Corporate report

Twenty-fifth meeting of the Libraries Taskforce

Published 11 October 2019

Date: Wednesday 11 September 2019, 13:00 to 14:30

Location: The Curve, William Street, Slough SL1 1XY

Attendees

• Prof. Steven Broomhead (Chair) - Chief Executive, Warrington Borough Council
• Sheila Bennett - Head of Libraries Strategy & Delivery, Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
• Diana Gerald - Chief Executive, Book Trust
• Jenny Harland - Libraries Project Lead, DCMS
• Nicola Haymes - Adviser, Culture and Sport Improvement, Local Government Association (LGA)
• Debbie Hicks - Interim CEO, The Reading Agency
• Isobel Hunter - Chief Executive, Libraries Connected (LC)
• Paul Martin - Chief Executive, London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Wandsworth
• Nick Poole - Chief Executive, CILIP, The UK library and information association
• Peter Rippon - Executive Editor, Archive, BBC
• Iain Varah - Chief Executive, Vision Redbridge Culture and Leisure, and member of the Chief Cultural Officers and Leisure Association
• Liz White - Head of Strategy Development, British Library
• Sue Williamson - Director, Libraries and Birmingham, Arts Council England (ACE)
• Jenna Birley - Governance and Business Support Officer, Libraries Taskforce, ACE (minutes)
• Fiona Davidson - Communications Manager, Libraries Taskforce, ACE
• Sean Kelly - Regional Development Officer, Libraries Taskforce, ACE
• Sophie Lancaster - Senior Manager, Libraries Taskforce, ACE
• Leah Mason - Business Administrator Apprentice, Libraries Taskforce, ACE

Apologies

• Dr. Neil Churchill - Director, Participation and Experience, NHS England
• Katherine Fairclough - Chief Executive, Cumbria County Council
• Mark Freeman - Libraries & Information Services Manager, Stockton Borough Council, and President, Libraries Connected
• Roly Keating - Chief Executive, British Library
• Cllr. Matthew Lee - LGA: Culture, Tourism and Sport Board
• Ian Leete - Senior Adviser, Culture, Tourism and Sport Board, LGA
• Clare Perkins - Director of the Knowledge and Intelligence Team, Public Health England (PHE)

1. Welcome and introductions

Professor Steven Broomhead welcomed everyone to the meeting and apologies were noted.

The Taskforce welcomed Debbie Hicks, acting in her capacity as interim Chief Executive of The Reading Agency, Nicola Haymes representing the Local Government Association (LGA), and Leah Mason, the Libraries Taskforce Business Apprentice at ACE, to the meeting.

The Taskforce members wished to note their thanks to the team at The Curve, Slough, who had provided an insightful update into the results of their recent peer review challenge, and given a comprehensive overview of the library provision in the area.

2. Library support project updates

Several members of the Taskforce presented updates on the various projects designed to support England’s public library service, agreed in the Taskforce Action plan.

Open data

DCMS hosted an open data workshop on 5 August with relevant Taskforce partners, alongside library service practitioners and data experts. Participants reflected on the national context and heard about open data in practice at a local level before reviewing the draft core dataset schema. It was decided that a ‘straw man’ technical schema would be developed which could then be tested by a number of councils. This work was being taken forward by Libraries Hacked and by Newcastle and Plymouth library services.

Public Lending Right (PLR)

In February 2019, the PLR (administered by the British Library) distributed £6 million to 22,314 authors, bringing the total awarded to authors to over £150 million since the first payment in 1979.

Single Digital Presence

Following the publication of the Digital Transformations for UK Public Libraries report in June 2019, the British Library had convened workshops in Leeds, Exeter, Cambridge, Edinburgh and London to develop ideas and has contracted Projects by If to develop illustrative models. The team continues to research funding and business models and will present these to funders, together with recommendations regarding governance, in September 2019.

Business and IP Centre Network

Figures released in July 2019 showed that the network helped create 12,288 new businesses and 7,843 additional jobs between January 2016 and December 2018, representing a return on investment of £6.95 for every £1 of public money spent.

In May 2019, the British Library announced that free support for entrepreneurs would be offered in 60 public libraries in London (as part of a 3 year pilot run by the European Regional Development Fund) and in April the British Library, National Library of Scotland and Glasgow’s Mitchell Library opened Scotland’s first Business & IP Centre.

