Corporate report

Libraries Taskforce: six month progress report (October 2019 to March 2020)

Published 2 November 2020

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. The annual library statistics published by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) on 7 December 2019 show that libraries remain popular, with large numbers visiting each year. In 2018/19 alone there were 187.7 million physical visits to libraries. This was more than attendance at Premier League matches, theatre performances and historic properties combined. During early lockdown, libraries expanded their digital and remote offer to continue to provide services to their communities.

Libraries and their staff don’t provide a service that sits in isolation; they support other public services that are vital for local 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 of 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 authorities in England continue to invest in their library services with net expenditure in 2018/19 totalling £622m. 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 can be expected to change radically over the next few years. Libraries are not immune to these challenges as has been emphasised by the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic. However, while the pandemic created challenges, it has brought about an opportunity to reassess how services are delivered. Some library services have seen a 600% increase in registrations for digital borrowing and a 400% increase in e-lending; and when libraries do become fully-operational again it is likely they will be operating in a dramatically altered landscape within their communities.

2. Who we are

The Libraries Taskforce was established in March 2015. Annex A sets out background information on the Taskforce.

The Taskforce undertook a wide variety of activities through collective and individual member actions. This collaborative approach has helped build stronger links across the library sector and increased the impact the sector could make in promoting the continuing value of libraries. Under its Terms of Reference the Taskforce has published progress reports every 6 months. This is the eighth and final progress report which covers work undertaken between October 2019 to March 2020. It includes:

• Detail on the end of the Taskforce and future plans
• Progress on commitments in the Action Plan to March 2020 that accompanies Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016 to 2021. Details of both documents are set out in Annex B

3. Cessation of Libraries Taskforce and next steps

3.1 The Libraries Taskforce ended as a formally constituted body on 31 March 2020 with the agreement of all members.

A report detailing the impact of the Libraries Taskforce will be released as soon as possible. The production of the report has been delayed due to the impact of Covid-19.

To ensure that Taskforce activities that were already underway are delivered successfully and that central government advocacy for the library sector is maintained, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) has funded staff at Arts Council England to remain in post for a further year. During this time, Arts Council England will continue to convene a core delivery group (made up of CILIP: the library and information association, Libraries Connected, the Local Government Association (LGA), a Local Authority Chief Executive and The British Library) and the group will continue to explore ways of working collaboratively for the benefit of the sector, involving other relevant organisations as appropriate. The membership of this core delivery group was established at its first meeting which took place in April 2020.

4. What we have done between October 2019 and March 2020

4.1 Promoting public libraries to the public and to decision-makers

One of the Libraries Taskforce’s goals was to ensure that the invaluable contribution libraries make to society and local communities is actively promoted to stakeholders such as local government, national government, potential funders and the public.

To do this, the Taskforce and its partners aimed to revitalise the image of libraries. To boost the image of libraries, we collaborated on establishing programmes of promotional activity, which ensured the inclusion of libraries in government strategies and achieved greater recognition within central and local government of libraries’ capacity to deliver on their strategic objectives. The Taskforce team based in Arts Council England worked with public figures to highlight the importance of libraries to them and society; for example Kerry Hudson, author of Lowborn was commissioned to write a blog. Other advocates secured include television presenter and teacher Bobby Seagull, comedian Adam Hills and doctor/TV presenter Dr Ranj Singh. Their quotes and social cards have been gaining good traction on Twitter. One has received over 15,000 impressions on the North Area Arts Council England Twitter account and is one of its best performing tweets.

Arts Council England 10 Year Strategy

On 28 January 2020 Arts Council England published its 10-year strategy for 2020-2030, called ‘Let’s Create’. The strategy strengthens and embeds Arts Council England’s commitment to its role as the national development agency for libraries, recognises public libraries’ unique contribution as cultural infrastructure as well as cultural institutions in their own right, and commits to increasing its investment in libraries throughout the next 10 years.

It was planned that Arts Council England would publish a delivery plan in Spring 2020 to set out its funding priorities for the first period of the new strategy. Due to delays and changes resulting from Covid-19 this delivery plan will now be published in Spring 2021.

In a preview of the new delivery plan, it was announced in February 2020 that Arts Council England would enable public libraries to apply for National Lottery Project Grants to deliver on all 4 Universal Library Offers. This will enable the development of good practice for libraries in the areas of Health and Wellbeing, Information and Digital, Reading and Creativity and Culture. Following a delay due to Covid-19, an announcement about the changes to the National Lottery Project Grants programme was issued in July 2020.

Libraries Transformation Fund

In October 2019 DCMS announced a £250m Cultural Investment Fund for the cultural and creative sector. This was the Government’s biggest ever single investment in cultural infrastructure, and local libraries across the country will benefit. Part of this was to be spent on museums maintenance and libraries transformation projects.

