1. Let’s start with the question about COVID-19, which broke out in 2020 and obviously has greatly affected the world, so how did you and your library respond to it? Now the epidemic has been generally under control in many countries, and libraries around the world are gradually recovering services, what do you think is the biggest change that libraries have experienced since the outbreak of COVID-19? 

 

Our response to the COVID pandemic followed a similar path to that of many other library services across the country.

 

Customer Support

 

Initially many of our staff were deployed into different roles to support the foodbanks and helplines. At the same time we were pivoting our service from a ‘face to face’ model of delivery to a digital offer.  This included providing more resources for customers to access from home.

 

During the first period of lockdown, we picked up on an initiative being developed in other library authorities and introduced a ‘Keep in Touch’ project telephoning over 9,500 of our older customers to:

 

· Keep them updated about what was happening in the library service

 

· Support them to access the library service and other services and agencies digitally

 

· Check that they knew where to get any other help or support as necessary (e.g. the COVID helpline)

 

We had some very positive feedback to this initiative which evidenced the real impact of the calls:

 

‘I had a telephone call this morning from yourselves just to check on whether I am alright and coping with the current lockdown; also to update me on the library services now available. It is a worthy initiative and did a lot for me. Please extend my thanks.’

 

‘You’ve got me hooked on the audio books. I listen to about two books a week. The great thing is you can do something else at the same time. I find it very relaxing. I do a lot of sewing and with earbuds in listening works well. Great variety of titles too.’

 

‘You are all doing a fantastic job. Thank you very much for all your hard work you Librarians are doing keeping us informed and reading during this horrible time.’

 

Quite a long chat with a customer who was very interested in eBooks, e-Magazines etc. and also Local & Family History “Thank you that was the nicest phone call I've had in days"

 

Of the Order and Collect service - ‘We wouldn’t have survived without it!  We would have been climbing the walls.’

 

Customer support for developing digital skills

 

One of the biggest reveals of the pandemic was the extent of digital exclusion and the increased challenges our citizens faced including isolation from essential support, deteriorating mental health and financial hardship. This prompted us to review our digital support offer in Leeds libraries, which we have now rebranded as #Digital121.

 

At the heart of our #Digital121 service is the library enquiries telephone service which catches and directs requests for digital support received from customers and partner organisations and matches them to the most appropriate support and information available from within the service or through referral.

 

#Digital121 is a universal offer but we have targeted those with low digital skills who may have never previously had access to their own device and need support to use it more fully. A dedicated #Digital121 marketing campaign is focusing on our core offer of providing digital support and encouraging our citizens to get in touch so our librarian team can help them in developing their digital skills and confidence.

 

During the pandemic and current restrictions, we delivered this support remotely by telephone or Zoom. Between May 2020 and May 2021 we delivered over 200 support sessions.

 

We also invested in more digital resources, increasing our e-book catalogues and purchasing new resources such as:

 

· Niche Academy – a range of free online tutorials from setting up an e-mail account or getting started with social media to helping you build your skills using our online resources, such as eBooks, business support and genealogy searches.  There has been significant interest in this resource with tutorials accessed over 13,500 times since its introduction in April 2020.

 

· Press reader – an e-newspaper service ‘PressReader’ via RBDigital, allows our customers to keep up to date with the latest news, free of charge.  There were 634 downloads from install on 27th March to the end of March, with 137 different titles being downloaded including some worldwide newspapers, some of which are not published in English.

 

Feedback from customers about all these activities, digital support sessions and new resources has been very positive

 

“Accessing eBooks has been a lifeline.  It is the best app on my phone now!”

 

“A wonderful service (eNewspapers) that I can still use from home”

 

“Delighted I can get on Ancestry at home”

 

“The librarians have been BRILLIANT - the resources are really very good and easy to follow!”

 

As we move out of restrictions, we will plan to extend our #Digital121 offer with the re-introduction of face-to-face support sessions alongside our remote offer.  We will focus on delivering group sessions that support customers to manage their health and wellbeing, stay safe online, and research their local and family history.  We will also be recruiting digital volunteers to support our delivery and build capacity.

 

Developing our Digital library offer – resources and online events/activities

 

The initial period of lockdown was marked by an explosion of digital content which at times seemed overwhelming.  As well as introducing Niche Academy and e-Newspapers, in our role as information professionals, we used our specialist skills to create a new virtual library on our webpages, curating the best of our own online content and also signposting to some of the ‘best of what else’ was available on others’ websites.

