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Library campaigners lose patience over delays to nationwide website
Library campaigners have lost patience with the government, the British Library and Arts Council England (ACE) over delays to a nationwide website for libraries.
The “Single Digital Presence” (SDP), later renamed LibraryOn, was meant to bring public libraries together on one website to allow the public to access collections across the country. The Bookseller reported on frustration with the “vague and lengthy timeline” back in September 2022, with critics claiming there has been little change since.
Speaking to the Observer this weekend (30th December), Tim Coates, library campaigner and former Waterstones boss, said: “We’re now 10 years later and – after several reviews and studies and about £6m – they have singularly failed even to decide what it is they ought to do.
“Their obsession with consultation with ‘the sector’ has meant they have failed to grasp what people want and will use – which, simply, is easy access to the extensive library collections across the country. It should be like the website for John Lewis – that, wherever you are, it doesn’t depend on their individual shops.”
The development of a "single digital presence" was one of the key recommendations of William Sieghart’s 2014 library report for England.
The Observer also spoke to “one eminent arts figure, who declined to be named”, who said: “It’s appalling. The government’s done nothing since that report. Libraries have been left behind in the 1970s. The digital revolution hasn’t really impacted on them. They are stuck behind their own local authority IT system. The point of the digital presence would be to empower them.”
Nick Poole, chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Library &Information Professionals (CILIP) told the newspaper the need for a digital presence within the library sector had been floating around for two decades, but that its delay was partly due to a fear that it would lead to further closures of library buildings: “We want to see really strong face-to-face libraries supported and extended by a really strong digital scheme.”
The British Library said it was working towards unifying the digital offering of different library authorities. It said that LibraryOn had received about £3.8m funding since 2018, when the British Library took over management of the initiative.
