Corporate report

Six month progress report: April to September 2017

Published 20 October 2017

© Crown copyright 2017

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1. Introduction

Public libraries are a unique and valued statutory public service. They reach and support the whole community regardless of age, gender, socioeconomic status or educational attainment. In 2015/16, the 3,000 or so libraries in England received 210.8 million physical visits: that’s more in total than visits to Premier League football games, the cinema, and A&E departments in England (all types - including minor injuries and walk in clinics).

Libraries and their staff don’t provide a service that sits in isolation; they support other public services that are vital for local and national prosperity and wellbeing. They not only encourage a love of reading, but also provide business support, build digital skills, organise cultural activities, host community events, offer a quiet space to study, and support people to live happier and healthier lives. All this builds on one of the most important strengths of libraries; the trust people have in them to provide objective and accurate information and guidance in a confidential and even-handed way.

Local councils in England spent around £732.65 million on libraries in 2015/16 - just under 22 pence a week per person, which equates to under 1% of England’s local government net expenditure. That’s a relatively small spend given the huge impact they have on their communities and the outcomes they help deliver.

However almost every aspect of modern life is changing rapidly. Shopping, learning, leisure and entertainment have evolved considerably from a decade ago, and all expect to change radically over the next few years. Libraries aren’t immune from these challenges.

2. Who we are and what we’ve done between April and September 2017

Following a recommendation in the Independent Library Report for England (published December 2014), the Leadership for Libraries Taskforce was established in March 2015 by the Chair of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Culture, Tourism and Sport Board and the (then) Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy. Annex A sets out background information on the Taskforce.

The Taskforce undertakes a wide variety of activities through collective and individual member actions. This unified approach has helped build stronger links in the library sector, as well as making better use of resources to promote the continuing value of libraries. The Taskforce publishes progress reports every 6 months. This fifth progress report covers April to September 2017. It includes:

This progress report should also be read alongside the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Annual Report to Parliament on Public Libraries in England during 2016 which was published on 23 February 2017. This describes, amongst other things, how DCMS carries out its superintendence role of library services as set out in the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964.

Annex B lists meetings with government departments and partners, and library visits that have taken place in the reporting period.

3. ‘Libraries Deliver: Ambition for public libraries in England 2016 to 2021’

3.1 Developing a vision for public libraries in England

In November 2015, DCMS asked the Libraries Taskforce to develop a vision for the next 5 years, providing a framework to stimulate and inform discussion about library services at local and national levels. To develop the document, we drew on:

As well as consulting widely through an online questionnaire and wide range of events run throughout England.

3.2 What the document covers

The document we published on 1 December 2016, which is endorsed and supported by central government and the LGA (on behalf of local government), sets out the context that libraries operate within. It looks at how they are adapting and developing their offer in response to these changing needs and circumstances, and will need to do so in future. It describes the Taskforce’s vision for public library services in England and details the 7 Outcomes that the public library network supports:

  • cultural and creative enrichment
  • enhanced reading and literacy
  • increased digital literacy and access
  • helping everyone achieve their full potential
  • healthier and happier lives
  • increased prosperity
  • stronger, more resilient communities

It also explores:

  • how leaders of councils and other public services can invest in libraries to achieve their strategic objectives around the future health, well-being, strength, happiness and prosperity of local people and communities
  • how libraries can innovate and adapt to meet users’ and communities’ changing needs
  • how strong local leadership of libraries can be complemented and supported by nationally co-ordinated initiatives
  • ways to support libraries’ longer-term financial resilience and sustainability by looking at new delivery models and financing approaches

3.3 Our action plan

Libraries Deliver: Ambition is accompanied by an action plan, saying what the Taskforce will contribute to make our vision a reality. However, recognising we can’t achieve all this on our own, the action plan also includes challenges to both central and local government. Clearly these can only be challenges as we can’t mandate them; however we look for opportunities to incentivise delivery and also continue to showcase good practice.

The action plan has 6 main headings. They are:

  • making the case for libraries
  • raising public awareness of what libraries have to offer
  • identifying and showcasing good practice and supporting innovation
  • supporting workforce development
  • supporting the development of the digital offer of libraries
  • monitoring and reporting on progress

We highlight 9 priority actions for the Libraries Taskforce, as well as providing details of the full list of 25 actions that the Taskforce have collectively signed up to delivering. (These are also embedded in boxes throughout relevant sections of the document.)

This progress report is structured to track progress against these action areas. We also review and refresh the Ambition document and its accompanying action plan annually.

4. What we’ve been doing in our main action areas

4.1 Making the case for libraries

The communications sub-group set up in March 2016 worked on approaches to promoting the Ambition document at the time of launch. It now develops programmes of communications activity, materials and protocols to help promote the main themes within it, and to support more collaborative approaches between Taskforce partners to reinforce core messages. For example, we’ve worked with the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) on more structured planning and materials to support the 2018 events calendar. Taskforce partners are working together to support a number of important initiatives, including preparatory work for the CILIP-led Libraries Week which will take place in October.