 

We also curated information about quality resources for our partners in education and sent out a regular newsletter to schools.

 

In addition, we developed a whole new range of virtual activities aligned to the broader library purpose to inform, educate and entertain.  The full range of activities is shown at Appendix 1, but some highlights include:

 

British Library exhibition, ‘Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights’

 

Later in the year, as part of our work with the British Library (BL) we curated a virtual exhibition and programme of events to celebrate the BL’s own exhibition, ‘Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women’s Rights’.  Our online exhibition highlighted Leeds’ unique contribution to the campaign for gender equality and featured important books connected to the wider history of women’s rights.  The exhibition spanned over 300 years from the poetry of Katherine Philips in 1669, through to the activism of the 1970s and 80s, culminating in the work of contemporary local spoken word artists.  The weekend of events, created in partnership with the BL, included workshops, author talks and performances, and attracted over 800 people from all over the world.  

 

To celebrate the exhibition Studio12 led a series of 5 poetry workshops and mentoring sessions with young poets and renowned literary activist, writer and playwright Khadijah Ibrahiim.  The workshops explored women’s voices, activism and the fight for a fairer world.  The participants’ poetry was transformed into spoken word performance films, which were showcased at a special live Spoken Word Showcase.  The showcase involved a panel discussion between Khadijah and poet/activist Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, followed by a spoken word takeover by The Sunday Practice.  We had 300 engagements via social media in the lead up to the Spoken Word Showcase, and over 300 people tuned in.  Our largest audience was in Yorkshire, followed by London.

 

BBC’s ‘Novels That Shaped Our World

 

We also took part in the BBC’s national ‘Novels That Shaped Our World’ project and one strand of activity explored the connection between games and storytelling.  A programme of events that included a workshop on creating your own literary escape game, a talk on the real history behind some of the novels from the BBC’s Novels list, animation activities for families and a panel event discussing how libraries and museums can use games to engage new audiences, which all led up to a two day Games Jam.  The Jam challenged people to design a digital or physical game inspired by the BBC’s Novels list, and the participants were given access to images from our special collections for inspiration.  

 

Our headline event of the weekend was a live mixed reality performance by virtual reality artist Rosie Summers who brought the world of Narnia to life.  The games that were submitted can be viewed on our itch.io page and all events were recorded and added to YouTube.

 

We also delivered a programme of activity based around Arts and Cultural activities.

 

Arts Activity:  We ran workshops inspired by the artist Joseph Cornell’s ‘world in a box’ sculptures and assemblage art.  In these workshops, we captured the feel of the novel, its story, journey or place by assembling items in a box.  The resulting artwork can be viewed in an exhibition with our partners Space2.

 

Cultural Activity: We ran a number of activities on social media and with readers and writers groups across the city.  We asked readers to share the novel that has shaped them on social media, challenging readers to read as many of the 100 titles as they can.  For writers we set a number of writing challenges and participants could also attend a writing class led by local author Alison Taft.  Work written by the participants is currently featured on our digital book platform and you can read more about it here.

 

Business & Intellectual Property Service

 

For some key aspects of our service we took a business as usual approach albeit digitally.  For example during the last year our Business & Intellectual Property Service quickly pivoted their services to an online model, ensuring local businesses had continuous support during the pandemic.  This included:

 

· Intensifying messaging across social media channels and via partners to inform the local business community that the service would continue to be available to support businesses with their enquiries via email and telephone.

 

· The team and our business advice partners moved face-to-face consultations into a telephone format that proved particularly popular leading to the addition of new sessions.

 

· Online access to our business resources ensured that the team were able to effectively deal with enquiries via email and telephone.  Customers needing to consult these resources were able to book on one-to-one Zoom sessions providing the option of screen sharing.

 

· Our face-to-face event programme was moved to webinar format ensuring continuity of our full programme of support Business & IP Centre Leeds Events | Eventbrite

 

· As businesses looked to adapt to new ways of working and marketing, our webinars also refocused upon these sought after areas.  This included extra webinars focusing upon online selling, social media and our first Start-up Summer School.

