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Our special report on the state of UK libraries covers the country from Stornaway to Southampton.
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar
Stornaway
Comhairle Nan Eilean Siar comprises four libraries across the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of mainland Scotland. The main library is based in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, with smaller libraries based in schools. Lionacleit Community Library is on the Isle of Benbecula; Tarbert Community Library is on the Isle of Harris; and Castlebay Community Library is on the Isle of Barra. There are also two mobile library services because the geography is so remote and people live so far away from one another, with one serving the Isle of Harris and the other Benbecula. It is hoped there will soon be a service for Barra too.
Kathleen Milne, libraries manager, said most people live about two hours away from their nearest library, so the mobile service is a “lifeline”. For the most remote residents, it could be the only person they see in three weeks, she said. However, it can still be difficult to reach people.
The service recently received money from the Scottish government to develop its own website to improve its visibility and connection with local groups. It has also received a grant to get an awning on the side of its vehicles to pull out and use for outreach across the isles, and make the library service a focal point for the community.
“Our community engagement has really got much stronger over the past couple of years,” said Milne. Relationships with Gaelic publishers, such as Acair Books, also helps residents to engage with their community through the library service.
Most people live about two hours away from their nearest library, so the mobile service is a ‘lifeline’
Milne said during the pandemic, e-users “skyrocketed” and there has been an increased interest in online resources. However, due to their size,many services used by mainland authorities, such as Press Reader, are unaffordable. “There’s a fundamental inequality. There are a lot of conversations to be had about making that more equal,” she said.
While physical books still dominate, she has noticed some residents “are still quite scared to come back to libraries”. Due to their remote location, the spread of coronavirus has been delayed, with more staff off work with the virus than ever before.
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council
Dorset
Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council is made up of 24 libraries. During the past year, library assistant Katy Vaughan has been working on a Minecraft Storytime series for YouTube to help engage children and young people with the library service.
Due to copyright restrictions, she has to use more traditional tales, such as Jack and the Beanstalk and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. She has created a server with a library at the centre, and built “sets” for stories, recording her screen as she acts them out, and adding a voiceover of herself reading the story. For Jack and the Beanstalk, she built a big castle and a beanstalk on the platform. The YouTube video of it has 3,700 views, unheard of for a local authority.
“The plan is to make the Minecraft world downloadable for children to play in themselves, with transcripts of the stories and downloadable skins,” she said. “I have also made a corresponding quiz with screenshots of the videos, where children guess the story. I also plan to make graphic novels of some of the stories.”
The library has received positive feedback on its videos and has seen footfall double in the last year as events have started up again
Vaughan has also been using Minecraft as an engagement tool when advertising library initiatives, such as the Summer Reading Challenge, in schools. “Lots of children know what Minecraft is or play it, especially around the age of 10 and 11,” she said. “It’s about mixing the old with the new and bringing them to life a bit more, showing that stories can be made fun and engaging.” She has also started creating shorter versions of the Minecraft videos to upload to the library service’s TikTok account and take advantage of the BookTok phenomenon.
The library has received positive feedback on its videos and has seen footfall double in the last year as events have started up again. BCP has around 40,240 active borrowers at the moment and serves a population of 400,000 residents. Noting an “significant increase” in digital borrowing, it has increased its spending this area, but it is “still far less than physical books”, says Vaughan.
Norfolk County Council
Norfolk
Norfolk County Council has 47 libraries, and is the largest user of open library technology in the country, with 42 libraries on board. The technology enables people to access libraries at unstaffed times by swiping their card, extending opening times to 69 hours a week. “That’s really important for lots of our customers, to access us when it is convenient for them,” says Kerry Murray, assistant head of the library service.
Murray says after multiple lockdowns, and an initial reluctance to return in person, libraries now have “a real buzz about them” again. “In general our footfall is getting back to where it was, things are improving day by day and our borrowing actually is back to the pre-Covid levels, both with physical titles and with e-books,” she said.
A number of services first introduced during lockdown have also been extended to improve the library service’s offer to the community. One example is the Reading Friends programme to tackle loneliness, which sees a librarian read a story to a group of people on Zoom. The Reading Friends at Home service has also been developed since Covid after receiving funding to enable staff to telephone library users in need, many of whom live with dementia, and read them a book or newspaper. Sessions last for up to half an hour and take place one to one every week. “It’s really successful and means so much to some people because sometimes that’s the only person they get to speak to during the week,” Murray said.