Promoting Ambition and what it says

The Ambition document is published on GOV.UK, both as an html version and a PDF. It’s also available in hard copy - if anyone wants copies they can email us on librariestaskforce@culture.gov.uk. We also produced a 4 page brochure to introduce the document and highlight priority actions for use in advocacy work, to start conversations and provide context. We’ve continued to promote the document via our social media channels and through events, and encouraged each Taskforce partner to do the same. Between publication on 1 December 2016 and 30 September 2017, it was viewed online over 26,000 times.

We’ve followed up its publication by featuring the main themes and issues on our Taskforce blog. For example, we’ve posted blogs on our data work, on income generation, on research priorities, and the work we’ve been doing on strategic planning guidance and a benchmarking framework. In August, the LGA issued a new Councillor Handbook on libraries to its members, to help these decision-makers understand how libraries can help them achieve their strategic local priorities, in line with what Ambition says. It has also launched a Culture Hub to showcase good practice which includes, amongst other things, some useful library case studies.

We try to promote a ‘libraries first’ approach to decision makers (Ambition Action 1). When we first published our Ambition document, the then Libraries Minister sent out a letter to all MPs to make them aware of what it said, and to draw their attention to the valuable contribution libraries make to communities. Following the General Election in June, our new Libraries Minister, John Glen, sent a similar letter out to all newly elected MPs. He also sent a letter to the newly elected Mayors of Combined Authorities.

We’ve been speaking about Ambition and its action plan at events run by other organisations within the sector, for example, the Chief Culture and Leisure Officers Association annual conference and the Connected Local Government conference. We also secured a slot in the Innovation Zone at the annual LGA Conference in July. This is the biggest event in local government when almost 1,300 council leaders, portfolio holders, chief executives and directors get together to discuss key issues facing local government. We provided well-received presentations from Jan Holden from Norfolk Library Service on their work with public health and Tabitha Witherick of Somerset Libraries on their Glassbox project.Paul Blantern also talked about the Library Plus approach in Northamptonshire that pulls together a wide variety of services - from marriage and birth registrations to wellbeing and business and intellectual property centres – into a seamless offer easily accessed by communities. We were also pleased to see libraries featuring strongly in some other sessions - for example, in the Innovation Zone presentation by the One Public Estate team.

We’ve also been contributing to events being run by library services for their frontline staff, as we want to ensure that library staff at all levels are aware of the work we are doing. Building on that, we started a ‘Libraries Deliver Newsletter’ in September, which is designed to be displayed on staff noticeboards. We’re asking frontline staff to tell us what they are interested in hearing about so we can cover the content they want to see in future issues.

Annex B sets out a list of all the events we’ve contributed to between April and September.

Building our evidence base

Making a compelling case for investing in libraries, and thinking ‘libraries first’ when delivering services to communities, needs a strong evidence base, both qualitative and quantitative. A priority action in our document (Action 2) was to develop a core set of data that can be consistently and regularly collected (preferably via automated mechanisms), and openly published. Libraries could then use this data to promote the value of library services to secure future investment and encourage increased usage. They can also use it to understand user needs and behaviour better, support longer-term planning, manage day to day operations more effectively, and identify areas for improvement.

We published basic data on libraries across England as at July 2016 on 30 March. Since then, we’ve been building on this to develop the framework for an agreed core dataset, published in July 2017. This was the result of considerable consultation with the sector; with data workshops, the consultation on Libraries Deliver: Ambition, workshops in the sector forums we ran in January 2017 and a final validation survey with the sector in spring 2017.

We want the core dataset to be something which all library services will be encouraged to collect, use and publish. A consistent dataset can be used to help inform and improve local library service delivery, as well as being used for advocacy purposes at a local and national level (when aggregated). There may, of course, also be other data which authorities choose to collect in addition to this for their own local purposes. We know that more work is needed (at local and national level) for library services to be able to collect and share some of the items in the core dataset. As part of this, we are working with library management system (LMS) suppliers to see how they can help with the data collection for some of the core dataset, supporting library services to publish their own data, and are looking to run some pilots to test data collection methods. We’ll also be talking to CIPFA, who produce benchmarking data for library services, to try and align our data definitions and future plans with them.

We’ve also been considering how we can strengthen the evidence base about the impact library services have on the lives of individuals and communities based on research findings (Ambition Action 4). This becomes increasingly important where local authorities and other partners commission libraries and pay them based on achievement of outcomes. Robust survey-based research can be resource intensive and time consuming to collect at a local level, so the Taskforce team and Arts Council England undertook work to marshall what research already exists or is underway (including research commissioned by other administrations, such as Scotland) together with thoughts about what it might be useful to gather in the future. The Taskforce used this to identify a list of future research priorities on an England-wide basis which we published in early April and we’re actively discussing with partners how the projects listed can be taken forward.

On 19 July, Arts Council England published 4 research reports on the impact of public libraries. These contribute to informing political and sector stakeholders about libraries’ contribution to public policy areas, and to sharing models of best practice with the libraries sector. They are:

Further reports will be published in the autumn on:

  • the impact of reading for pleasure (testing the emerging outcomes framework led by The Reading Agency)
  • diversity and equality

In addition, the Arts Council is undertaking a 2 year study (due to report by the end of the 2017 to 2018 financial year) on rhyme-time and its impact on maternal mental health.