 

A successful Reset. Restart programme of talks aiming to support businesses transform, future-proof or grow was developed in partnership with the British Library.  This provided access to a range of new webinars and follow-up one-to ones with specialist advisors. Reset. Restart - The British Library (bl.uk)  One of our most successful Reset. Restart online events focussed on the music sector, which had been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.  This online panel event, which was held in partnership with Manchester libraries, featured musicians and other representatives from across the sector and provided a lively discussion about how to cope and pivot moving forward.  Over 120 people attended the event live.

 

Short film summary

 

Finally, we have created this short film about our activity during the past year or more. youtu.be/QfGwr2vW8tQ  (Live from Tuesday 29 June) 

 

 

2. The BBC has reported about the tight budget of British public libraries in the past ten years, and the number of public libraries in the UK has dropped significantly during last decade.  Have Leeds Libraries been affected by this problem?  Did COVID-19 aggravate the funding dilemma of British public libraries?  How should libraries respond? 

 

There are currently 34 libraries across the city of Leeds and there have been no closures in recent years.  However, as part of a Library Review (New Chapter) back in July 2011 – 2013, 16 libraries closed, 3 moved into community management and a further 3 small libraries also subsequent closed in 2015.

 

Many local authorities have faced a significant financial challenge for a number of years and the situation has certainly been exacerbated by the pandemic.

 

In the last financial year, Leeds City Council was required to make a significant budget saving and all services, including the Library Service, were expected to contribute to this saving.

 

However, rather than going down the route of further library closures, and in recognition of the fact that the 34 remaining libraries in Leeds all serve major communities we instead used a ‘lean thinking’ approach to deliver savings through more efficient working practices.

 

This has included:

 

· A review of the staffing structure of the library service, creating a more streamlined structure and introducing generic job descriptions to enable flexibility.

 

· A review of opening hours as part of a public consultation and then developing a more efficient pattern of rota hours for the staff team to align with the resulting new opening hours.  The review of opening hours has included the removal of Sunday opening and there are now a significant number of libraries across the city which only have 1 late evening opening a week.

 

· Reducing spend on books.

 

· The introduction of more cost effective methods of service delivery, e.g. reducing the range of print newspapers and introducing e-newspapers.

 

I think it is important that libraries respond to budget challenges by thinking creatively about how back-office efficiencies can be achieved, rather than always reducing the number of libraries or resources.

 

However, with ever shrinking budgets it is becoming increasingly difficult to find the efficiencies and so I think it is crucial that library services use this time to clearly articulate the role that libraries can play in the Covid recovery and beyond.

 

In its publication ‘Libraries: An Essential Part of Recovery’, Libraries Connected identifies the five key areas where libraries can play a central role in meeting the needs of individuals and communities who may be struggling to overcome the effects of the Covid-19 crisis.

 

These are:

 

· Economic recovery, with help and training for job seekers and entrepreneurs

 

· Education support for children and SEND (special educational need) students who struggled to learn at home

 

· Isolation mitigation for vulnerable groups and to help people to reconnect locally

 

· Digital inclusion for residents who lack IT skills or have no access to the Internet

 

· Cultural partnership to help local artists and arts organisations to continue their work.

 

We have adopted these five broad themes to inform and underpin our new Recovery Strategy in Leeds Libraries and will ensure all our activity is aligned with one or more of these key priorities.

 

 

3. As we know Leeds Libraries are a library group composed of several libraries, could you share with us about how this group runs efficiently, especially in terms of funding and personnel management? How does Leeds library cooperate with libraries in other regions of the UK and with those at the national level? 

 

Leeds covers a wide geographic area and is the third largest city in the UK by population with around 780,000 people.  This is reflected in the fact that we have 34 libraries across the city, which makes us one of the larger city library services (Manchester has around 24 libraries, Liverpool has 18 libraries, Newcastle has 14 libraries).

 

The city is currently experiencing strong economic growth.  However, whilst there are some in the city who enjoy increased life expectancy, social mobility and better jobs, others in Leeds live in deepening poverty.  Approximately 20% of the population in Leeds live in poverty.

 

It is this issue of poverty which has driven the development of a network of Community Hubs across the city.  A Community Hub provides access to multiple services, including Library Services, from one building located at the centre of a district community.  As a key partner in this combined service delivery model, we have a fairly unique model of management for the delivery of our Library Service in Leeds.

 

Essentially, we have a single ‘front of house’ team.  This means that the staff in the local Community Hub and Library will provide help with accessing library services as well as supporting customers needing to access, for example, council services or benefit advice or support with finding a job.