Arts Council England will manage a Libraries Transformation Fund (LiT) on behalf of DCMS as part of this work, which will be focused on upgrading buildings and technology so public libraries across England are better placed to respond to the changing ways people are using them. Although currently under development, the kind of projects we expect to see will be those which invest in library infrastructure. This could be physical, digital or both, but projects may include;

• Investing in physical space to develop new or improve existing buildings to transform library use and increase opportunities for eg; co-location, community partnerships;

• Internal building work to improve user accessibility and satisfaction (such as toilets, baby changing, Changing Places, or ramps) and/or to increase the flexibility of internal space (eg shelving, flooring, desks, seating) and / or to improving capacity for community use outside hours

• Investment in digital infrastructure to improve the offer to library users, increasing user satisfaction and improving perceptions. This might include upgrading hardware (for example kit to borrow, access to high-end digital tech such as via makerspaces) and upgrading software (such as operating systems)

DCMS Libraries Work

The DCMS Libraries team works within government to promote public libraries and what they do to decision makers, seeking to have the value of public libraries acknowledged in a variety of government strategies. Helen Whateley MP served as minister with responsibility for libraries (in her capacity as Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism) from September 2019 to 13 February 2020, when Caroline Dinenage MP succeeded her (in her capacity as Minister of State for Digital and Culture). Both have been strong supporters of public libraries. Since becoming minister with responsibility for public libraries, Caroline Dinenage has visited the British Library (on Monday 2 March) where she learned more about its statutory duties as a legal deposit library as well as its collaboration with public libraries through the Living Knowledge Network and The British Library’s national network of BIPCs.

Funding

As part of the one-year spending round announced in August, budgets are now settled for 2020/21. The 2 policy posts in the DCMS Libraries Team have been extended to cover the coming year; and DCMS has agreed to provide funding to Arts Council England for a transition year, so it can establish a successor body to the Taskforce, and continue work on programmes such as workforce development and regional support. The DCMS Libraries Team will continue to take forward work on data, and on future strategy work to follow up on the Ambition document, which runs up to 2021. It will also resume work on preparation for future Spending Reviews, drawing on ideas which have previously been discussed with the Taskforce. In October 2019, DCMS announced a £250m Cultural Investment Fundfor the cultural and creative sector. The Libraries Transformation Fund (LiT), which is part of this, will be delivered through Arts Council England using established processes as much as possible, and DCMS and Arts Council England are working closely together to clarify the fund criteria and detailed arrangements for the libraries element.

An important aspect of this is to establish an understanding of the needs in the sector in relation to upgrading physical and digital infrastructure. On 10 March Arts Council England issued an ‘evidence of need’ survey to all Heads of Service (via Libraries Connected) asking about library services’ needs and priorities. This will provide vital information to underpin this funding.

The DCMS Libraries Team has also been working throughout this period to support British Library in bids to;

• expand and accelerate the BIPC network. This will deliver an additional 8 new BIPCs across England and expand the offer and reach of each BIPC hub through local high-street library networks, providing even more entrepreneurs with free access to business support, market intelligence, IP workshops and one to one coaching.

• secure the necessary Government commitment to the transformation of the British Library site at Boston Spa; a vital underpinning of the British Library’s ambitions for a British Library North.

On 11 March the Chancellor confirmed funding for both of these projects.

Increased reading and literacy

DCMS previously worked with the Early Intervention Foundation to get libraries mentioned in guidance for those undertaking peer challenges on early years speech and language development. Following new library and Booktrust peers’ training, some have now started to take part in challenges.

DCMS and Arts Council England continued to work with officials in the Department for Education’s (DfE) Home Learning Environment team on the role of libraries on early years speech and language development. We are pleased that as a result of brokering stronger public libraries involvement in developing their thinking, one of the high profile elements planned for its ‘Hungry Little Minds’ campaign was a series of celebrity rhymetimes taking place in Middlesbrough, Hull, Luton and Battersea.

Improved digital access and literacy / greater prosperity

DCMS Libraries Team has been working with the DCMS Digital Skills team to explore ways that we can anchor library services within their future planning for digital inclusion work. It is on the Cross Government Digital Inclusion Steering Group (and led a session at it in January focussing on the contribution that public libraries can and do make to this agenda, alongside Leeds Council who talked about the digital inclusion work being led by its library service); and we continue to contribute to thinking on developing future strategy for Local Digital Skills partnerships, and promoting the role of public libraries within them. The Digital Skills Team in DCMS will be working with us by providing input and advice to the consideration of digital bids for the Libraries Transformation Fund.

DCMS began work on the next phase of a Media Literacy strategy. The Libraries Team continues to participate in cross-government meetings on disinformation and online media harms, promoting work already in train across library services, and their important role in education and running and hosting work to develop people’s knowledge and confidence in navigating the online world and the information promulgated through it.