We welcomed the Carnegie Trust’s report ‘Shining a Light’, published in April, which was a valuable dataset about attitudes to, and use of, public libraries. We recognise the problems highlighted in it about library usage and frequency of usage, particularly for certain groups, and that more communications work is needed locally and nationally. But there are also plenty of opportunities highlighted in the report. Most of which align with our Ambition document’s themes and action plan, for the sector to look at what people want from their library service and consider new ways for their service to expand and thrive.

Evidencing progress against the 7 Outcomes

Our Ambition document sets out 7 Outcomes, along with statements about where we want to be against each in 2021. We’ve identified a set of progress indicators that we’ll use to track how we’re doing, in line with Ambition Action 3 - we published these for final comments and sector validation in August. The Taskforce has continued to discuss an Outcome in depth at each of its meetings to identify what actions the Taskforce can take to help achieve the goals we’ve set for 2021. At our May meeting, we discussed Outcome 2: Increased reading and literacy, and in our July meeting, we discussed Outcome 1: Cultural and creative enrichment. We are due to discuss Outcome 7: Stronger and more resilient communities, at our October meeting.

Raising our profile with other influential bodies

Following the General Election, the Libraries All-Party Parliamentary Group, coordinated by CILIP, the library and Information and association, was re-registered. The Group will shortly determine its future programme and CILIP will seek to align this with Taskforce work where relevant (the APPG looks at all libraries, not just public libraries). Initial indications are that the Group’s focus is likely to be on the Outcomes focussing on health, learning, business support and community.

The Greater London Authority (GLA) has started work on developing a Cultural Infrastructure Plan for the city, which it is planning to publish in 2018. We’re talking to the GLA to ensure that libraries’ important role in providing local access to cultural opportunities is recognised, and discussing how libraries’ contribution can be covered as work on this strategy progresses. GLA also launched its Borough of Culture competition on 30 June. The prospectus emphasised that this included things happening in visual and performing arts, museums and heritage, libraries and literature.

4.2 Raise public awareness of what libraries have to offer

Actions 6, 7 and 8 focus on improving libraries’ communications and profile with the public. We’ve been using our Taskforce owned channels (primarily the website, Twitter, the Taskforce blog, and flickr) throughout the period, and we’ve seen increased traffic and engagement on all of them. We publish all official information on our GOV.UK web pages: things like minutes of meetings, published reports and information on Taskforce members. We use our blog more flexibly; we update people on what we are doing and publish ‘guest blogs’ where others share good practice so we can raise awareness of what different parts of the sector are achieving. We use Twitter to publicise Taskforce activities, point people towards our blog and website, amplify what other people are doing or saying, and engage with people who have an interest in libraries. We also use it to pass on information in ‘real time’, for example, alerting people to deadlines for bids.

Our intention is to do more to support library services to do more local communication themselves. Currently, the focus has been on creating assets, such as inviting people to make photos available under a creative commons licence, and reminding people that they can reuse the diagrams and icons that appear in Libraries Deliver. As mentioned above, we have set up a newsletter intended for frontline staff that provides consistent short messages about national activities, with the intention of embedding a common language and set of easy-to-reuse facts and examples of innovative activities taking place in libraries. Likewise, the events calendar mentioned earlier should mean that library staff find it easier to coordinate activities and the public should see more of a consistent approach when libraries talk about and promote initiatives - whether in local press, with local radio, or online.

Over the 6 months covered in this report, our blogs have received over 31,600 page views; the most popular posts have been about the new Taskforce newsletter, celebrating the Harry Potter anniversary, and income generation.

The BBC ran a Get Creative Weekend on 7- 9 April 2017. Libraries participated to encourage people across England to take part in 3 days of ‘have a go’ creativity. The BBC is planning to undertake a further phase of its #Lovetoread campaign, linked to Libraries Week which will run between 9 and 14 October, and has also begun planning for its Spring 2018 Civilisations Festival. This aims to put a spotlight on the work of museums and libraries to coincide with the transmission of the BBC Arts series Civilisations on BBC Two.

Arts Council England created a series of podcasts to highlight the important role libraries play in our communities. Titled More than a House for Books, the 3 half hour episodes covered:

  • libraries for young people – looking at the impact libraries have on the early years
  • libraries as a social enabler – exploring how facilities enhance lives
  • digital transformation in libraries – examining how technology is benefitting libraries and communities

4.3 Identifying and showcasing good practice and supporting innovation

Toolkits and guidance

When we consulted on the Ambition document, people were supportive of our proposal to develop a toolkit to help councils carry out longer-term planning for library services that involves their communities. This would help councils make important decisions about ways to provide an effective library service that’s sustainable in the long-term within a context of resourcing pressures. We believed it was important for this to be sector-led, so LGA took the lead for the Taskforce on Action 10, developing this toolkit.