 

This front line staff team is managed by our Customer Service colleagues, while I, as Chief Librarian, am directly responsible for the development and delivery of professional library services across the entire library network as well as the delivery of the front line service from Central Library (which is not included in the co-location model).

 

I have attached in Appendix 2 a copy of the staffing structure for the team that I have under my area of responsibility.  This team includes the service specialists (e.g. Business and Information Librarians) but also librarians who, while based under my area of responsibility, work out in community libraries delivering sessions such as children’s events, reading groups, digital support sessions and reminiscence sessions for older people.

 

But, as already outlined, in addition to these librarians managed by me, there is a team of frontline staff who are managed by Community Hub Managers.

 

The funding for the Library Service comes directly from Leeds City Council although as a service we are sometimes successful in securing additional funding through one-off grants for specific projects.

 

The public library sector in this country is an extremely well connected network and I think it would help to illustrate my answer with a brief outline of the wider governance arrangements for libraries in England.

 

Libraries are a statutory service under the 1964 Public Libraries and Museums Act which requires Local authorities to deliver a ‘comprehensive and efficient library service’.

 

The statutory responsibility for libraries lies with the Local Authority (in our case Leeds City Council) and it is the statutory duty of the Secretary for State for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to superintend, and promote the improvement of the public library service provided by local authorities.

 

Arts Council England (ACE) are the development agency for libraries; although they do not have any statutory responsibility for libraries, their role is to support and encourage the development of libraries.

 

Libraries Connected (LC), formerly The Society of Chief Librarians, is a membership organisation made up of every library service in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.  LC is partly funded by Arts Council England as a Sector Support Organisation for libraries, with a staff team and board of trustees.  Its aim is to improve library services by developing and sharing best practice, driving innovation and connecting partners to local libraries.  Heads of Library Services regularly meet in their regional clusters, as members of Libraries Connected, to discuss information from, and provide feedback to, the LC Trustees and Advisory Board, as well as to discuss issues pertinent to the region.

 

So, whilst we operate as a Library Service at a local level within our own authorities, we are also connected through our networks, at a sub-regional level (for Leeds this is West Yorkshire), a regional level (for Leeds this is the Yorkshire and Humber region) and at national level through Libraries Connected.

 

I am currently the Chair of the Libraries Connected Yorkshire and Humber region which has 15 local authorities in the group.

 

We are increasingly working more collaboratively at this wider regional level – for example in the area of procurement.  This has involved the development of a single framework to procure a Library Management System for the region.  This will ultimately allow us to share our resources across our boundaries.

 

I also work closely with my local authority neighbours in West Yorkshire.  For example, we have recently collaborated on a proposal for a funding bid which, if successful, would allow us to develop an enhanced digital offer to support digital inclusion across West Yorkshire through the library network.

 

As Chair of our local region, I am our representative at the national LC Advisory Board.  I also represent the region on one of the national LC sub groups: Books and Reading.

 

As one of the city based library authorities we are also involved in partnerships with the British Library (BL), particularly through the Living Knowledge Network and the Business and Intellectual Property Network.  There are some exciting plans for the BL to establish a BL North in Leeds and so we will be working even more closely with our national library over the coming months.

 

4. We know that Leeds Central Library holds Leeds Art Gallery, and provides services such as Art Library and Music Library. From your perspective, how does a library connect with a gallery, or in a more general sense, what’s the relationship between library and art or music? How did they come together in Leeds Libraries? 

 

Leeds’ Central Library and the City Art Gallery are separate but adjacent buildings managed and operated by different areas of Leeds City Council, the Library Service and the Museums and Galleries Service, however they do have both a physical and historical connection, and often collaborate on joint projects.  The long-standing connection between the two services is also illustrated through location of the City Museum on the first floor of the Central Library building until 2000.

 

The physical link between the adjacent buildings is evident in two places.  There is a door for customers to move between the buildings at first floor level, bringing a direct connection for visitors to the upper galleries of the City Art Gallery into Central Library’s Art Library.  On the ground floor, the beautiful Tiled Hall, which at one time has been the Library’s main reading room and has also housed the City Art Gallery’s sculpture gallery, and is now the Café accessible to the visitors to both buildings.

