Shining a Light: The Future of Public Libraries in the UK and Ireland
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The Carnegie UK Trust has delivered a number of projects to support the development of UK public libraries during the past five years. Shining a Light is the Trust's major research study into public attitudes to public libraries. It is based on 10,000 interviews conducted across the UK and Ireland in 2011 and 2016 and was published in April last year.
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Shining a Light: The Future of Public Libraries in the UK and Ireland
- 1. Douglas White Head of Advocacy Carnegie UK Trust
- 2. The Trust
- 3. The Trust
- 4. Shining a light on public libraries
- 5. Key Findings
- 6. Key Findings –all jurisdictions Predictors for library use: • Having children in the household • Being a ‘prolific’ reader
- 7. Key Findings – some jurisdictions Predictors for library use: • Being a woman • Being aged 15-24 • Being relatively younger (25-34) • Being in socio-economic group ABC1 • Not working full-time • Not working
- 8. Key findings – all jurisdictions Most popular suggested service improvements – Offering more events – Providing better information on services – Café or coffee shop on site – More council services
- 9. Key Findings – across all jurisdictions Use of volunteers • Around 1/2 in favour of adding value to services • Majority opposed to volunteers replacing all staff
- 10. Interesting fact 1: well used…
- 11. Interesting fact 2: …but frequency of use under pressure
- 12. Interesting fact 3: value-action gap
- 13. Interesting fact 4: challenging stereotypes Library use by age in 2016 (%) England Ireland N. Ireland Scotland Wales All 46 50 43 50 46 15-24 years 51 62 45 48 51 25-34 years 46 55 45 58 52 35-54 years 47 49 53 55 49 55+ years 43 41 32 43 41 Base: All respondents 1,341 1,011 1,013 1,000 1,011
- 14. 30% 21% 24% 21% 23% Interesting fact 5: non-readers use the library
- 15. Interesting fact 6: communication challenge
- 16. Interesting fact 7: appetite for change
- 17. In summary… •Well used – but frequency of use is under pressure •Highly valued – but value isn’t met by equivalent levels of use •Used by unusual suspects •Comms challenge •Appetite for change
- 18. Lessons or the ‘so what’? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81qfRC9gMVc
- 19. Lessons or the ‘so what’?
- 20. Lessons or the ‘so what’?
- 21. Lessons or the ‘so what’?
- 22. Lessons or the ‘so what’?
Editor's Notes
- Thank you for the introduction and for inviting me to speak today. On 10 April we published our shining a light research which looked at how people use public libraries and what they think of them. This afternoon I wanted to talk through: Who we are Why we did this research How we did the research What we found Headline findings for UK&IRE Interesting findings for UK&IRE 5 lessons we drew from the data for how libraries can continue to improve people’s wellbeing into the future.
- First I wanted to say a bit about who we are to help situate where I’m coming from So who are we? Independent endowed charitable foundation – established in 1913 by Andrew Carnegie, Scots American Philanthropist Remit – to enhance the wellbeing of the people in UK and ROI 1913-2004 Grants giving trust 2004 - Operating trust working at a more strategic level to seek to change public opinion, policy and practice; proactive vs reactive;
- What that shift in the way of working means is that we’ve gone from: Giving grants to help do things like: Establish library buildings (660) create an effective rural service, create the national infrastructure which allowed for the development of inter-library loans, and support the first professional training for librarians. To Creating an advocacy resource that outlines how public libraries contribute to four policy areas (ec, cult, edu, soc/strong comms) Speaking Volumes Playing key role in developing first nat strat pub libs Scot Running practical programmes to support innovation and leadership in the public library sector Running hackathons to develop digital solutions to some of the challenges public libraries are facing … and doing research
- In 2016 we commissioned Ipsos MORI to conduct omnibus polls across the individual jurisdictions that make up the UK and Ireland They looked at: library use frequency of library use their attitude to public libraries (importance to community and to themselves personally) Attitudes towards possible service development They interviewed over the phone/face to face around 1000 people in each jurisdiction They had previously run the same survey (with some minor additions) in 2011 That means over 10,000 ppl were interviewed in total Our findings are representative so we can extrapolate and talk, say, about “England” or “Wales” Just to flag: This is the only available research on public libraries that enables comparisons to be drawn between the jurisdictions of the UK and Ireland.