The ‘beta’ version of the Strategic Planning toolkit that we published on our webpages in August is based on established sector good practice, case studies and research, and the 7 design principles set out in our Ambition document. As it was important that the toolkit fully met user needs, we tested a prototype with a number of councils prior to publication. During this beta phase, we’ll be continually testing and improving the toolkit, and people are invited to share their thoughts by using the feedback button within the toolkit or by emailing librariestaskforce@culture.gov.uk.

Consultees also wanted to see a sector-led benchmarking framework developed that all libraries could use for self-assessment, planning and improvement. Again, LGA led for the Taskforce on this (Action 13) with support from both SCL and CILIP, and the prototype version was tested with a range of library services, and with community libraries.This has now been published in beta alongside the Strategic Planning toolkit. We’re planning to run masterclasses to promote the use of both of these later in the year.

We held 2 well-received income generation masterclasses (in London on 5 May and in Nottingham central library on 12 May). These were well attended by both local authority and community managed libraries, and explored a variety of topics including commissioning, taking an entrepreneurial approach to income generation opportunities, and alternative approaches such as crowdfunding. We had some brilliant speakers, including Jessica Harris (Cultural Commissioning Programme Manager, NCVO), Sue Williamson (St Helens), Melanie Mills (Social Sector Engagement Director, Big Society Capital), Ann Hallinan (Brighton and Hove), Caroline Brown and Jill Fenwick (representing the Association of Cultural Enterprises) and Charlotte Collyer (Enterprise and FabLab Devon Manager). We produced a blog to share the learning more widely and will be updating the income generation section of our Libraries Shaping the Future toolkit.

The Taskforce continues to promote the good practice guidance set out in its first 3 toolkits:

Since publication, these 3 toolkits, plus the new publications (the strategic planning and benchmarking toolkits), have been viewed over 49,300 times (over 15,500 during the period covered by this report). We also provide advice and support to individual library services when they approach us for help or guidance.

Alternative delivery models

Once library services have established community needs, they need to consider how best to deliver library services to meet these. In Ambition Action 11 we said we’d explore these further. There are a range of different delivery models already being used across England. Choosing the right one for a local area is a complex process. We published a toolkit designed to help those interested in exploring this route in March. DCMS also continued to provide support for councils exploring alternative delivery options, including grants; this helps buy in support from technical experts (for example, legal, finance, or HR issues) to accelerate work being taken forward.

We are also looking at how we can provide more evidence and support where councils are considering community-managed libraries as a delivery option. This was difficult to do previously as community-managed libraries hadn’t been in existence long enough to meaningfully evaluate their effectiveness and longer-term sustainability, but now some have been in existence for 3-5 years. We commissioned research into the operation of community-managed libraries to help with this. This was published in August (the original aim to publish in the Spring had to be pushed back because of pre-election publication restrictions) and we will now be using the findings to complement and enhance our Community Managed Libraries: good practice toolkit and case studies, and to feed into our future research plans.

We’ve also (together with Locality and SCL) been supporting the Upper Norwood Library Trust (UNLT) to establish the Community Managed Library Peer Network. It is funded by Power to Change, and builds on the previous Locality-run Community Knowledge Hub (which will close in December 2017) by growing membership, developing cutting edge content, and ensuring long-term sustainability. The initial pilot group was formed following a survey of community managed libraries to find out what they wanted from a network. The new network has begun to organise a series of events and opportunities to share learning.

Libraries: Opportunities for Everyone innovation fund

DCMS and the Taskforce set up a £4 million ‘Libraries: Opportunities for Everyone’ (LOFE) fund (managed through Arts Council England) to pilot innovative activities in public libraries in England that will support all parts of society (Action 14). In mid-March, it was announced that 30 bids, covering 46 local authorities’ library services from across the country, would receive a total of £3.9 million from the innovation fund to be spent in 2017/18. We have already published blog posts about some of the projects as they have got up and running. We are working with the successful projects to ensure the lessons identified during their delivery are shared with other library services. This includes undertaking an independent evaluation over the coming months.

As a number of library services had received LOFE funding to establish a makerspace (or similar) in one or more of their libraries (which also relates to Action 21 of Ambition) , we asked them if they would like the opportunity to get together and compare notes. They replied with an enthusiastic ‘yes’. We also received enquiries from a number of other library services looking to undertake similar projects during 2017/18 using other sources of funding. So we ran a masterclass in March for all these library services, and it proved so popular that we ran a follow up session in early September. The group has requested a further meeting, which we will run in February 2018. We’ve also published further guidance, pulling together case studies, links and resources for library services with makerspaces or those who are thinking of creating one. There is also a map showing all libraries with makerspaces and those in development. New makerspaces have now been established in Redbridge, Hull and Barnstaple and we’re looking forward to seeing others open in the coming months.

Partner activity

Individual Taskforce members are also undertaking work that contributes to the Ambition document’s strategic aims. For example, SCL’s Universal Offers provide a framework for partnership development at a national level, which is delivering tangible benefits to library services within local communities. In August, SCL began to introduce a new Universal Culture Offer, which is due to launch formally in October. This focuses on bringing the contribution that libraries make to the national cultural landscape to the fore, and providing a platform for future development of the cultural offer of the public library sector. It aims to reflect the wide range and diversity of people using public libraries, including children and young people.