The library service recently attended the Royal Norfolk Show to give away 600 books and have “really meaningful conversations” with people
Other initiatives include Read My Mind, in partnership with public health, to help prevent suicide in men, particularly those working in agriculture. The library service recently attended the Royal Norfolk Show to give away 600 books and have “really meaningful conversations” with people. The Reading Pathways programme, to help support adults learn or improve their reading, is also celebrating four years, and is a priority for the library service despite not receiving funding anymore. “We have had some lovely results from that... Parents who could read to their children for the first time,” said Murray.
Brent Libraries
North-west London
Brent library service saw “unprecedented” levels of digital borrowing during the pandemic, and its umbrella organisation The Libraries Consortium, which cover many London boroughs, has increased its spending on e-books and e-audio from 6% to 7.9% of its budget to meet rising demand.
It is now focused on getting more people back into the library physically. From April to June this year, the library saw 208,000 visits and around 205,000 issues. Stephanie Wilson, library, arts and heritage manager, said: “Issues recovered a lot quicker post-pandemic than the visits did. We saw that desire for books and reading material came back really strongly, and there is more of a core borrowing cohort who were really keen to get back in. But it’s been a bit of a longer journey to get back the casual visitors, people coming to events and programmes in a physical space, so it’s really positive to see those numbers are picking up more now.
This summer the borough’s six libraries worked with the heritage service around the Women’s Euros
“Overall events attendance for the year so far is over 11,000 and we have also recently been able to bring back some larger-scale library event days packed with theatre, crafts and storytelling. We had more than 450 people visiting Harlesden Library as part of a celebration event in June to launch a refurbishment project there; over 500 people visiting the Summer Reading Challenge launch at Ealing Road Library; and more than 200 people attending the multigenerational Windrush Day programme at The Library at Willesden Green,” Wilson said. “These events are great opportunities to welcome people of all ages and backgrounds into our libraries and really showcase the breadth of the offer available, from our book collections to our events programme, and the other services and spaces for creativity and learning.”
This summer the borough’s six libraries worked with the heritage service around the Women’s Euros. “As a host city for the Euros, we were part of the FA’s arts and heritage programme to explore the history of the women’s game and celebrate the tournament,” Wilson said. “In the libraries we hosted a performance of the play “Offside” by Futures Theatre, telling the story of female football pioneers and the experience of players today through lyrical dialogue, poetry and prose. We have also held a programme of family craft activities, a photographic exhibition of women and girls involved in football in Brent, and all of our libraries have held dedicated book displays and collections.”
Staffordshire Libraries
Staffordshire
Staffordshire Libraries set up a book chat group on Facebook in the first lockdown to provide residents with a platform to talk about what they were reading; it has since exploded in popularity, with members from all around the world.
Author John Connolly recently spoke at a virtual event, attracting an audience of 1,486 people. “We’re now getting to the stage where we are getting publishers coming to us and saying, ‘I’ve got some authors whose books are coming out, could you host them on your book chat group?’” said Sue Ball, libraries development manager.
There is approximately one author talk a month, attracting the likes of Jeffery Deaver, Lindsey Davies and Imgoen Clark, as well as panels from the Crime Writers’ Association and Romantic Novelists Association
“The beauty of it is people don’t have to travel, so particularly in the winter months, when it’s dark or if you’ve got family, or small children, you don’t have to get a babysitter in. It seems to have really taken off. We are really clear with the publishers that we haven’t got any money to pay, but we want to try and work with publishers to find out if it is having an impact on book sales.”
There is approximately one author talk a month, attracting the likes of Jeffery Deaver, Lindsey Davies and Imgoen Clark, as well as panels from the Crime Writers’ Association and Romantic Novelists Association. More local authors are still encouraged to come into the physical library for events in order to give them exposure.
“I think we underestimated how it would take off and how popular it would be. In one of our libraries we would never be able to house an audience of the size we’re getting, maybe 30 people in some of our meeting rooms, maybe up to 60, but certainly not 1,400 people,” said Ball.
The library is now working on its stock selection to ensure a speaker’s backlist titles are in stock for library members to borrow. “We are wanting to look at that impact on the issues, whether it be electronic or physical, to develop the service,” said Ball.
HMPS/YOI Swansea
Swansea
In 2023 HMPS/YOI Swansea is celebrating 75 years in partnership with Swansea Library, and plans to have a special event every month, ranging from author talks to STEM events.
