Provision
Children's centres and libraries join forces for mutual benefit and survival
Library services should be integrated within community facilities such as children's centres to ensure their survival, a new report recommends.
'Future Libraries: Change, options and how to get there', a joint report by the Local Government Group and the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), suggests co-locating libraries in children's centres, village halls and sports centres to enable providers to share costs, extend opening hours and provide a more accessible service. Another recommendation is for neighbouring local authorities to merge or share library services.
The report is based on examples of best practice and the pilot schemes of 36 councils taking part in the Future Libraries Programme, a year-long project to develop 'innovative ways to modernise services'.
One of the pilots within the programme being delivered by Northumberland and Durham County Councils is using e-book readers in Sure Start children's centres to evaluate how beneficial they might be for children.
According to the authors of the report, merging a full library service across a number of local authorities could achieve savings of around 10 to 25 per cent, depending on the number of councils involved and their location.
To help put libraries back into the heart of their communities, the report also suggests that councils provide services such as health centres and police surgeries within existing libraries, as well as give library users the opportunity to play a more active role in running library services themselves.
The findings from the Future Libraries Programme will now be shared with local authorities across the country. The Arts Council, which is taking over responsibility for supporting and developing libraries from the MLA in October, will work to implement the ideas from the programme with a number of local authorities.
Culture minister Ed Vaizey, who is backing the Future Libraries Programme, said, 'There is a huge amount of expertise and ambition throughout England's local authorities to run brilliant, modern library services. Across England, councillors and managers are working to develop plans that will meet their community's changing needs while balancing budget pressures.
'The Future Libraries Programme has shone a spotlight on excellent examples of innovation and creative partnership working. It will be a hugely useful resource, inspiring local authorities to emulate the best ideas to provide a first-rate library service.'
CASE STUDY: BURY ST EDMUNDS
Some local authorities are already locating children's centres on the same site as libraries.
Bury Library Children's Centre in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, was opened in the town centre library last year as part of a major library refurbishment.
As well as sharing costs across the services, the partnership between the library and children's centre has seen more families access the library's services, in particular its storytelling sessions and rhyme-time for young children, which the children's centre promotes to parents through its own groups.
Families attending the children's centre can also use the library's Leap Centre, where they can search for jobs and apply for training, and join in the setting's various groups and activities, which include infant massage and 'Stay n Play.'
Lynda Handshaw, Bury Library Children's Centre co-ordinator, who works across three children's centres in Bury St Edmunds, said, 'All of Suffolk County Council's children's centres are attached to libraries, which works really well. The library is a very public building that anyone can walk in to, which helps reduce parents' fear and encourages them to access the services we offer at the children's centre.
'Another advantage of being located in a library is that it helps to promote children's communication and literacy. Bury Library is involved in the Bookstart programme, and the centre delivers the Every Child a Talker programme.
'Any events we hold at the children's centre are also extended to the library. When the children's centre took part in Child Safety Week, the library also arranged for St John's Ambulance to give talks to the community about safety in the home.'
Vivien Hampshire, library outreach worker for a children's centre
With so many local authorities closing libraries and reducing their spending on books, we need to explore as many options as we can to try to keep library services alive, particularly for children - who need regular access to a large range of books at as early an age as possible, and who will be the readers and library customers of the future.
The Botwell Green Library in Hayes, where I deliver weekly story and rhyme sessions for the under-fives, now shares its premises with a newly-built swimming pool and sports centre in the middle of town. It also houses a coffee shop and a performance area, and there is talk of moving other services, such as the local Citizens Advice Bureau, in as well. Opening hours have been extended to include later evenings and more time at the weekends, to fit in with when the pool and sports facilities are in use.
Membership and usage of the library have increased massively since its relocation just over a year ago. The new library is large and modern, much more visible, is in the heart of the community, and its integration with other leisure services is giving a clear message that the library is open to all and that books are a fun activity to be shared and enjoyed by all the family.
In practice, however, this model is not achievable everywhere. There are not many existing buildings with the space to include a full library service, and cost is always going to be a major issue when it comes to building new ones. Most children’s centres and village halls, for example, even if the expertise of trained library staff is made available, are much too small to accommodate a large enough stock of books or to be able to run an efficient library service alongside their normal business.
Child protection and potential noise issues come instantly to mind if members of the general public are to have unlimited access to a children’s centre building and expect to enjoy the quiet atmosphere that a library traditionally provides.
In short, if these proposals go ahead, we could be looking in most areas at a greatly watered down and unsatisfactory library service.
I believe that libraries will always need their own dedicated space, but there is a lot we can do within children’s centres and other settings to encourage and promote the benefits of library usage - through signposting, parental training, library visits, storytelling sessions, the gifting of Bookstart packs, etc. If libraries are well-used and are seen to make a positive (and essential) contribution to community life, education and wellbeing, then families will fight to save them and local authorities might just divert the necessary funds to keep them open.