Another Taskforce member, The Reading Agency, launched its 2017 Summer Reading Challenge on the theme of Animal Agents, illustrated by Tony Ross. This featured a variety of clever creatures, specially trained to use their skills and natural instincts to unravel mysteries. John Glen MP, the Libraries Minister, attended its Parliamentary launch on 28 June.

Animal Agents video

The Reading Agency also launched its Reading Well for Long Term Conditions initiative on 3 July. They worked with SCL, with funding from Arts Council England and The Wellcome Trust, to develop this scheme for people with long term conditions and their carers. They collaborated with health partners, people living with long term conditions and their carers, as well as public library partners, to select the new list of titles. This list covers specific conditions including diabetes, stroke and asthma, as well as common symptoms including pain and fatigue. As with the existing Reading Well schemes, health professionals will be able to recommend titles on the list to their patients. The titles will also be available for anyone to borrow for free from their local public library.

The Reading Agency’s Reading Outcomes Framework Toolkit has been promoted widely in the last 6 months, resulting in interest from the UK and overseas. Concurrently, two major pieces of work to improve the Framework Toolkit further are underway. First, a pilot with programmes in a children’s centre, a secondary school, a college and a library. Second, a systematic review of tried and tested measures of reading engagement to identify those which can be published in the Framework Toolkit. A consultation inviting target users to say how the Framework Toolkit could be improved ran until 8 September.

The Living Knowledge Network (LKN) puts into action the British Library’s vision to make our intellectual heritage available to everyone for research, inspiration and enjoyment. It brings together 22 public libraries across the UK as well as the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales. It shares resources, skills and ideas, promotes the enduring values (and value) of libraries in the twenty-first century, and reinforces the idea of the library as a transformative and accessible public asset.

The British Library has been working with LKN partners around the UK to live screen events and high profile speakers from the British Library in London to growing audiences around the UK. Screenings to date include Michael Morpurgo, Margaret Atwood, Alan Ayckbourn, Will Self, John Lydon and Carol Ann Duffy, with more global names lined up. 100% of public library audiences would recommend British Library Live events and the majority plan to see British Library Live again. Event hashtags and Twitter Q&As via #BLLive have helped to expand the audience and levels of participation further, enabling people all over the UK to have a conversation with global thinkers and to share their inspiration with others.

LKN helps form mentoring relationships across Network partners across the UK. It held an event at Wakefield central library in partnership with The Clore Leadership Programme and Wakefield Council. This explored how libraries and librarians can inspire and lead in the wider cultural sector. Themes included collaboration, the role of libraries within the arts and how connections are formed between different partners.

To mark the 100th Anniversary of Roald Dahl’s birth, Sir Quentin Blake produced a series of 10 Roald Dahl Centenary Portraits. Sir Quentin Blake, and his archivist, agreed for this exhibition to tour to 3 Living Knowledge Network libraries. The exhibition has already been on display in Hull and will subsequently move to Norwich and Wakefield.

On 14 June, the Business and IP Centre Hull officially launched. Alongside it, there was a panel discussion on ‘Top Three Tips for Business’, featuring local partners and users of the Hull Centre, and an Inspiring Entrepreneurs ‘Brilliant Brands’ event. Screenings of the event, with local speakers and networking, were held in all 10 Business and IP Centres (Birmingham, Exeter, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Northampton, Norwich and Sheffield) plus libraries further afield including Huddersfield, Barnstaple, Glasgow and Aberdeen. In total, over 250 people attended the events in 14 locations outside London. 48% of users were aged 16-34, 50% BAME and 61% female.

A network-wide Startup Day was run on 21 September. This was a flagship event showcasing the Network’s business support offer, and demonstrating how libraries play an important role as engines of real and demonstrable economic growth. Attendees at the Start-up Day attended free seminars, workshops and talks on a range of topics including: market research, protecting intellectual property, raising finance, using the internet effectively, marketing strategy, sales and work/life balance. It was also supported by Small Business Minister Margot James, who met with entrepreneurs in the Midlands and north west. The day also featured inspirational talks from the faces behind big British brands. Events took place in London and also in partner libraries right around the UK through the Business and IP Centre National Network and also in Nottingham, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Worcester.

In the first quarter of 2017/18, the Business and IP Centre Network (including London) delivered advice and support to 2,565 start-ups, and 1,185 micro-companies. 60% of attendees were women and 36% from BAME background. Activities across the Network included:

In February 2016, the Taskforce and the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) started a pilot across a number of libraries in 2 London boroughs to provide dedicated work spaces (commuter hubs) for use by civil servants. Based on its success, there was a growing demand to locate other suitable sites. Phase 2 has extended the availability of this scheme throughout the south east, with 5 further sites situated in libraries in Leyton, Putney, Basingstoke, Farnborough and Witham. This collaboration benefits not only MoJ staff but also gives libraries an extra income stream from otherwise redundant (back office) space.

