Response by The Association of Senior Childrens and Education Librarians
(ASCEL) to
Culture, Knowledge and Understanding: Great Museums and Libraries for
Everyone:
Arts Council England
Introduction
This response is written primarily from a public library perspective with a focus on the
particular needs of children, young people and their parents. ASCEL also represents
School Library Services and key concerns around this provision are included in our
response. The response highlights ASCEL’s support for Arts Council England’s goals
and vision and also acknowledges the importance of sharing skills, knowledge and
activity across the sector. It recognises shared issues across the sector and also
identifies specific current concerns for libraries.
General comments
1: ASCEL supports the Arts Council’s proposal for 5 long term goals and especially
welcomes the inclusion of a specific goal for children and young people. (Goal 5:
Every child and young person has the opportunity to experience the richness of
museums and libraries). ASCEL would be very happy to contribute to the proposed
debate about what constitutes excellent arts and cultural provision for children and
young people.
2: ASCEL also supports the Arts Council ten year shared vision for the sector,
although recognises the practical challenges in making this happen. In order to
recover and grow the economy needs creative thinkers and problem solvers and
ASCEL believes that Museums, Libraries and the Arts are perfectly placed to
stimulate thinking; to inspire and to challenge.
3: ASCEL welcomes increased opportunities for shared services and programmes.
Research into the way the brain develops shows us that learning requires physical
as well as intellectual processes and range of stimuli – by working together the
sector could have a much more holistic approach to supporting learning for children
and adults.
Questions
What else should Arts Council England be considering for the next 10 years?
1: In terms of libraries, the Arts Council should have an advocacy role which would
include highlighting good practice and encouraging an improved national
understanding of the role of libraries as active contributors to the cultural life of the
nation. (The Arts Council Document “ A Review of Research and Literature on
Museums and Libraries” published September 2011 suggested that most customers
recognise the core library functions of books, learning and information but there is a
limited understanding of the wider contribution of libraries to the cultural life of
individuals and the nation). The proposed shared outcomes framework could be
instrumental in providing evidence to support advocacy.
2: The Arts Council along with the public library sector should be thinking about how
to move the national debate on from the “save our libraries” message. This message
has been valuable in terms of raising awareness of the threat libraries are under and
has highlighted the affection in which the public library service is held, but it can be
seen as quite negative. It is time to refocus the debate on the positive value of a
modern, vibrant public library service in the 21st century. This would seem to be the
best way to repay and harness the support communities are showing libraries during
these challenging years.
3: In a response to the Review of Cultural Education in May 2011, ASCEL
encouraged the development of a clearer cultural offer for children and young people
and their families and carers and closer ties between local learning communities –
schools and colleges and other agencies, local libraries, museums and the
arts/cultural lead organisations. This is already happening in some localities but
bringing all cultural organisations under one umbrella should provide opportunities
for a more consistent and strategic approach.
3: What challenges and opportunities have the Arts Council underplayed or not yet
identified?
1: ASCEL feels that one of the opportunities that has been underplayed in this report
is the role of the public library as a community space. Many public libraries are still
very local to their communities and there is a strong sense of community ownership.
Activities such as baby and toddler times can bring isolated parents together and
build relationships and contribute to community cohesion.
2: The report identifies the growth in digital services in libraries and museums. We
now have the opportunity to share skills and resources. Libraries provide access to
digital resources – making resources available, and supporting people to use them
but they are also becoming more and more involved in content creation including
enabling the community to create its own content, just as museums are. Libraries
and museums working together can enhance content and make the learning
experience more exciting which can stimulate the increase digital skills across the
community. The Libraries, Museums and Arts sector could become an influential
driving force in terms of technological development and the public use and
understanding of digital technology.
3: ASCEL are particularly concerned about the closure of School Library Services
around the country. Whilst not the main focus of the Culture, Knowledge and
Understanding: Great Museums and Libraries for Everyone report, School Library
Services along with school libraries make a valuable contribution to children’s
cultural education, supporting arts and culture within school and providing books,
artefacts and most importantly professional advice, training and guidance to school
staff. At best the closure of school library services has an impact on resource
capacity in the public library service and at worst reduces children’s access to books
and reading especially in isolated rural communities where access to public libraries
is difficult or infrequent or where parents are not willing to bring children to libraries
Issues and views
1: ASCEL supports the ideas of a shared outcomes framework across the sector.
Demonstrating the outcomes of informal learning and of reading and visiting for
pleasure can be challenging and whilst the Generic Learning and Social Outcomes
are a valuable first step we recognise that a more robust framework would be highly
desirable.
The framework should include outcomes for individuals and for the community. To
be effective the outcomes must have credibility outside of the sector so the
framework must reflect the drivers and terminology of other sectors, in particular
Education. These sectors will thus be able to use the outcomes to demonstrate our
essential contribution to their aims and objectives without having to reinterpret them.
2: The sector must use this opportunity to work more closely together and share
resources and knowledge. There are many examples of joint working across the
country and we need to identify the most effective of these and promote them to
highlight good practice. These examples should not just include one off projects, but
also strategic links between museums, libraries and arts. There is much we can
learn from each other for example, museums are very good at publicising their
creative approaches to family learning which libraries could also offer in partnership.
3: Public Libraries and the local authorities who run them are facing many economic
challenges and libraries are developing new and sometimes more commercial
models of service delivery as a result. One of the issues for the service is to balance
business needs with the needs of the local community and also with the need to cooperate with other services.
4: Public Libraries are also getting to grips with the function of volunteers within the
service and there are many debates in the profession around the following
questions:

Is it appropriate for public libraries to be fully run by volunteers and

If so, how do they access the professional expertise that they need to deliver
a good service to their whole community?

How do they ensure it is a quality and equitable service for all?

Are there specific roles that volunteers should fulfil in the public library service
and should there be standards and accreditation for this?

Are there lessons to be learned from the museum sector about effective
management and use of volunteers?
5: Libraries also have concerns about the loss of professional expertise in the
Service. Some services are managed by people without a library background and
there are fewer specialist posts so staff are picking up specialist work without
support, training or knowledge. ASCEL is particularly concerned about how the
Library Services manage the loss of expertise in children’s library services.
6: Another issue that Public Libraries are grappling with is the need to deliver local
services responding to community needs but maintaining universal quality of
provision. Is there a role for the Arts Council in supporting the library service to
maintain quality on a national level –would an outcomes framework and similar
resources be effective in enabling services to assess and benchmark provision?
Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians
February 2012