- What did we find? Around 1 in 2 of us use public libraries across the UK and Ireland Over 2/5 of library users in the use the library at least once every month Around ¾ of us across the UK and Ireland say libraries important to the community Around 2/5 say libraries important to themselves personally if asked – stats are as follows: Around 1 in 2 of us use public libraries across the UK and Ireland Scotland and Ireland top – 50%; England and Wales next (46%); NI (43%) Over 2/5 of library users in the use the library at least once every month Scotland and Ireland top (49%); England next (46%); NI (45%); Wales (41%) Around ¾ of us across the UK and Ireland say libraries important to the community Ireland top (79%); Scotland (77%); Wales (76%); NI (74%) and England (72%) Around 2/5 say libraries important to themselves personally Ireland top (44%); NI, Scotland&Wales (37%) and England (40%)
- Across all jurisdictions Having children in the hh Being a prolific reader – at least one book every 8 weeks Were predictors for library use
- There were also some predictors that are only true for one or a few of the jurisdicitons: Being a woman – in ENG, IRE, NI, WALES Being aged 15-24 – ENG, IRE, WALES Being relatively younger 24-35 – SCOT Being in socec grp ABC1 – ENG, NI, WALES Not working full time IRE, SCOT Not working NI
- Use of volunteers Around 1/2 in favour of adding value to services Majority opposed to volunteers replacing all staff Worth bearing in mind what people say and what they do can differ – so if it’s a choice bw not using al library and using a volunteer run library – people may well use it What can say is the response is a marker that people trust and value libraries run by staff
- So those were the headline facts – what are the interesting ones? Fact #1: Public libraries are well used! Around 1 in 2 of us in each jurisdiction use public libraries In terms of change over time: Scotland and England see drops (-4 and -11) Ireland sees marginal drop -1 Use is up NI and Wales Broadly speaking it’s quite similar - sustained level of voluntary citizen engagement *** Celebrate – cornerstone of evidence based arguments for public libraries
- Fact #2: Although use has seen some ups as well as downs, frequency of use – that is # of people who use libraries once a month - is under pressure in each jurisdiction. Drop in frequency of use is more severe than changes in use in all jurisdictions (with exception of Scotland) SO people are using libraries but not as frequently as they once did *** If asked: USE has seen increases in 2 areas, v marginal drop in 1 area and (drop of 1-4pp w 11pp drop in Scotland) FREQ USE has seen drop across the board of 6-8 pp w 16 pp drop in Wales
- Fact #3: There is value action gap Around ¾ people in each jurisdiction say libraries ess or v imp to communities – but this is not matched by equivalent level of use you can see the gap in the chart – pink bar is value, purple bar is use) There was a similar story for another popular public service – the post office People had strong nostalgic attraction for the service that wasn’t matched by use
- Fact #4: Data challenges stereotype that libraries are for ‘old people’ 15-24 year olds more likely to use libraries than over 55s 15-24 year old predictor for likelihood of library use E, I, Wales If these were stats for a business you’d be happy – got young people using and engaging – you’d be concerned if your main market were over 55s with little engagement with younger folk.
- Fact #5: 21-30% of people across the jurisdictions who rarely or never read books use the public library This perhaps reveals how public libraries cater to a diverse audience and offer a wide range of services under their remit of fulfilling potential and being trusted and safe civic space that enables engagement and participation *** FYI Being a prolific reader is a predictor for the likelihood of library use and frequent library use so we’re not saying books are bad! Important to add the qualifier (if asked/up to you) that the survey question wording told people to exclude books they read for work or study – ppl can see all the questions in the back of the data booklet.
