Public libraries are being hit by a wave of proposals to resurrect a service in serious decline. Demos recently published Overdue, which proposes a National Library Development Agency. Earlier this year, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport published its long-awaited framework for the future of libraries. And where the Demos publication has set the cat among the pigeons, the framework document is hardly radical and at other times might have been politely ignored.
But many in the sector recognise this is crunch time: with a polarised age profile of users, problems in the recruitment and retention of staff, under-investment and fierce competition from the high street, library services desperately need to re-invent themselves or face obsolescence.
The DCMS report itself comes soon after a massive study from CILIP (formerly the Library Association) called Start with the Child, which reviews public library services for children and young people. It suggests the way forward is better consultation with users, more sophisticated marketing and promotions, more attractive surroundings and new local partnerships.
It is hard to disagree with these recommendations, but it is disappointing that none of the documents makes more of the opportunities for partnership with the youth service. There is lots of evidence that where libraries and youth services work together the partnership can bring a unique offering to young people. The NYA's YouthBoox programme, run in partnership with the Reading Agency, has developed some practical models for these programmes and demonstrates how they can work.
For example, libraries can benefit greatly from the experience that youth workers bring to support young people's participation in their services.
It would be great to see a version of Hear by Right for the library service, for example, and get young people directly involved in planning and shaping services beyond a token involvement. Some of the most successful elements of the YouthBoox programmes have involved young people taking over elements of the service: going off to buy books, opening at special hours just for young people, waiving fines and so on.
Young people need to be at the heart of transforming libraries - not just for themselves but for the sake of all library users. Their active involvement in shaping the service will make libraries into places where the customer leads, not the staff. If libraries want to find a place for young people that isn't just an awkward spot between the bean bags, there needs to be a radical shift in the way users are involved in the service. Now is the time to make it happen.
