Changing lives

This week is Book Week Scotland and as part of a huge programme of events, the Scottish Book Trust launched the Love Letter to Your Library campaign. Book lovers have been asked to contribute their positive stories directly to their favourite library, with authors and celebrities also revealing their own favourite library and what it has meant to them.

Sophie Moxon, acting director of Scottish Book Trust, said: “It is well known that a love of reading brings lasting social and emotional benefits, helps build families and, at its most powerful, transforms lives. We also know that a love of reading is one of the great levellers in society, representing an opportunity for everyone to have an equal chance at success. But reading is also just finding a book that you enjoy and losing yourself in it, or snuggling up with your child and a picture book for the pure pleasure of being close to each other.”

Scotland itself has long had a love affair with libraries and north of the border has managed to avoid the cuts and closures witnessed in England. As Amina Shah, chief executive of the Scottish Library and Information Council (SLIC) told Holyrood: “Often there is confusion between what is happening in Scotland and in England. In actual fact, in Scotland, we haven’t seen the devastation to libraries there has been in England. The Scottish Government has supported libraries in a way which hasn’t taken place down there.”

This year, SLIC convened a working group to lead the development of a national strategy for Scotland’s public libraries. Chaired by Martyn Evans, chief executive of the Carnegie UK Trust, it comprises public library managers as well as a range of representatives from key stakeholder groups. Its inaugural meeting was held in July and the group hopes to present a draft strategy proposal to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA) in spring 2015.

Shah said: “We are looking at the group being well aware of what is happening in libraries across the board but we’re also keen that all of this is done in consultation with local communities and public library staff and obviously with elected members through COSLA.

“Libraries in Scotland have quite a diverse governance model. Some sit within trusts, some sit within the council’s remit, and where they sit within councils sometimes determines their strategic objectives, for example, if they are in education or community departments. The feeling was that although the strength of libraries is definitely in localism, there could be an argument for partnership in certain aspects of libraries, so that we could articulate what libraries offer and we can have a clear offer to market to the public. 

“For example, looking at the digital side, within public libraries in Scotland there is quite a difference in provision of wifi. E-books is another example. It is not very clear to the public how to access some of those services and there could also be efficiencies in terms of joining up aspects at a digital level and negotiating contracts for wifi, etc, together. This would allow libraries the freedom to spend the reduced budgets they do have on services for their local community. 

“In Wales, they have a model where they have a single access platform for digital. They have a single library card and single point of issue so it doesn’t really matter whether people know if their library is managed by a trust or how it is managed, they know how to access the services through this single platform. It is also something that the Society of Chief Librarians in England is looking at, so this is not something we’ve just plucked out of the sky, it is an obvious way to offer better services with possible cost reductions.”

According to Shah, libraries have a clear role in the preventative spend agenda and in helping their communities. As welfare reforms continue to be felt across Scotland, libraries could help people who don’t have access to the internet at home.

She said: “Instead of building new centres, our view is we should invest in libraries and library staff who already have over 500 venues across the country. Every community has a library building that could be used. If we nurture these buildings and staff, then investment in the library service has cost savings across the board in other services. The strategy will really help us demonstrate how libraries can help with, for example, the self-management agenda in the NHS and in education and literacy. 

“There has been a lot of talk in England about using volunteers and in Scotland what we are trying to look at is how we can use volunteers to enhance library services but not replace them. For example, in some libraries they have employed volunteer co-ordinators to recruit volunteers to help people with training on the internet to allow them to apply for benefits or jobs online. 

“We’re so lucky in Scotland, we haven’t had the same issues which have happened in England. Hopefully, the development of our strategy will ensure us to clearly articulate the role of libraries and how they can be crucial to strategic objectives of the government.”

Case study

Inverclyde Council’s Alphabet Soup

Alphabet Soup was a health and literacy project for children and young people which ran between January and March this year. It was funded by the Scottish Government Public Library Improvement Fund and involved a recipe competition, cookery demonstrations, and the promotion of health and cookery-related books and online resources. Libraries across Inverclyde held free storytelling and drop-in face painting sessions to promote the project.

Inverclyde’s education and communities’ convener, Councillor Terry Loughran, said: “This [was] an excellent project aimed at promoting health and literacy in a fun and engaging way across schools and libraries. Well done to our library service for putting forward a successful bid to promote these important messages.”