DCMS Libraries Team has been engaging with senior officials in The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to promote the profile of public libraries to support SME and growth businesses, complementing other BEIS initiatives. Following on from this there will be a pilot project undertaken with them soon on Business Helpline Support, initially in South Tyneside, who came forward following a call for interest via Libraries Connected. We also continue to input to Local Industrial Strategy drafts that come to us, to try and ensure that the work libraries do to support things like business support and skills training is reflected in them; and have talked to a number of LEPs and promoting the use of library services to deliver significant aspects of their Local Industrial Strategies; especially those with BIPCs within their areas.

DCMS Libraries Team and Arts Council staff have also been engaging with Defra, to promote the critical role of public libraries within rural communities.

Stronger, more resilient communities

The DCMS Libraries Team continues to work with the Social Mobility Commission to promote the role that libraries can play in ‘levelling up’ and boosting people’s life chances, and in October helped organise a meeting between Farrah Storr, the commissioner leading on culture, media and sport issues, with Subnum Hariff-Khan (from Oldham Libraries). We are hoping to secure a specific session on the contribution that libraries make to social mobility in its future programme.

DCMS is embarking on work to develop a youth offer across the country, and the Libraries Team is represented on the departmental working group that is working on options for this, and have also been contributing via a working group looking at civic infrastructure to support effective work with young people. It is also contributing to DCMS thinking on combating social isolation.

The Libraries Team is also actively promoting the role that public libraries can and do play in place making, at the heart of local communities. We are active members of the departmental group leading on place initiatives and thinking, and the team inputs views on documents such as the prospectus for Towns Funding.

We are also members of the working group that has started to look at the nationwide Festival to be held in 2022.

Healthier and happier lives

The National Academy for Social Prescribing was launched in October by the Health and Social Care Secretary. DCMS and Arts Council England have contributed to the development of this work, including highlighting library-based social prescribing activities

Public Lending Right

DCMS funds the Public Lending Right (PLR) and the DCMS Libraries Team supports The British Library in its administration of the scheme, ensuring the relevant parliamentary and statutory processes are followed. Following the British Library’s recommendation to increase the PLR rate per loan, the Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism agreed to consult on the recommendation. The consultation was published on Monday 4 November 2019 and closed on Friday 29 November 2019. The team worked to complete the process early in 2020 to enable The British Library to make payments to authors in February 2020. This was the first payment made to authors since e-materials were included in the PLR scheme in 2018.

4.2 Providing library services and potential partners with easy access to evidence and data to inform their decision-making

The ability of library services to advocate effectively to relevant stakeholders and make strategic decisions to improve services needs a strong evidence base. The Taskforce’s Action Plan set goals to achieve a shared approach to data gathering, to maintain and develop the existing research database, to encourage funders to fund further research work and to ensure library staff had an awareness of and ability to use the existing resources.

CIPFA Comparative profiles

For the eighth consecutive year, DCMS provided funding to enable CIPFA to make comparative profile reports publicly available. The reports compared data from 2018 to 2019 for those councils that returned data (111 of the 151 library authorities in England). They are intended to support evidence-based decision making and to help library services see how their reported service performance and costs compare with their peers.

Libraries dataset

DCMS published basic data on libraries across England (as at 1 July 2016) on 30 March 2017. Since then, this dataset has been expanded to include more information on the libraries listed.

Work is underway to update the dataset so it is correct as of 31 December 2019. This information will be published on Arts Council England’s website later in 2020.

Open Data

The Ambition Action Plan Action 2 made a commitment to define and publish a core data set, creating a transparent and automated (where possible) process to gather and share it. The Libraries Taskforce published a draft core dataset for consideration in 2017 and sponsored the Voyage of the Data Treader workshops in November 2017 and March 2019 which explored the potential for libraries to adopt an Open Data approach.

In summer 2019, the DCMS Libraries Team rebooted this work on behalf of the Taskforce, holding a workshop with Taskforce members, front-line library practitioners and data experts to reflect on what had already been achieved and what the next steps should be.
Off the back of the work and debate that went on there we moved forward with Dave Rowe (Libraries Hacked), Aude Charillon (Newcastle) and Claire Back (Plymouth) volunteering to develop a draft schema and definitions using sample outputs from Newcastle and Plymouth. A wider group of library services (Barnet, Bristol, Buckinghamshire, Cambridgeshire, Devon, Kent, Lancashire, Stockport and Surrey) stepped up to test this during January 2020; trying out the schemas, working through them, asking questions and helping to refine the development.

Our next steps will be to draw up guidance and run workshops across the country to raise awareness of the new schema and encourage its use and iteration.

In March the team presented the work to heads of service at the Libraries Connected Advisory Committee and the Information and Digital Offer group. At both the schema was well received. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has interrupted progress, but we hope to pick up the next phase of work later in 2020. This period has shown that consistent, reliable data is more important than ever.

4.3 Providing clearly signposted, step by step guidance and peer support

National support through toolkits and guidance, as well as the example set by library services that continue to excel in challenging circumstances, are crucial in helping libraries improve. The Taskforce aimed to ensure that good practice is shared with the sector, that practical guidance was readily available and that library services were aware of this and supported in the use of the available toolkits and resources.