 

Art Library

 

The Art Library is a unique specialist library within a public library setting, one of just a few in the country.  Originally located in the City Art Gallery building, the service began in 1956 as the Leeds Print Room and Art Library and was jointly managed by Leeds Libraries and the City Art Gallery.  The library brought together the city’s valuable collections of watercolours and prints and 13,000 art books from the Reference and Central Lending Libraries; the books covered aesthetics, architecture sculpture, painting graphic and decorative arts.  

 

Over the years, the Art Library outgrew the space and the books became hard to access.  Therefore, when the City Museum’s collections were found a new home in 2000 the first floor then became the Arts Floor we now know it, with the Music Library at one end, Art at the other and space for exhibitions and events in between.

 

A recent example of partnership working with the City Art Gallery is the support provided by their staff teams for the development of our relatively new Drawing Room (an art and craft studio) within the Art Library.

 

Due to the challenges of Covid-19 launched online in May 2020.  Co-hosted by Leeds Art Gallery and the Art Library, each month we bring a Virtual tour of the exhibition and make books accessible via Libraries Borrow Box or pdfs.  The Art Lovers Book Club (ALBC) brings thought provoking books chosen by artists.  These books are all texts that have been particularly formative or influential on the artist's thinking or practice.  The artist-selectors are always either exhibited in the gallery or represented in the Leeds Art Gallery Collection.  ALBC has brought together diverse reading from the outstanding fiction of Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison to books on erupting volcanoes, Maori culture, walks and trespass, nature, mycelium and mushrooms.  An average of 40 people attending the monthly meetings.

 

Music and Performing Arts Library

 

The Music Library opened as a separate subject department in the Central Library in 1950.  On opening, the library had 7,500 music scores and books and by 1969 the stock had grown to 33,000 copies of books, scores and manuscripts and 10,000 records, covering Jazz, Classical, Folk, Musical and non-musical works, such as drama poetry and language records.  

 

The book stock has developed and we now have a specialist collection of over 10,000 items with a wide range of resources for both teachers, students and hobbyist.  We also house current music periodicals and an extensive, and in some cases rare, back catalogue of bound journals dating back to 1800s and some earlier.  The current collection also holds around over 6,000 CD titles covering all genres and boasts a very extensive classical selection.

 

In 2012, the Music Library rebranded as the Music and Performing Arts Library and became home to 12,000 drama scripts from the Yorkshire Library and Information Service and then in 2016 the collection expanded yet again taking in the vocal and orchestral side of the same collection.  The set lending service now boasts 3,000 orchestral sets and over 300,000 vocals sets, which are available for loan to groups throughout the UK.

 

Studio 12

 

The Arts Floor is also home to Studio12 where art music and design come together in a long established young people’s project situated in between both libraries and of course next to the gallery.  This project encapsulates how music and art collide in Leeds libraries.  The planned refurbishment of the Music Library will see ambitious and exciting programming to engage a diverse audience to access the resources, learning, collaborative social spaces and cultural opportunities.

 

 

5. As we know, Leeds Central Library is a famous historical building.  When it was originally designed, the concept of "business" (where local people came to settle their gas, water and rates bills) was well integrated with the concept of “popular” (Free Public Library).  Do you think this kind of space compatibility still makes sense in the design of modern urban libraries? 

 

Leeds Central library is a magnificent Grade 2* listed building.  It opened in 1884 as part of a Municipal Building which provided a place for all the services previously spread across the city with the objective of concentrating the administration of Leeds between the Municipal Building and the Town Hall which had opened in 1858.

 

Central Library today occupies the entire space of the original Municipal Building, other services having long since moved into the city’s Civic buildings.  However, what is interesting is that in many of the community libraries today offer a similar service.

 

As outlined in my answer to question 3, in Leeds, our library service is part of the Council’s Customer Service team, which has a specific focus on tackling poverty.  As a response to the need to address poverty and deprivation in the city, as well as the need to deliver budget savings while ensuring the sustainable delivery of services, proposals were made in 2014 to develop a network of Community Hubs.

 

Libraries are an integral partner in this development and as such have ceased to be a standalone service.  The Community Hubs bring together all existing community based libraries, one stop centres and housing management offices to be managed as a single set of front of house services.  Whilst there is a clear focus on tackling poverty and inequality, the development of the Hubs also has a broader aim of providing trusted places in local communities – places where local people can access the whole range of council and partner services in an easy and integrated way.

 

This approach is entirely consistent with the role of libraries, which are often referred to as ‘community hubs’ themselves, providing a focal point within local communities and offering safe and welcoming spaces for people to come together and access a range of services.