- Fact #6: This graph shows is that around 40-60% of people said they would use the library more if they could look for or reserve books online. As you probably know, you can already do this. (The only exception is Ireland where it only became a universal service in March 2017 – although reasonably widespread before then.) Is something being lost in translation? Why don’t people don’t know what libraries offer…. And just to add to that 52-67% of people said they would use the library more if they had better info on what it offered. ***
- Fact #7: There is a clear increase in proportion of people in E, IRE, WALES who would be encouraged to use the library if changes and improvements were made. [Jen – if asked: NI mixed picture.; Scotland showed decline!] Most popular changes across the board were: Offering more council services in the library Providing better information on what services offer A café or coffee shop on-site Offering more events *** I’d add to this that we found that improving the range and quality of book stock was not the most popular suggested change to encourage use in any of the jurisdictions by any demographic group (gender, age, working status or socio-economic status) With the exception of social grade B in Ireland Not to say no-one said improving books would encourage use – it just wasn’t top. So the data allows us to understand what users want rather than projecting our own assumptions or preferences onto users
- So, Libraries are well used and highly valued – but frequency of use is under pressure Libraries are highly valued but value isn’t met by equivalent levels of use Library users may not be who we assume they are (older, readers) There’s a real comms challenge There’s an appetite for change So what were the lessons we drew from the research?
- We saw that public libraries are well used and highly valued Given public libraries are increasingly placed in competition w other vital local services it’s essential that we celebrate and communicate this and also ensure that they are able to Demonstrate value to policy makers, decision makers and funders to maximise public and other investment Linking goals and activities of libraries w goals of funders and decision makers Persuade those that are sceptical about role and value of libraries [Speaking Volumes resource was partly attempt to do this] *** FYI Communicating impact (to decision makers) Public Library Association in USA has Project Outcome -helping libraries measure four aspects - knowledge, confidence, application and awareness – in seven areas: Civic/Community Engagement; Digital Learning; Economic Development; Education/Lifelong Learning; Early Childhood Literacy; Job Skills; and Summer Reading Good example of communicating impact (more to public than decision makers) Leeds #whatsyourstory
- We saw that people are either choosing not to use the library as much as they once did – or are finding is more difficult to do so SO is there work to be done around Accelerating the development of a strong online presence and digital offer to enable people to access elements of the library offer 24/7 Not buried on council websites, but clear strong bold brand and offer – transactional service that is joy to use – space for co production – access wide range mats (to do well need work w range stakeholders: publishers etc )
- We saw that the extraordinary level of value isn’t met by levels of use So is it worth targeting people who say libraries imp for others (but not selves) – and is there a way of using data to better understand needs in order to do so Example of use of data in Arts Council Report > one library saw that people in FTE demographic missing from library use > library instigated “open librarie”s w tech to open library beyond 9-5pm Example of use of data in Arts Council Report > one library found that 18% of users were over 65 and female – census data showed high proportion of widows > so library developedspecific activities to target them Ie. Is it about still delivering a universal service (reading, safe space, digital inclusion) but increasing focus on tailored services for particular groups (dementia services) and communicating these offers clearly Worth noting that whilst public libraries are touted as a universal service there is no such thing as a universal set of needs (even with reading, how you hook people in may be different depending on their age, ability, personal interests…) – again is there a way of using data to help do this Just add to that – if people don’t know what you offer it means the service is being misunderstood and underutilised by people who could really benefit from engaging with it.
- Looking across the jurisdictions we saw that there is an appetite for changes to the service …but needs and demographics change all the time so the point is less to implement changes on the basis of what people told us and more: we need to inculcate flexibility and adaptability to continually respond to So there is need to invest in innovation, leadership and outcomes-based partnerships Invest in staff [I guess for us Library Lab and to our Engaging Libraries programmes are about that]
- The data shows that there are similarities and there are differences bw jurisdictions Eg. Being 15-24 yrs old predictor of likelihood of library use E NI W; in Scotland it’s the next age gp – can jurisdictions learn from each other on this? SO is there work to be done around Enhancing learning between libraries and across jurisdictions What might this look like – who should be doing it/at what level within the service
- Okay, so I’ve talked through the: Who we are How we did the research What we found What we made of it Would be interested to know your thoughts and reflections on the data. Thank you very much for listening