Toolkits and guidance

The Taskforce toolkits and guidance are currently available on GOV.UK and include:

• Libraries Shaping the Future: good practice toolkit and case studies

• Community Libraries: good practice toolkit and case studies

• Libraries: Alternative Delivery Models

• Longer-term evidence-based, sustainable planning

• Benchmarking Framework for public libraries

• Makerspaces and Libraries

Libraries Connected Support Offer

On 5 September 2019, Libraries Connected released a business case for investment which outlined how the regional library structures might be better supported with expertise, support and advice.

The Libraries Taskforce allocated funding of £50,000 and Arts Council England allocated staffing resource to pilot 2 aspects of regional support:

• development support for Libraries Connected’s regional networks

• external consultancy support to help with specific issues within library services

The network development strand of the pilot programme will support:

• The North East and Yorkshire and Humber regions, to develop their governance models, enabling them to operate more efficiently and collaboratively with consistent policies and procedures

• The North West and Eastern regions, to develop their strategic planning to move to the next stage of collaboration.

• The London region, to help it progress plans for a collaborative project which will support homeless and vulnerably housed people with information, advice, signposting and support

In December 2019, Libraries Connected consulted library leaders to find out which priority areas would be most useful for library services to receive help with as part of an ‘Expert Bank’ of external consultancy support.

The 3 priorities identified in the survey were:

• Advocacy and evidence

• Transformation: service review and design

• Transformation: partnerships

Three services were successful with their applications and the expert bank pilot strand will support:

• Leicestershire, to strengthen its ability to evidence the contribution of the library service within the Council and with partners

• Haringey, to develop new forms of service integration and partnership working

• Worcestershire, to help refine a communication and engagement plan for its libraries transformation programme

The pilot projects were due to be evaluated in Summer 2020 but this has now been delayed until later in the year due to the impact of Covid-19.

Arts in Libraries Network Events

Between October and November 2019 St Helens Council, in partnership with Arts Council England, delivered 3 events offering practical advice and support in applying to Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants programme.

Also supported by Libraries Taskforce colleagues, the sessions featured contributions from various teams at Arts Council England as well as case studies from library services (Oldham, Barnsley, and South Tyneside) which have bid successfully for grants.

42 library staff attended the sessions, with all attendees that provided feedback (29/42) finding the session either ‘good’ or ‘excellent’.

LGA peer reviews

The LGA, in partnership with Arts Council England, delivered seven library service peer challenges and three culture peer challenges in 2019/20, with one being postponed as a result of Covid-19 (to be delivered when possible). The LGA’s standard corporate peer challenge has been adapted to meet the specific needs of library services, helping them to evaluate performance, innovate, and think about the future of their service.

Peer challenges are an improvement tool that offer expert, neutral review and advice, providing constructive analysis of the service and helping to identify further opportunities for innovation. Each challenge is tailored around a service’s specific needs. The sector led peer team is made up of a peer challenge manager, a councillor and a peer officer from the sector. Members of the Taskforce team and Arts Council England also attended some of the challenges which were a valuable opportunity to develop a better understanding of local government and how best to support it.

A follow up survey was undertaken by LGA and, although the results have not been published, the initial feedback suggests that the programme has had a positive impact and been well received by participating authorities. In addition, many of the senior staff at participating councils went on to become peer officers for other LGA challenges. Arts Council England and the LGA have agreed to continue with this programme to support the sector over the next 2 years.

4.4 Helping the sector (paid staff and volunteers) obtain the insights, skills and support it needs for the future

To transform public library services across England, the talent and creativity of the people who work in them - both library staff and volunteers - needs to be harnessed. There is also a 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 were identified in Libraries Deliver: Ambition, and deliver them successfully.

Public Libraries Skills Strategy refresh

The Public Libraries Skills Strategy aims to guide the development of information and library skills, knowledge and qualifications in the public library sector in England between now and 2030. The Libraries Taskforce provided funding to revisit the strategy. A programme board with representatives from Libraries Connected, CILIP, Arts Council England and the Libraries Taskforce was established in August 2019 to take forward the recommendations in the [report].

Between January and March 2020 3 seminars were delivered in Manchester, London and Birmingham to help library services understand how they might best embed the Library, information and archive services assistant apprenticeship standard into their library services. 60 library staff members attended across the 3 sessions which were led by Julie Bell from Lancashire Library Service and included practical guidance on how library services could recruit and train apprentices.

The programme board also facilitated the delivery of a seminar at Libraries Connected AGM in December 2019 on CILIP’s Ethical Framework and on importance of ethics in guiding decision-making on a daily basis in service delivery.

4.5 Partnership and sector activity

Individual Taskforce members and other organisations in the sector have also been undertaking work that, while not directly related to Taskforce’s Action Plan, still contributes to the Ambition document’s strategic aims (see Annex B).

