no effective entitlement. Negotiations are focusing on future NOF support.
4.5
Sometimes major policy initiatives and funding regimes do not take the potentially valuable role of libraries in learning into consideration. As a result, their contribution is compromised, and what should be powerful partnerships are impeded.
4.6
There is a lack of co-operation across public libraries, libraries in schools and school library services. Some of this is the direct result of funding regimes such as Fair Funding, but there are also few examples of learning how to build on information skills from one sector to another, eg from primary to secondary and to share in the successes in developing information literacy in the FE and HE sectors. In particular, the FE sector needs support to cope with the increased presence of 14-16 year olds in their colleges and to learn from the good practice in school and public libraries with this younger age group.
4.7
Partnership working needs further development, both with other public services, such as youth workers and health workers, or with the private sector. Currently, the value of such collaboration is not yet fully exploited.
4.8
Although librarians understand the importance of consulting with and involving children and young people in the development of their services and in stock selection, lack of funding and the inflexibility of policies and procedures are a barrier to progress and the speed of book purchase processes inhibits the ability to be responsive to topical demands. There is also too much focus on the needs of current users and too little on the needs of non-users.
4.9
Libraries do not respond adequately to the needs of children with special educational needs and further research is needed. In particular, providing materials appropriate for visually impaired children is extremely difficult in both school and library settings, and a nationally co-ordinated approach is required.
4.10
Achieving socially inclusive services for children and young people is a challenge for traditional library services and requires them to look at the stock, the library environment, their staff, staff training and activities to be sure that their approach encourages social cohesion and is not causing certain groups to be excluded. Much of the work promoting special inclusion tends to be project based and, as a result, successful work is not built on long term.
Updated: 23 January 2007