4.4 Supporting workforce development

To transform public library services across England, we need to harness the talent and creativity of the people who work in them - both library staff and volunteers. We also need to continue to identify and support the learning and development needs of councillors, commissioners, senior council officers and the board members of new library delivery bodies (such as mutuals and trusts). Equipping everyone involved in public libraries to understand the 7 Outcomes that we’ve identified in Libraries Deliver: Ambition and deliver them successfully, leading and succeeding in a changing environment, is a vital investment.

CILIP and SCL published the Public Library Skills Strategy 2017-2030 in July (Action 19). This encourages a new way of developing skills and professionalism in the public library workforce, recognising that ‘leadership’ happens at every level of the organisation. It describes the range of skills that staff and volunteers delivering public library services will need and outlines mechanisms for skills delivery and support for employers. It also aims to help individuals develop their skills and plan their careers, enabling them to succeed in a changing and competitive market. CILIP and SCL have received funding from ACE to work together to develop a public libraries leadership programme and explore shared approaches to Continuous Professional Development.

4.5 Supporting the development of the digital offer of libraries

DCMS set up a Culture is Digital project in March 2017, but external stakeholder engagement had to be paused during the pre-election period. The re-launched project is being championed at ministerial level by John Glen, with continuing support from Matt Hancock as Minister for Digital. The Libraries Taskforce chief executive sits on the project board.

Libraries were represented at a ministerial roundtable focussing on access and participation. The project team also posted a Taskforce guest blog asking as many people as possible from the public libraries sector to engage with its online consultation platform to share ideas and examples of their local work on digital culture projects. The discussion platform received a high-level of engagement, allowing the project to gather a lot of qualitative data from stakeholders. Themes emerging included:

  • the potential for digital to find new audiences for cultural experiences
  • the need for a longer-term strategy around digitisation of collections and improving their infrastructure
  • the importance of collaboration between the cultural and tech sector
  • the possibilities offered if cultural organisations could better collect and exploit the potential of data for understanding audiences and to improve their businesses
  • the need for digital upskilling within the culture sector

We expect that policy proposals following up on the consultation will be published towards the end of the year.

In February 2017, the Greater London Authority (GLA) announced a pilot project. This was to test how efficient, effective and value for money lending wifi-enabled devices (tablets) through a library (or community centre), coupled with basic digital skills training, is at reducing digital exclusion in one or more London boroughs with high digital exclusion rates. It was targeting groups across one or more London boroughs including:

  • older Londoners ( aged 55 or older)
  • Londoners from disadvantaged backgrounds (in social housing, in receipt of benefits support or other allowances)
  • Londoners with a disability (especially those who are housebound)

GLA asked for submissions from all London library authorities meeting their specification, and this was awarded to Lewisham. The pilot was launched during London Tech Week. From June 2017 to January 2018, Lewisham residents will be able to borrow a tablet for up to 4 weeks and will be offered 6 hours of digital skills training. Community groups will also be able to loan tablets to the vulnerable residents they work with.

In January 2016, SCL published a report, commissioned from BiblioCommons, on the potential for a Single Library Digital Presence (SLDP). This examined the potential for public libraries across the country to develop a single digital presence offering existing and potential users of libraries a more engaging, interactive digital experience, which it was hoped could help retain existing users, attract new ones and change the perceptions of public libraries. Action 20 of Libraries Deliver: Ambition related to exploring this further. In August, it was announced that The British Library is to lead an 18-month scoping project to establish the demand for, and possible shape of, a single digital presence for UK public libraries. Funded by Arts Council England and the Carnegie UK Trust, the project will investigate user expectations and demand for what a national online platform for public libraries might deliver, and will explore the network of stakeholder groups and organisations best placed to make it a reality. This will involve market analysis, stakeholder interviews, workshops and other research, leading to a draft set of options and emerging findings within the first year as well as recommendations on how this might be taken forward. It will involve key stakeholders from across the home nations, assessing the potential and scope for a UK-wide platform providing access to local collections and services. Emerging findings from the project will be shared in autumn 2018, with the final report published in 2019.

The government is committed to supporting public libraries to embrace the digital age, including through its funding programme that helped ensure free wifi is available in libraries, and by working with libraries to ensure that remote access to e-book lending is available to library users. As part of this work, the government also committed to ensuring that authors are recognised for e-lending by public libraries. Measures were included in the Digital Economy Act 2017, which completed its Parliamentary stages on 27 April, that will extend the Public Lending Right (PLR) so that authors of e-books lent by public libraries in the UK will be eligible to receive payments from the government PLR fund.

DCMS has since been working with the British Library on the steps needed to implement the measures, with a current aim to bring these into force in 2018. The steps include developing proposals to update secondary legislation to reflect the changes made through the primary legislation of the 2017 Act. As well as addressing practical requirements such as ensuring that appropriate data on e-lending needed for PLR calculations can be collected from library authorities and their e-lending suppliers. To support the implementation of the changes to the PLR scheme, and to encourage joint working between libraries, authors, publishers, booksellers and others on related matters, DCMS and the Taskforce team has met regularly with a stakeholder group, including representatives of authors, publishers, British Library, SCL and CILIP to discuss progress and next steps.