Libraries and Rural Touring Arts

The National Rural Touring Forum (NRTF) received funding from Arts Council England to explore the challenges and opportunities of touring live arts to library settings. The NRTF will create resources and developmental activities, including bursaries and an artistic investment pot to encourage librarians in programming performance in library spaces.

Although the project has been delayed due to Covid-19, work has still continued to lay the foundations for when libraries re-open. The project team from NRTF have been making contact with interested partners, developing case studies of successful libraries rural tours, as well as planning for NRTF’s conference.

This year’s conference will run every Tuesday in October 2020 with Tuesday 13 October dedicated to the topic of Libraries and Rural Touring. The conference will offer inspiring talks, industry lead panel discussions, networking and performances and provide opportunities for attendees to develop professionally and build new partnerships.

Keeping Performance Live

South Western Regional Library Services CIO (SWRLS), with funding support from Arts Council England, hosted a national seminar on performing arts collections provision, Keeping Performance Live, on 23 October 2019. 30 people, representing 23 organisations, attended for the day-long seminar which included extended breakout sessions. A report detailing the discussions, feedback and recommendations, was produced and published to share learning across the sector.

Leading Libraries

In August 2019, Libraries Connected received funding from Arts Council England’s Transforming Leadership Fund for a 30-month leadership development programme for public libraries.

After a competitive tendering process in January 2020 Libraries Connected announced that the Birmingham Leadership Institute had been awarded the contract to deliver the programme to 15 library services. Over the programme’s lifetime, for each participant library service, the Birmingham Leadership Institute will;

• Provide training and mentoring development for their heads of service

• Identify one emerging leader from each library service to receive training and to initiate, deliver and evaluate their own leadership-focused project for their service, which has local, regional or national impact

• Select 2 workers in each of the 15 library services to receive mentoring from the emerging leaders as well as training

• Develop an online course so libraries across the UK can access leadership development resources

Accreditation

In October 2019, Libraries Connected was given a grant of £128,456 by Arts Council England to define what a high-quality library service looks like. Libraries Connected is working closely with CILIP and Arts Council England to develop and deliver an authoritative, sector-led scheme to help libraries in England to meet the needs of their local communities.

The scoping of a voluntary sector-led accreditation scheme was one of the original actions set out in the Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016- 2021. Libraries Connected and CILIP’s recent publication, Blueprint for Public Libraries, also identified accreditation as one of the core strands of work that could lead to long-term, co-ordinated improvements in the structural support for the sector.

Libraries Connected will work with the libraries sector, local government and Arts Council England to develop a fit for purpose framework that has the support of all partners. Project planning is underway, with a strong focus on developing a coherent engagement strategy for different stakeholder groups, including public library Heads of Service and staff, the public, library lead bodies such as CILIP and the LGA, DCMS, local government and potential funders such as Arts Council England and Carnegie UK.

Future Funding programme

Libraries Connected has also been given £150,000 funding from Arts Council England for a 2 year project to build commercial skills within library services. The Future Funding project is tailored for libraries as they need to balance commercial targets with their statutory responsibilities, professional ethics of inclusion and equality, and their fundamental purpose of providing an accessible community service.

The programme will deliver in-depth training and mentoring to over 25% of library services in England on topics such as contract management, cost modelling, market analysis, risk management and marketing.

Novels that shape the world

Libraries Connected is working with libraries and with BBC Arts to deliver a programme of innovative activities for all communities to celebrate 300 years of the English language novel, with a focus on engaging people with the enjoyment of reading. The programme started in October 2019 and will last for a year.

Libraries Connected is supporting 39 library services to participate and commissioned artists, creatives and local partners to curate a series of events tailored to appeal to marginalised groups, including refugees, young people at risk of knife crime, prisoners and adults with dementia. The programme is funded by Arts Council England and is a large scale partnership between The British Library, The Reading Agency (TRA), the Booksellers Association, CILIP and the Publishers’ Association and is supported by the BBC’s local radio stations. The programme includes:

• An extensive series of arts and cultural events across running from October 2019 to October 2020 led by public libraries as part of The Novels That Shaped Our World festival culminating with a special celebration in National Libraries Week 2020

• Digital resources for reading groups and libraries created by TRA and BBC Arts

• Digital training for library staff which will leave a legacy of digital resources, skills and new partnerships for libraries.

To launch the festival, in November 2019 members of a BBC-assembled panel discussed their list of 100 novels that have shaped their world in a live broadcast beamed into libraries across the UK from the British Library. The full list of 100 novels is being made available in libraries and the titles can be found on the BBC website.