 

For many, the local library, with friendly and well-trained staff who are close to their communities, also provides the connection to local decision-making and wider council services.  Library Staff are able to help and support with a range of enquiries, providing information about statutory requirements and services relating to housing, health, education and other welfare provision or signposting to other services and agencies as appropriate.

 

For those who are not in contact with other major council services, such as education or social care, the library service is often the key point of contact / interface with the council and so libraries can, and do, play an important role in shaping opinion about the local authority in the community.  With almost three million visits each year the frontline staff team members are well placed to act as positive ambassadors for the city’s values, vision and aspirations.  

 

As trusted places at the heart of the community, our libraries are central to the design of the Leeds Community Hubs model.  We continue, like other library services to offer welcoming, non-stigmatised, free and accessible spaces, where people can meet, engage, interact, learn and develop.  Through our activities, our resources and our programmes of events, our libraries can play a key role in the early intervention and prevention agenda.

 

6. In 2018, the 26th annual meeting of EBLIDA (European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations) proposed the theme of “libraries bridging borders”, how do you understand the term of “border”?  

 

I would interpret ‘border’ in the widest sense.

 

As outlined in my earlier answer, the library network is a well-connected, cohesive network.  This means that we work collaboratively as a profession at a local, regional, national and international level, supporting the development of our services and staff through sharing best practise while also supporting customers from outside the local area with their information needs.

 

7. In your career, how the public libraries have changed compared with the past? What is your point of view about the future of public libraries? What is the biggest challenge we are or will be facing? How do you think librarians should adapt to the future development? In what aspects should we improve most urgently? 

 

I started my first job after graduation in 1983 and it is really hard to describe how different the environment in which we operate today is.  

 

A few memories I would like to share, which illustrate the extent of changes since I began my career, include:

 

· At the small community library where I worked in the early 1980s I remember lots of large print and western books; paperback books (less popular than hardbacks) were filed in random order called ‘dumps’.  

 

· There were large collections of vinyl records – when someone wanted to join the service to borrow these records, they had to bring in the stylus of their record player for it to be checked;  I was disbelieving when the music librarian said that vinyl records would soon be a thing of the past and we would all have CDs.  

 

· Videos (VHS) were just being introduced, but computers in libraries as we know them today were absolutely a thing of the future - although by the late 1980s we had a ‘have a go micro’ in our central library (but just the one!).  

 

· Issuing and discharging books was all done manually using the Browne issuing system.

 

· The Net Book Agreement was in place and so approaches to stock selection and purchasing were very different from today, involving lots of book selection meetings and visits to library suppliers.

 

· Staffing structures looked very different – with more specialists and specialist services but in the late eighties and early nineties there was very little investment in library environments, furnishings or fittings.  We painted library shelves ourselves to brighten things up and there was great excitement when money was eventually found for a new carpet in one library to cover the parquet flooring!  We are now restoring parquet flooring in many of our libraries!

 

There are some who predicted that there would be no future for libraries, and that the advent of e-books would remove the need for libraries; but libraries have proved themselves to be resilient and adaptable.

 

Books and reading are still very much at the heart of our offer and this I believe that this will continue to be a key aspect of library services into the future, given the resurgence of in interest in reading post-Covid and the proven wellbeing impacts of reading (e.g. just 6 minutes reading reduces stress and anxiety).

 

A crucial part of our offer now and in the future will continue to be the physical space. Libraries provide a safe, welcoming non-stigmatised space in the heart of the community, a space that is open and free for everyone to go to; a space that belongs to everyone in the community. It is a space for connections as well as collections. A place where people can meet, engage, interact, learn develop and share– share the space and share the resources helping to  build the sense of trust which is so vital for  community cohesion and the wider place making agenda.

 

But, the library contribution to place making is not only about the building, it is also about the activity that takes place in the building – it is about how the space is used.

 

In Leeds, we have been investing in the refurbishment of our library spaces as part of the Community Hub programme. A key feature of our refurbished spaces has been building in the capacity for social and cultural events – in addition to space in the children’s library, small groups can comfortably meet while the library is open and some shelving is mobile to allow for larger cultural events out of hours.

 

An important aspect of the library service and possibly even more so in a post-Covid environment is our programme of services, events and activities. Whilst providing access to books and other resources is central to our offer, our libraries are also lively places with events and activity which, in turn, has the potential to help increase footfall in neighborhoods, supporting economic recovery.