DCMS will consult on proposed updates to secondary legislation, before finalising these and bringing into force the extension of PLR to include e-lending. DCMS will also seek the legislative consent of the Northern Ireland Assembly, so that the measures apply to e-lending in Northern Ireland as well as Scotland, Wales and England.

4.6 Monitoring and reporting on progress

Building sector capability

In April, DCMS published the findings of the recently concluded Tailored Review of Arts Council England and the Arts Council responded with its Implementation Plan. These recognised that the Arts Council was strengthening its presence as the development agency for libraries, and that the assistance on offer was becoming more visible to library services. Although we recognise that all Taskforce members have a role to play in ensuring that opportunities continue to be constantly promoted to their individual audiences. Arts Council England’s future development body role will be articulated as DCMS and the Arts Council renegotiate their Memorandum of Understanding.

On 27 June, Arts Council England announced the successful applicants from libraries to be in the Arts Council’s National Portfolio from April 2018 to March 2022. The investment, from core Arts Council funding, is to support the delivery of arts and cultural programming that supplements and enhances the core statutory services and delivers Arts Council Goals. There were 7 successful library applicants, including at least one in each Arts Council Area, alongside SCL becoming a national Sector Support Organisation. (These focus on offering support services to a sector, as opposed to directly producing or delivering art and culture.) They were:

Who £ per annum for 4 years Area
London Borough of Barking and Dagenham £180,000 London
Cambridgeshire County Council £173,745 South East
Libraries Unlimited (Devon) £175,000 South West
Inspire (Nottinghamshire) £249,999 Midlands
St Helens Council Library Service £110,000 North
Suffolk Libraries £176,000 South East
Society of Chief Librarians £500,000 Sector Support Organisation

These were all conditional offers. Arts Council England are now negotiating Funding Agreements which they hope to have in place by February 2018 ahead of the start of investment on 1 April 2018.

In addition to these, there were several organisations who explicitly referenced their partnership working with libraries in their NPO application. They include: The Reading Agency, Get it Loud in Libraries, Spark Arts, Small Green Shoots, The Reader, and Wolverhampton Art Gallery.

Our reporting

The Taskforce monitors progress on the action plan set out alongside Libraries Deliver: Ambition at every meeting. We’ll continue to present these narrative progress reports (including updates on the Outcome Progress Indicators) to Ministers and to the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board every 6 months and publish them on GOV.UK.

We publish minutes of our meetings on GOV.UK - links to those that took place during this reporting period are listed in Annex A.

Progress is also reported to Parliament via the DCMS Annual Report to Parliament on Public Libraries. The most recent one was published on 23 February 2017.

5. What we’ll achieve in the next 6 months

By the time we next report (in March 2018), we’ll aim to have:

  • a reviewed and refreshed Ambition document and action plan
  • seen more projects supported by the LOFE fund delivered, and have established an evaluation framework to help measure learning and impact
  • promoted our new strategic planning toolkit and benchmarking framework and run masterclasses to help councils use them
  • taken forward our work on supporting library services to publish their data in line with our core dataset
  • continued our programme of Masterclasses covering topics that library sector colleagues have told us will be useful to them
  • continued to publish and share blog posts and case studies that showcase good practice and illustrate the rich diversity of activities going on in libraries across the country
  • assisted Upper Norwood Library Trust to establish a successful self-sustaining pilot Community Managed Libraries Peer Network
  • supported DCMS and the British Library in work towards implementing the provisions of the Digital Economy Act 2017 that extend the Public Lending Right to include remote lending of e-books and e-audiobooks

6. Annex A Information on the Taskforce

6.1 Background and structure

Information on the background and structure of the Taskforce is set out in our GOV.UK web pages. Our Terms of Reference were updated in June 2017.

The Taskforce reports to the DCMS Libraries Minister, and to the LGA Culture, Sport and Tourism Board. Up to June 2017, the DCMS Libraries Minister was the Minister for Civil Society, Rob Wilson. Following the General Election, the responsibility for public libraries in England came under the remit of John Glen, Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism. Councillor Ian Stephens chaired the LGA Culture, Tourism and Sport Board until 31 July 2017, when he was succeeded by Councillor Gerald Vernon-Jackson.

Following publication of the Libraries Deliver: Ambition document, our priorities are now outlined in its action plan:

  • making the case for investment in libraries
  • raising public awareness of what libraries have to offer
  • identifying and showcasing good practice and supporting innovation
  • supporting workforce development
  • supporting development of the digital offer of libraries
  • monitoring and reporting on progress

6.2 Taskforce meetings

Over the period covered by this progress report, the Taskforce held the following meetings:

During this period, Brian Ashley (then Arts Council England, now retired) and Iain Varah (Chief Culture and Leisure Officers’ Association, cCLOA) resigned as Taskforce members. Rebecca Cox representing the Local Government Association (LGA) left to take maternity leave. The Taskforce would like to record its thanks to them for their valued contribution.