Libraries Week

Between 7-12 October 2019, CILIP orchestrated Libraries Week, with a theme of ‘Libraries in a Digital World’. More than 1000 libraries took part with a series of events that included:

• The launch of Simon & Schuster Children’s UK ‘LOVE YOUR LIBRARY’ – a campaign in partnership with Peters featuring an exhibition of original artwork from 12 of the publisher’s illustrators at the Victoria and Albert museum in the National Art Library

• The World of Possibilities Festival with late-night openings, film screenings and interactive digital storytelling sessions in all 325 public libraries across London.

• Bobby Seagull, author and ambassador for children’s education, announcing the winner of the LEGO ‘Build the Library of the Future’ competition.

Taskforce partners joined forces throughout the week to ensure maximum coverage of the week’s activities, with TRA also marking the week by creating a toolkit containing ideas for Reading Well displays, events and online and social media activity and information on Public Health England’s Every Mind Matters campaign.

During Libraries Week, Helen Whateley, the then Libraries Minister, published a blog about her interest in libraries; and she visited 3 libraries - Maidstone in Kent, Willesden Green run by Brent council and the British Library. British Library was also visited by Nicky Morgan (Secretary of State) and Matt Warman (Minister for Digital). Baroness Barran, the DCMS Lords Minister who leads on civil society work, visited Suffolk Libraries, which was celebrating its seventh year as a public service mutual.

The DCMS Libraries Team also arranged visits by Lord Gardiner (Defra minister leading on rural services) to a Buckinghamshire library co-located with other community services; and by Carl Creswell, Director, Professional Business Services, Retail and Post at BEIS, to the colocated library and Post Office at Crayford in Bexley. These visits have led to renewed interest from those departments in public libraries and we are holding some follow -up discussions with their policy teams.

Also during Libraries Week, the DCMS team visited Leamington Spa (to mark the opening of a 3rd makerspace, building off the success of the existing makerspaces in Rugby and Nuneaton that were funded by the DCMS-backed and Arts Council England managed Libraries: Opportunities for Everyone innovation fund); Church Street and Pimlico in Westminster; South Clapham library (Lambeth); and Canada Water in Southwark.

Working Internationally

In November, CILIP announced the Building Bridges Grant Programme which is part of the wider Working Internationally programme delivered in partnership with Libraries Connected. Three grants of up to £20,000 were made available to public libraries in England seeking to develop and evaluate international collaborative projects and to document the resulting insights and lessons learned.

Ten public library services from all over England applied and the 4 winners were selected by a jury consisting of members from Arts Council England, Public Libraries 2030, and CILIP’s International Libraries and Information Professionals group. They were:

• Vision RCL

• Oldham Libraries

• Barnet Libraries

• Oxfordshire County Libraries

Public Libraries: The Case for Support

At a parliamentary event in October, CILIP and The Big Issue released their new report, Public Libraries: a Case for Support which brings together currently-available evidence of the positive impact of libraries on their users, communities, locality and local economy.

The report drew on research and evidence from the British Library, Carnegie UK Trust, CIPFA and others to highlight the transformative impact of public libraries on:

• Place-shaping and inclusive economic growth

• Education, informal learning and skills

• Health, wellbeing and social care

• Digital skills and getting online

• Enterprise and business support

• Poverty prevention, social mobility and social isolation

The report was further strengthened by personal statements from public library users about the transformative impact of libraries, books and reading on their lives, using the Twitter hashtag #WhyBooksMatter.

Reading Well for Children

The Reading Agency (TRA), a national portfolio organisation with Arts Council England, launched its new Reading Well for children booklist on 3 February 2020, the first day of Children’s Mental Health Week 2020. The list was created in response to concerning data about children’s mental health in the UK.

Recognised by leading health bodies including the Royal Society for Public Health, the 33 books on the list, by authors including Michael Rosen, Tom Percival, Zanib Mian and Joseph Coelho, were selected to help Key Stage 2 children (aged 7-11) understand and talk about their mental health and wellbeing.

Science and reading

In January 2020, TRA was granted £289,411 from Arts Council England’s National Lottery Project Grants to fund a ground-breaking new STREAM (Science, Technology, Reading, Engineering, Arts and Maths) project. The project also benefits from £50,000 in funding from the Science, Technology and Facilities Council While the project is on hold currently due to Covid-19, when it resumes it will be rolled out over 10 library sites around the country and will enable children aged 4-11 and their families to discover science and do more reading through STREAM activities.

Summer reading challenge and evaluation

TRA ran its 2019 Summer Reading Challenge (SRC) on the theme of Space Chase. 722,731 children took part, representing a 2.3% increase from the previous year. The [full booklist for the 2020 challenge was revealed in January](https://readingagency.org.uk/children/news/silly-squad-book-collection.html. The theme will be ‘Silly Squad’ with a focus on funny books, happiness and laughter accompanied by bespoke artwork from author and illustrator Laura Ellen Anderson. Although the challenge will not be able to run in its traditional format due to Covid-19, the challenge will still go ahead in a newly designed digital format. Arts Council England, with the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) and Libraries Connected, commissioned an impact evaluation of the SRC to be conducted in late 2020 (although this has been delayed due to Covid19).