Living Knowledge Network (LKN)

LKN successfully moved out of pilot stage in April 2019, with 22 major public libraries across the UK, plus the National Library of Scotland and the National Library of Wales. A further 3 members had joined since then, with more in the pipeline for future years.

Research

Representatives from the Taskforce and Research teams at Arts Council England and DCMS have met and agreed the focus for a research paper. It will look at the three strands of library sector activity;

• health and wellbeing
• digital skills and employability
• literacy and reader development

Taskforce team members and the ACE research team are currently working on the new strategy with the intention of presenting a paper at the next Taskforce meeting in December.

Peer challenges

The LGA, in partnership with ACE, ran 9 library peer challenges and 3 cultural services peer challenges between March and July 2019.

Each challenge was tailored to the specific needs of the councils visited. The challenges looked at a range of themes. These included:

• options for different delivery models such as community managed libraries and trusts
• the role of volunteers in libraries
• commercial opportunities and increased partnership working
• strategic planning and visions for the future
• how to make the most out of library assets; and
• workforce development and skills in the library sector

The feedback from the challenges has been extremely positive with many of the senior staff at participating councils going on to become peer officers for other LGA challenges. The LGA has announced that a further round of both library and culture peer challenges will take place between September 2019 and March 2020.

Universal Offers (UO)

The Universal Offers review has been completed and the report published by LC

The refreshed Universal Library Offers demonstrate work that every public library service does to enrich the lives of individuals and their communities. The 4 revised offers are:

• reading
• digital and information
• culture and creativity
• health and wellbeing

The 4 offers were announced after an 8 month independent review, carried out by Shared Intelligence. This had involved extensive discussion with heads of service, library staff, funders and other important stakeholders.

The review had also been also a timely opportunity for the library sector to discuss the unique impact it made on people’s lives and confirmed that reading remains at the core of all libraries’ work.

Accreditation

LC had developed a proposal for consulting on and scoping some form of accreditation for English public libraries that can work as a service improvement tool and support compliance with the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. It was in discussion with ACE about funding the consultation and scoping over the next 18 months. The work was one of the 7 proposals within the Libraries Blueprint.

Peer networks

LC continued to host the Innovation Network, which now had over 500 members sharing innovative ideas and good practice. It was also establishing a Heads of Service network, using a similar model of online exchange.

Collections

LC was hosting a sector roundtable on 23 September to discuss rare and special collections in public libraries. The roundtable would identify risks and opportunities to help establish a joint action plan.

Commercial activities

LC had appointed a commercial director in June, to develop its existing national commercial project (Front End Services for visa applicants).

LC was using insights from its live commercial projects to scope a capacity building programme for libraries. This will develop commercial skills, and also establish a firm national network for the delivery of commercial and commissioned work.

Reader development

LC had submitted a major bid to ACE for a reader development programme in partnership with the BBC. This would use the BBC’s celebrations of 400 years of the English novel as a starting point for library events and activities to encourage more people to read, enjoy reading and to read more widely.

BFI Player

LC was continuing to work with the British Film Institute (BFI) to develop a bespoke version of BFI-player to provide library users with access to BFI archive content. The project involves technical development of the interface, an enormous programme of rights clearance and content curation and plans for proactive audience engagement campaigns, where library staff would be supported to develop relevant skills.

Regional support

LC had completed work to scope a regional support offer for libraries, to complement the support offered nationally by the family of library leadership bodies (this work was funded by ACE). ACE and Taskforce funding will allow them to take forward phase 2 of the project to develop the LC regional networks’ capacity and to pilot support for individual services. This was one of the seven proposals within Libraries Blueprint.

Public Libraries Skills Strategy

A programme board had been established, chaired by LC President Elect, Carol Stump. The Board will drive the partnership work of LC and CILIP to deliver the strategy. The focus this year was on consolidating work in the existing programme plan, especially with the new library apprenticeship standard, professional ethics and library leadership (through the short leadership course and mentoring managed by LC).

Running parallel to this was the £342,000 LC had been awarded from the ACE Transforming Leadership Programme to deliver an innovative leadership development programme for 15 library services, focused on development of more diverse future leadership. Leadership and workforce development was one of the seven proposals within Libraries Blueprint.

EveryLibrary

CILIP was working with The EveryLibrary Institute to implement a programme of public library advocacy based on 3 elements:

• the development of a database of library supporters who have opted-in to receive news and updates about library sector development and opportunities to support libraries
• the development of an advocacy and fundraising platform to support libraries
• training and development support for public library leaders and staff in how to develop positive relationships with local stakeholders, officers and elected members

The scoping phase was complete and the project was moving ahead with implementation. It was launched at the CILIP conference in Manchester on 3 and 4 July 2019. ‘Libraries Deliver’ was being used as the identity for this programme. This picked up on the title of the Ambition for Public Libraries strategy document and the outcomes framework it provided.