 

In terms of future challenges, ensuring investment continues to be made into library services is critical – both in terms of capital infrastructure so that our library spaces are welcoming, bright, attractive and relevant but also in terms of the staffing required and funding to enable the delivery of a high quality programme of events and activities to engage the whole community.

 

And, to ensure this continued investment, we need as a profession to be developing a clear and strong narrative about how our library services contribute to 7 key outcomes as outline in the Government’s report Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016 -2021.

 

‘Ambition’ outlines the vision for the future development of public libraries and describes how library services in England can help transform lives, communities and society.  It identifies seven key outcomes that libraries deliver against and which are critical to individuals and communities:

 

· cultural and creative enrichment

 

· increased reading and literacy

 

· improved digital access and literacy

 

· helping everyone achieve their full potential

 

· healthier and happier lives

 

· greater prosperity

 

· stronger, more resilient communities

 

It is important that we ensure that all our activity aligns with these key outcomes as well as local plans and priorities.

 

8. We also want to talk about the technology, more specifically, the library digitization, an issue frequently discussed. Do you think people’s understanding about digitization has been changed after COVID-19? In the next stage of development, what Leeds Libraries plan to do in terms of new technology application and digitization? 

 

‘Digital access and literacy is increasingly critical, especially to central and local government strategies around economic development, channel shift, reducing social isolation and creating community cohesion’.

 

Across our city, with a population of 780k, tens of thousands of adults are offline or have very limited digital skills:

 

· 90,000 adults in Leeds are without essential digital skills

 

· 50,000 are not online at all

 

· 40% of council housing tenants are not online

 

Research shows that those who are digitally excluded also have poorer health and that by improving digital inclusion we can combat some of these health inequalities.

 

There are three main barriers to digital inclusion:

 

· Lack of skills/confidence

 

· Limited or no access to equipment/connectivity

 

· Not motivated to get online/not understanding of the benefits of being online

 

Providing support for digital access has been at the heart of library services since the introduction of the People’s Network back in 1997.  We currently have provide free access to computers, the internet, free wi–fi, and a tablet lending scheme providing iPads and 4G connectivity, and we also have a skilled staff team of Digital Champions who are able to support customers with the motivations and skills development through our free training and support programmes.

 

The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasised the importance of digital access and a blog from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation highlighted the impact that the closure of library buildings, especially in the first period of lockdown, had on digital inclusion for some of the most economically disadvantaged people in our communities.  

 

These impacts included:

 

· More people were required to access essential services digitally, for example to access health information, do their grocery shopping, access online bank accounts, or make contact with the council about their housing.  Many people did not have the necessary skills or equipment, and may previously have visited a library to learn the skills or to access the equipment, and these services were simply not available.

 

· More people with some digital skills found themselves needing to operate in a new way, for example replacing face to face work meetings, doctor consultations, and attendance at social clubs with their virtual equivalent, such as Zoom or MS Teams, and many had never needed to do this before, and although had some digital skills they needed to learn new ones.  And obviously for those with no skills or equipment – this was an even greater challenge.

 

· More people who were at risk of, or vulnerable to, the impacts of social isolation on both their mental and physical health have suffered during the pandemic.

 

In response to these challenges we introduced and further developed the service initiatives outlined in my response to Question 1.  As we move towards the full reopening of our buildings we will take the learning from this experience to develop our services further.

 

For example, we have also identified, as a priority, the development of our community libraries in Leeds as Digital Hubs.  The concept will include the introduction of Digital Health Hubs which use community engagement to reach poorly served groups and support access to digitally enabled health care and wider wellbeing.  We will also be exploring the concept of libraries as data hubs.

 

Many of our activities moved online during the pandemic.  As we reopen we will not be withdrawing these online offers, but instead we will be reviewing how they might work as a blended offer of both ‘in person’ and online.  For example, we have been running Lego activities online rather than in our libraries.  Before the pandemic these were only run in our libraries and some children were unable to attend because of the times/locations of the sessions.  Once things start to operate more normally we are likely to continue to do both.  In contrast, we moved to an online newspaper offer in the absence on hard-copy newspapers being available in our libraries; we may choose to maintain the online newspapers because of the range of titles available, the language translation functionality, and the ability of multiple readers to access a title simultaneously, rather than re-introduce hard-copy newspapers once more.