Engaging Libraries Phase 2

On 20 November 2019 Carnegie UK announced 14 projects and 16 library services that would benefit from phase 2 of their Engaging Libraries programme. The fund is a partnership between Carnegie UK, The Wellcome Trust and The Wolfson Foundation and facilitates partnerships between public libraries and universities to engage people with research on various topics including climate change, children’s literacy, culture and identity.

Start-ups in London Libraries

The British Library’s Start-ups in London Libraries. ‘hub and spoke’ project is in its second year and is being delivered across 10 London boroughs: Bexley, Croydon, Greenwich, Haringey, Lambeth, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark, Tower Hamlets and Waltham Forest. Over 1,100 aspiring entrepreneurs and early stage businesses have benefited from the business support services provided on their doorstep and, while the proportion of women taking part is the same as the BIPC in St Pancras at 63%, the number of people from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background has increased to 64% demonstrating significant latent demand in the borough communities.

Outcomes are focused upon helping local residents explore opportunities to improve their employability prospects and income through entrepreneurship, as well as supporting existing early stage businesses to grow and create jobs. The project is a pilot for a long-term ambition to deliver business support in high streets in London and across the country and is supported by the European Regional Development Fund, the ten London Boroughs, Arts Council England and JP Morgan.

Business & IP Centre National Network

BIPCs supports aspiring entrepreneurs and small business owners through access to information, training, mentoring, networks and expertise from local business partners. The network comprises 14 city libraries across the UK, including London, with a further 2 in pilot. Some library authorities are deploying a ‘hub and spoke’ model to reach towns and rural and coastal communities within their local area.

The 2019 economic impact evaluation report ‘Democratising Entrepreneurship’ showed that over 3 years, the network helped to create over 12,200 new businesses and almost 8,000 new jobs generating £78m GVA for the economy and a payback of £6.95 for every £1 of public money invested. Of the new business owners, over half (55%) were women, over a third were from a black, Asian and minority ethnic background and 17% had a disability. 47% of the new businesses were created within the Northern Powerhouse. The evaluation demonstrated that the network is supporting the government’s priorities of levelling up and inclusive growth. Further, 9 in 10 businesses which were started with the libraries’ help between 2012 and 2018 were still trading in 2019.

This robust evaluation, funded by Arts Council England, helped DCMS Libraries Team secure £13m from the Government at Budget in March 2020 to expand the BIPC network to reach 20 hubs outside London by 2023 and accelerate the roll out of the spoke model across the network.

The Living Knowledge Network

The LKN, led by The British Library and supported by Arts Council England, has now been operating for a year after a successful pilot phase. Since its launch in April 2019, the network has successfully increased its number of public library partners from 21 to 25 in line with its planned growth model. The LKN focusses on exchanging knowledge and developing memorable experiences for public library users. Particular highlights include:

UK-wide exhibitions:

Over 700,000 people attended the UK-wide pop-up Writing exhibition which opened simultaneously with the British Library exhibition in London in April 2019. The Writing exhibition proved popular with visitors to libraries across the UK, with about 1 in 5 visitors to the exhibition going to their library specifically to see it. Enjoyment was high with audiences most likely to regard the exhibitions as ‘informative’ and ‘interesting’. The evaluation showed that the exhibition increased the appetite of people to visit exhibitions in libraries in the future and made visitors think more positively about exhibitions in libraries. After a postponement due to Covid-19, another UK wide exhibition will open in libraries later in the year aligning with the British Library’s ‘Unfinished Business’ exhibition which focuses on the fight for women’s rights and gender equality.

Live screenings:

The LKN received £50,000 in June 2019 from Arts Council England to develop its live screening work. Through live screening cultural events into libraries, the aim was to promote libraries as cultural centres and for cultural experiences to reach new audiences. Since November 2019, over 1000 people across the UK have attended the 7 live screenings which have been broadcast to local libraries in partnership with BBC, Libraries Unlimited, TRA, The Inclusive Mosque, and the Royal Society of Literature. The livestream Jane Eyre: Gothic Rebel in January 2020 reached at least 229 people. Across these events, there has been a high satisfaction rate (98% of surveyed people will visit their library for events again).

China forum

In March 2019 the first UK China Forum, developed by the National Library of China, Library Society of China and the British Library, took place in Chengdu. A reciprocal Forum was being planned for August 2020, building on those strong relationships to further enhance mutual learning and knowledge exchange in international library communities. This has been postponed due to Covid-19.