Valerie Samuel, library manager, explains that it functions “exactly the same as any other community library” with exactly the same signage. Inmates are also given library cards, so when they are released they can walk across the road to the central library to log on to computers and apply for jobs and benefits. Inside prison their access to the internet is limited, but they have access to audiobooks on CD as well as DVDs, which prove popular for foreign nationals who are learning English.
All inmates are introduced to the library as part of their induction process, and Samuel estimates “approximately 60%” are regular users. Mental and physical wellbeing books are currently flying off the shelves. “We didn’t think that they would be very popular because we thought there might be stigma attached to guys to taking these self-help books,” said Samuel. “It’s incredible. The guys are recommending them, queuing up for them. True crime is always a popular genre in prisons, but [self-help] has way exceeded true crime in issues and that’s totally surprised us”.
We encourage men to do the Reading Ahead Challenge, where they read and review six books. Then when the Summer Reading Challenge is happening in libraries all over Britain, we encourage the dads to encourage the children
She added: “Although we support the education team, we also realise the value of men reading for pleasure, because it is enjoyable and calming and productive. Our offer is as diverse as the main library, and is used as well.”
She said the team “is very fortunate” as it has a budget to do its own ordering and can “constantly adapt” to suit its changing population, including foreign-language books, education books and books which help inmates to improve their reading ability.
“We encourage men to do the Reading Ahead Challenge, where they read and review six books. Then when the Summer Reading Challenge is happening in libraries all over Britain, we encourage the dads to encourage the children,” she said.
Barnsley Library Service
Barnsley
Barnsley Library service has created its own a book of nursery rhymes from around the world, which is available in all of its 15 library branches and through the online resources.
The idea came from a discussion with the local community on the Feels Like Home group, which includes asylum seekers, migrant workers and refugees, many of whom speak English as an additional language, and got off the ground after receiving funding from local charity Creative Minds.
Marianne Fraser-Hussain, engagement officer, led on the series. “We wanted to ensure the library is accessible and relevant to the direct communities in Barnsley and representative of Barnsley’s changing communities and welcoming to all,” she told The Bookseller. “Many families have lived in Barnsley for a few years now, and their children are learning English at school and bringing English into the home, which is wonderful, but they have found that as a result they don’t speak their original language as much at home. So it’s giving them that opportunity to share and celebrate that language with their own children.”
The Stories from Around the World project has since been offered further funding and the library service is working with the community to find out what they would like to do next
The book is written in 11 different languages. Over six months, 13 families from El Salvador, Greece, Romania, Sudan and Afghanistan came to the library to share nursery rhymes and fairytales from their countries and songs in their first language. Fraser-Hussain said it’s “definitely raised awareness of what the library service can offer”, adding: “Families have become more familiar with the library and the setup and the books, as well as our regular activities and events.”
The Stories from Around the World project has since been offered further funding and the library service is working with the community to find out what they would like to do next.
In 2021/22 the service has had 10,163 active borrowers. Kathryn Green, head of Barnsley Libraries, said: “We’re still recovering from the pandemic, we’re not back to the levels that we were in 2019/20 but that recovery is positive. It is growing, particularly in our smaller libraries rather than the town-centre library.”
She added: “The physical books are considerably more popular but we have seen a growth in our e-book, e-audio and e-magazine issues over the last two years.” In 2021/22 the service saw 22,688 e-books downloaded, 9,184 e-audiobooks downloaded and 13,768 e-magazines downloaded.
Libraries Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Libraries Northern Ireland covers all 96 libraries across the country, from small towns to cities, as well as a mobile service, and is part of the government, rather than council-run. “We have our own board which is made up of some elected representatives and some people who bring in specialist skills or knowledge,” explains Sean Beattie, deputy head of service. “I think the great advantage that it gives us is that when we are partnering with an organisation, we only have to have the one conversation to make it go province-wide. We can ensure that consistency of approach.”
Covering such a large area has its advantages and disadvantages. Because the service is so large, it has a very large collection, including e-books and e-audio. But distribution can be difficult, and it can sometimes take a while to move physical books across the country
One example of this was the recent decision to remove library fines across the entire country. “We felt that fines were being a barrier to use and it had the potential to discourage people from coming and using their local library service,” said Beattie. “We felt that by removing the fines we were making our service more accessible to everybody.
“It means if you’re in any one of our libraries you get treated exactly the same, so your one ticket allows you to use 96 libraries. Your one ticket allows you to access over one million items of stock. It has no overdue charges. If you bring a book back a day late, so what? We’re more interested in people being repeat users and coming back.”