They will be replaced by Paul Bristow (ACE Director of Strategic Partnerships, on an interim basis whilst Brian’s permanent successor is recruited), Polly Hamilton (Vice-Chair of cCLOA), and Alex Thomson respectively. Helen Williams and Kate McGavin, who job share as Deputy Directors for Arts, Libraries and Digital Culture at DCMS as a job share, will also share the role of DCMS representatives on the Taskforce.

Cllr Mike Bell will serve as the new LGA representative on the Taskforce. The NHS will also be represented on the Taskforce in future, as a valued partner organisation; meetings will be attended by Dr Neil Churchill, who is Director of Participation and Experience, NHS England.

6.3 Funding for the Taskforce team

DCMS provided initial £250,000 funding for 2015/16 to set up and support the Taskforce. Continued funding of £500,000 per year to March 2020 was confirmed as part of the DCMS Spending Review on 25 November 2015. This covers the costs of the 5 core staff and Taskforce administrative costs (such as Taskforce publications and the workshops, sector forums and events the Taskforce runs). The Taskforce identifies other funding and resources to support delivery of its key priorities.

6.4 Taskforce staff

The Taskforce team comprises 5 full time staff:

  • chief executive
  • policy and secretariat manager
  • communications lead
  • programme and project manager
  • PA and business support

The Taskforce team was supported during this period by some part time (unpaid) library secondees contributing to our work:

  • Nick Partridge (Sheffield) working on developing Outcome Progress Indicators
  • Stephen Howell (Durham) working on updating the good practice toolkits

We also secured a week of Lindsay Plumpton’s time via the Whitehall and Industry Group’s insights programme. Lindsay is Marketing Operations Manager at NCFE and was able to make some useful contributions to our communications programme.

The Taskforce is very grateful to these secondees for their insights and assistance, and to their organisations for agreeing to their release.

7. Annex B: Meetings, visits, and presentations

The chief executive and chair have met with and/or requested meetings with various government departments at official and ministerial level and with a wide range of individuals and organisations from partner organisations, the library sector and beyond. This is to highlight the value of libraries and the work that libraries are already undertaking to support various policy and outcomes work. These meetings also seek to identify future opportunities for collaboration and options for library investment. Some of the most important meetings held during the period covered by this report were with:

  • BIC Library Suppliers Liaison Group
  • British Council
  • British Film Institute
  • Cambridgeshire County Council
  • Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association
  • Creative Industries Federation
  • Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
  • Department for Communities and Local Government
  • Devolved Administrations
  • Doteveryone
  • EBSCO
  • Fromnowon
  • Good Things Foundation
  • Government Property Agency
  • Greater London Authority
  • Halifax
  • Heritage Lottery Foundation
  • Hewlett-Packard
  • Innovate UK
  • Institute of Making
  • Kano
  • Locality
  • MAIPLE (Managing Access to the Internet in Public Libraries)
  • Makerversity
  • Ministry of Justice
  • National Enterprise Network
  • National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
  • Power to Change
  • Public Policy Exchange
  • Solus
  • Tech City
  • TechMums
  • Teentech
  • The National Archives
  • The Princes Trust
  • The Publishers Association
  • UNISON
  • Urban Vision
  • Westminster City Council
  • What Works Centre for Wellbeing
  • Whitehall and Industry Group

7.1 Visits

The Libraries Minister, chief executive and Taskforce team and members have visited a range of local authorities and libraries to get a better understanding of the different models and services they provide to their communities. These have included discussions with the library workforce and users, as well as meetings with senior councillors and local authority chief executives and directors, to:

  • promote what libraries do to support delivery of their services and agendas
  • highlight the range of delivery models possible for library services
  • identify and share good practice
  • seek views on how the Taskforce can help reinvigorate public library services

We’ve visited a number of libraries over the last 6 months. These include:

  • Birmingham libraries (workshops in the Library of Birmingham)
  • Cambridge central library (Taskforce meeting)
  • Calderdale library service (for the opening of Halifax Central Library)
  • Canada Water library (for the first makerspaces workshop)
  • Chester Storyhouse (for official opening)
  • Hampshire library service for the opening of Fareham and Fleet libraries
  • Hertfordshire Library Service
  • Hull central library (Ministerial visit and Taskforce team member)
  • Leeds central library (for the second makerspaces workshop)
  • Liverpool central library (for their annual MakeFest plus Ministerial visit)
  • Manchester central library (Ministerial visit and members of the Taskforce team)
  • Nottingham central library (Income generation masterclass)
  • Oldham library (for the opening of the Big Ideas Generator)
  • Redbridge libraries (for the opening of their new Makerspace and during Tech Ilford)
  • Wiltshire Library Service (Ministerial visit to Salisbury library)
  • Wimbledon library

The chief executive and / or chair have given presentations at the following conferences / events:

  • Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association London meeting - 21 June
  • Connected Local Government Conference - 27 June
  • Chief Cultural & Leisure Officers Association AGM - 29 June
  • Local Government Association Annual Conference and Exhibition - 5 July
  • Meeting of The Publishers Association’s Consumer Publishers Council - 7 September
  • Global Library Excellence conference - 11 September
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