Skills Sharing:

In addition to the British Library in-person skills sharing events they programme 5 annually), webinars have been developed to complement these skills sharing days and make knowledge exchange more accessible. Seven have been run so far across the Network including: * Social Media for Libraries on 21 November 2019 (47 attendees) * Curator Talk ahead of Unfinished Business Exhibition on 14 February 2020 (23 attendees plus 22 recorded views) * Marketing and Press Ahead of Unfinished Business Exhibition on 21 February 2020 (11 attendees plus 6 recorded views) * Working Well Remotely – A response to lockdown on 27 March 2020 (83 attendees plus 626 recorded views)

Single Digital Presence

In May 2019, the British Library’s Single Digital Presence team published ‘Digital Transformation for UK Public Libraries: five approaches to a single digital presence’. This was the product of extensive research, both desk based and through talking with public library staff, users and its supporters. The report identified 5 potential areas where digital could help transform the United Kingdom’s public libraries:

• deep shared infrastructure;

• UK wide content discovery;

• unified digital lending;

• safe social space;

• one library brand.

Since the publication of the report, the British Library has been refining its vision for the digital transformation of public libraries. It has conducted more user research with the help of civil service digital interns and has also worked with technical partners to gain a better understanding of what was technologically possible. The British Library presented a vision for a refined ‘minimal viable product’ to library stakeholders in February 2020 and subsequently tested this with library staff and library users. Between July 2020 and April 2021, the British Library will undertake a second period of technical consultancy to build indicative models and technical prototypes in support of this vision.

At that point the project will aim to deliver a portfolio of evidence in support of the delivery of the single digital presence, evidenced through in-depth and extensive user research, technical prototypes and alpha models, a vision and thought-piece on the feasibility of a UK library brand framework. This will enable the presentation of indicative costings and potential delivery models.

The Single Digital Presence has been funded and supported by Arts Council England and Carnegie Trust UK.

4.6 Our reporting

As the Libraries Taskforce came to an end as a body on 31 March 2020, this is the final progress report presented to DCMS Ministers and to the LGA’s Culture, Tourism and Sport Board and published on GOV.UK.

An additional report detailing the impact of the Libraries Taskforce over its lifetime will be released later in the year.

Minutes of all Taskforce meetings are published on GOV.UK - links to those which took place during this reporting period are listed in Annex A.

5. Annex A: Information on the taskforce

Background and structure

Information on the background and structure of the Taskforce is set out on GOV.UK. Our Terms of Reference were last reviewed in February 2019. The Taskforce reports to the DCMS Libraries Minister, and to the LGA Culture, Sport and Tourism Board. Helen Whateley MP served as minister with responsibility for libraries (in her capacity as Minister for Arts, Heritage and Tourism) from September 2019 to 13 February 2020, when Caroline Dineage MP succeeded her (in her capacity as Minister of State for Digital and Culture). Both have been strong supporters of public libraries. Cllr Gerald Vernon-Jackson chairs the LGA Culture, Tourism and Sport Board.

The Taskforce adopted an action plan to March 2020, which was published on 7 March 2018. This set the goals for 2018, 2019 and 2020, and the potential direction of travel after March 2020. After consultation with Taskforce partners at the 22nd Taskforce meeting in December 2018, a new set of action points were outlined which set the goals for the period up to March 2020. The new action plan was agreed at the 23rd Taskforce meeting in March 2019.

Taskforce meetings

Over the period covered by this progress report, the Taskforce held the following meetings: The British Library – 12 December 2019 A meeting scheduled for 18 March 2020 at the LGA offices was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Taskforce membership changes

In July 2019, Sue Wilkinson retired from her role as Chief Executive of TRA and was replaced by Karen Napier. In December 2019, Councillor Tom Hollis joined the Taskforce replacing Councillor Matthew Lee. The Taskforce would like to put on record its appreciation to Sue and Matthew for their contributions.

Funding for the Taskforce

DCMS provided £250,000 funding for 2015 to 2016 to set up and support the Taskforce. Continued funding of £500,000 per year to March 2020 was confirmed as part of the Government Spending Review on 25 November 2015. This covered the costs of the core staff and Taskforce administrative costs (such as Taskforce publications and the workshops, sector forums and events the Taskforce ran). The Taskforce identified other funding and resources to support delivery of its main priorities.

Taskforce staff

Since the transition to Arts Council England in December 2018, the dedicated Taskforce team consisted of 4 staff: Senior Project Manager, Communications Manager (three days a week), Governance and Business Support Officer and Regional Development Officer.

In addition, DCMS has retained 2 posts to support library policy and advocacy work within government; Head of Libraries Strategy and Delivery and Libraries Project Lead.

6. Annex B: Libraries Deliver: Ambition for public libraries in England 2016 to 2021

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 the knowledge of Taskforce members, information gained from visits to libraries, meetings with library staff and stakeholders, and previous reports such as the Independent Library Report for England and Envisioning the Library of the Future. We also consulted widely through an online questionnaire and a wide range of events run throughout England.

What the document covers

We published a document on 1 December 2016, which is endorsed and supported by central government and the LGA (on behalf of local government), and 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

• Objectives around the future health, well-being, strength, happiness and prosperity of local people and communities

• How libraries can innovate and adapt to meet the changing needs of users and communities

• 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