 

9. For public libraries, serving diverse and disadvantaged groups is an important mission, and we know Leeds Libraries have already abolished fines for overdue library books since 2019. Some Chinese public libraries have also carried out similar actions. Could you present the effects or results of Leeds Libraries waiving overdue fines? In terms of serving disadvantaged and diverse groups, what other measures have Leeds implemented? 

 

The first Library Service to abolish fines in the UK was Trafford in Greater Manchester in 2018.  The change was in line with Trafford Council’s ambition of ‘no-one held back no-one left behind’.  The rationale was that ‘fines can be off putting for customers’ and abolishing fines would remove one of the key barriers to access libraries. This in turn would lead to an increase in usage across the service.

 

Other authorities followed this example, including Leeds in Autumn 2019. Unfortunately we have been unable to review how the initiative this as we had planned to at the six month stage as we went into lockdown early in 2020.

 

Anecdotally however, we are not aware of any major issues and certainly Trafford who have been doing the scheme longer have not reported any adverse impacts.

 

Other activities to support disadvantaged or diverse communities

 

The role played by community hubs, of which libraries are an integral part, tackling poverty is covered in my responses to questions 3 and 5.  Some specific examples are outlined below:

 

Tablet Lending – The Library service operates a tablet lending scheme to help tackle the barriers to digital inclusion of access to equipment and connectivity, which is often exacerbated due to the cost of these resources and the data.  We lend these devices to community organisations who use them to assist with training and support of their members/customers.  With the help of additional funding from government bodies that support health and employment (e.g. the NHS and the Department for Work and Pensions / European Social Fund) we have increased the number of loanable iPads available (from approx. 300 to 600).  These devices help to support the most vulnerable customers to stay connected with their health providers or to find work, etc.

 

Healthy Holidays cultural programme - Last summer, Leeds Community Foundation provided funding for the Healthy Holidays programme for schoolchildren in Leeds.  The programme enables vulnerable children to have access to food, fun activities, learning and support during the school holidays.  Many of the activities had to be online.  Because many of the children would struggle to take part in the activities because their families did not have access to a computer or network connectivity, we supported the programme through buying additional iPads for the tablet-lending scheme.  We also created additional literature for the families to support their use of the device and accessing additional learning resources whilst the tablet was on loan to them.

 

Our new service plan will be looking to ensure that all our activities embrace equality, attracting and supporting the diverse communities living and working in Leeds.

 

10. The "Library Manifesto for Europe" (2019) put forward the manifesto that ‘Libraries matter for Europe and Europe matters for libraries", so in what aspects do you think urban public libraries could make efforts to better serve the city’s development? 

 

The manifesto sets out requests in six key areas for libraries and their users, and these cover the work of libraries in supporting education and skills, research and innovation and culture and heritage.

 

These areas are reflected in the Libraries Connected Universal Offers; these focus on the role of libraries in promoting access to reading, training, digital skills, trusted information and cultural experiences for people at every stage of their lives.  In addition, LC have identified 5 key areas where libraries can play a central role in meeting the needs of individuals and communities who may be struggling to overcome the effects of the Covid-19 crisis.  These are:

 

· Economic recovery with help and training for job seekers and entrepreneurs

 

· Education support for children and SEND students who struggled to learn at home

 

· Isolation mitigation for vulnerable groups and to help people to reconnect locally

 

· Digital inclusion for residents who lack IT skills or have no access to the Internet

 

· Cultural partnership to help local artists and arts organisations to continue their work.

 

In addition, as outlined earlier in this document, libraries play an important role in the place making agenda.  The library as a physical space provides a safe, welcoming non- stigmatised space in the heart of the community; a space that is open and free for everyone to go to; a space that belongs to everyone in the community.  It is a space for connections as well as collections.

 

The President of LC has recently stated in the Libraries Recovery Document, “….communities need libraries to recover.  They deliver tangible benefits to the local economy, educational outcomes and the health and wellbeing of all in our communities and especially the most vulnerable.  Libraries are needed now more than ever”.

 

Libraries are a key part of the solution to outcomes that are important to local and national government and in supporting the post-Covid recovery.  We have all the right ingredients in terms of our community based spaces, our skilled and knowledgeable staff teams and a rich and varied programme of activity aligned to priority outcomes.  What we need to do is better articulate that provision to ensure we attract the funding necessary to maintain and extend our provision.