Libraries Week

Coordinated by CILIP with support from Taskforce members, Libraries Week was a week-long campaign to raise awareness of and engagement with the transformative work of public libraries and their staff. Libraries Week 2019 would focus on ‘celebrating libraries in a digital age’ and activities would include:

• a UK-wide competition to build the ‘Library of the Future’ out of LEGO, with the prize-winning entry being chosen by TV celebrity and educator Bobby Seagull
• extending the BBC VR programme to engage library users through immersive VR experiences in the library
• individual digital and makerspace activities in all types of library

Working internationally

This was a 2 year programme supported by ACE, promoting relevant, accessible and valuable international collaboration for public libraries in England. The project would provide a platform to promote and celebrate successful international projects through parliamentary engagement activities and advocacy establishing a Working Internationally for Libraries conference establishing a grant programme. CILIP was working on five international partnerships, a crucial one being town (library) twinning.

Libraries, Information and Knowledge Change Lives

In September, CILIP would be launching a new position paper called Libraries, Information and Knowledge Change Lives, detailing how it would support librarians in addressing 6 sets of priorities:

1. equality and equity for marginalised groups
2. equality of opportunity for all, irrespective of class or socio-economic status
3. overcoming the debilitating impact of poverty
4. opposing prejudice, conscious and unconscious bias, discrimination and hate speech
5. supporting members to rebalance structural inequality in collections and services
6. addressing climate change

These commitments would come with a set of actions and projects, including the launch of new networks for LGBTQ+ Librarians and Information Professionals, a new Disability Network for the sector and a new Network for Women in the Library, Information and Knowledge Profession. These sit alongside CILIPs new BAME Information Professional Group.

PrivacyAware

CILIP was working on a new project called Privacy Aware, which builds on the resources commissioned by the Carnegie UK Trust relating to data privacy (by Aude Charillon). The new service was intended to provide training and support for library staff in understanding and engaging with their users’ right to privacy and to provide a self-assessment framework for library services to badge themselves as PrivacyAware.

AI and Machine Learning for libraries

Working in partnership with Dr Stephane Hollander of the Swiss Library Association, CILIP was developing training support and resources for librarians wishing to develop their knowledge and understanding of AI and machine learning and how these technologies will impact service users. It was due to launch in November 2019.

The Taskforce noted the project updates.

3. Libraries Blueprint update

Isobel Hunter and Nick Poole provided the Taskforce with an update on their Blueprint work and asked for a steer on next steps.

Isobel discussed the findings of the Blueprint report, and the Taskforce noted the importance of local government partnerships in the ongoing sustainability of public libraries. It also noted the potential to focus on partnerships with those who wished to see a revival of civic pride.

Among other recommendations, the report set out 3 priorities:

• introduce a nationally coordinated programme of data collection and evaluation
• coordinate and fund national programmes in areas such as reader development or digital training
• help local authorities to explore new ways to manage and deliver their library service and develop new models for funding

The Taskforce noted the Blueprint update and the need for further discussion on how to take the recommendations in the report forward beyond March 2020.

4. Communications update

Fiona Davidson provided a verbal update on the Communications Plan agreed by the Taskforce at its meeting in March 2019.

The Taskforce thanked Fiona for this, particularly the work she had done to engage library advocates to promote the sector.

5. Six month report

Jenna Birley asked the Taskforce to review and suggest amendments to the six-month progress report, prior to its publication on GOV.UK.

Jenna asked Taskforce members to provide all final comments to her by 30 September 2019.

6. DCMS Libraries update

Sheila Bennett updated the Taskforce on the work and activities of the DCMS Libraries team, including the libraries superintendence work and cross-government policy activity.

The Taskforce noted the update.

7. Minutes of the previous meeting and matters arising

The Taskforce noted the minutes of the previous meeting held on 26 June 2019 at Arts Council England, Bloomsbury Street, which had been agreed by correspondence.

There were no matters arising.

8. Any other business

The Taskforce noted the remaining Taskforce meeting dates:

• 11 December 2019
• 18 March 2020

9. Date and location of next meeting

Wednesday 11 December 2019, The British Library, London.