Libraries Review launched
I was invited to the launch of Baroness Liz Sandersons excellent “An Independent Review of English Public Libraries” at the House of Lords a few days ago. I like Liz’s report, it had the brevity you’d want from a journalist. It’s important to have an independent view, especially at this time of urgent search for purpose and resilience in a time of cuts.
I’d taken part in some of the round table sessions along with Erik Boekesteijn, but it was still heart-warming to see Storyhouse mentioned in the report, this time referencing our deliberate build as a “third place”. That’s a term which is not coming across enough. It is, however one which strikes at the heart of libraries’ current impact -
“place that is not work and not home, where people are treated equally and can enjoy a ‘feeling of being apart together ”
In response Lord Parkinson mentioned two roles for libraries; as warm spaces and work spaces - the latter supplanting the less soulful (not his words) We Works of the world. That’s safety, warmth, community, jobs, right there. And that only scratches the surface.
We need to embrace a wider world of “non-statutory” services and shape them, not to a national agenda but to localism and need. And on the way, saying hello to all sorts of differing forms of governance, to volunteering, communities on board, in charge, co-production, to generally letting go and letting it in.
We also need to count outputs. Not just books borrowed, but maybe even lives saved, young lives re-built, communities reconnected, loneliness combatted, jobs created, hands warmed, families fed, high streets rejuvenated. Pointful, not just consistent, data, is essential.
We definitely shouldn’t downplay her suggestion for a recognisable national library brand, to counter the problem as she sees it :
“all too often, people walk on by without really noticing it is there. Our libraries are all around us and yet they simply aren’t ‘visible’ in the way that other institutions are”
Could a national brand cut through all the noise and get straight to the point? And without making a list. Brands are better than mission statements at that.
It could reinforce libraries as vital, impactful, worthy of support. And she’s right, it could be recognisable as the NHS. Which is obviously there to heal or help you. Maybe a library brand might signpost a place where we help each other?
I declined to put up a library sign on Storyhouse when we opened. But a meaningful national brand, that may have been different.
She asked, but tactfully didn’t shout for, a national / universal library card. But hang on, that really would make the business of getting one at birth a real treat. It’s obviously possible.
Liz quotes Einstein -
“Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.”
It would also be good if you recognised it when you got there.
no bushel needed