He said it’s still “too early” to gauge the impact but early feedback has been positive. “We haven’t identified anything negative from it. Our books are being returned and there’s no concept of people borrowing the books and not bringing them back,” he said.
Covering such a large area has its advantages and disadvantages. Because the service is so large, it has a very large collection, including e-books and e-audio. But distribution can be difficult, and it can sometimes take a while to move physical books across the country. Beattie says the service is trying to get “as close as possible to what is being offered in the commercial world” and stresses the key advantage of libraries, the fact that its staff are “embedded” in their communities. “You have 96 book champions in every library,” he said.
Southampton Library Service
Southampton
Southampton library service became a library of sanctuary in October 2020, raising awareness of the issues facing people in the asylum system. It is made up of 10 libraries, six of which are council-run, and four are community libraries.
Asylum seekers and refugees in the city are assigned a special library card for sanctuary seekers, which means they do not pay any fines or charges. The basis of that was the transient nature of asylum seekers and refugees, explains Allison Kirby, reading and resources development officer. “They can be in the city for three months and then get moved on somewhere else. We were trying to understand what the processes are that they go through and respond to that in a way that didn’t mean that they were going to have lots of fines and replacement cost charges and things like that.”
The service runs a language café and has recently received funding from the council to buy English-language learning materials, as well as books in native languages, such as Pashto and Farsi.
What I have to say is our libraries are absolutely delighted with the Summer Reading Challenge at this moment in time. The figures that they are seeing coming through the door are brilliant, they are rushed off their feet—Liz Whale, information, skills and area manager
Other initiatives include Read Easy, to support adults who struggle with reading, and a pilot e-courier service to deliver books to people using an e-bike. Currently 40 people are signed up to the service, which is targeted towards residential homes and nursing homes to keep older people engaged with reading and make the library service more sustainable.
Liz Whale, information, skills and area manager, said the library service is beginning to get back to normal after a difficult couple of years. “We’re looking about 75%–80% of our pre-pandemic issue figures. We recovered to about 40% of our issue figures during Covid when we partially reopened, so it’s going to be a long path to get everybody back through those doors. What I have to say is our libraries are absolutely delighted with the Summer Reading Challenge at this moment in time. The figures that they are seeing coming through the door are brilliant, they are rushed off their feet, so we are really hopeful that we are going to be smashing some of those figures from pre-pandemic this year. Our aim is to get up to just over 100% pre-pandemic, and 2019 was our best reading challenge year. The staff are loving having people back in libraries.”
Glenthorne High School
Sutton
The library at Glenthorne High School has “never been busier” than in the first full year back after Covid, says librarian Lucas Maxwell. “The students have borrowed more books this year than any other year—even pre-pandemic,” he said. “There has been a huge surge and a need for a space like a library, a calm space, a space to do different activities and, of course, a place to borrow books.”
Approximately 1,000 books are borrowed every month, and the library averages more than 700 people through the door everyday. Footfall is up 20% and book borrowing is up 25%, he said.
The library also offers a range of events, such as open mic sessions, book club, manga club, film club and most recently Dungeons and Dragons, which is proving particularly popular
Maxwell says the library provides a safe haven for students. “Reading for pleasure is known to lower anxiety, lower blood pressure and help with depression.” He says he has noticed groups of students coming in together wanting to borrow the same book together to read together. “Borrowing is up so high because they are coming into the library wanting to develop this kind of connection with their peers,” Maxwell said.
The library also offers a range of events, such as open mic sessions, book club, manga club, film club and most recently Dungeons and Dragons, which is proving particularly popular. “I’m noticing that there are students coming in who have told me in the past that they hate reading,” said Maxwell. “What they are doing every day is coming into the library before school, at lunch after school, and poring over these books, these monster manuals, the players’ handbook. They are reading the books without realising that they are doing it.”
He is hoping to expand the school’s own ComicCon to bring in illustrators to inspire the children, especially manga illustrators. Maxwell says he has a particularly strong relationship with publishers, whom he reaches out to on social media to obtain proofs and help curate selections for the library. “The publishers also help a great deal with author visits, which are really important for students to engage with authors,” he said.
In his school, Years 7, 8 and 9 have dedicated library lessons once every two weeks, which are dedicated to reading for pleasure, and teaching children about responsible researching, avoiding misinformation and becoming responsible digital citizens.
