What are libraries for?

Abstract:

This chapter examines varying conceptions of the purpose of libraries, focusing particularly on the public library as a key player, and explores how differing conceptions can affect communication between information providers and their clients.

Key words

purpose of libraries

public libraries

changes in library use

Perceived purpose of libraries

What are libraries for? What do librarians/information professionals do? Although these are by no means new questions, they are pertinent to readers of this work. As librarians we need to remind ourselves that the information provider's conception of the library and that of its users do not necessarily concur. A serious mismatch can exist between client and professional, between the client's expectations and awareness of a library's potential and the reality of both in technical and financial terms. Some clients have an unrealistically inflated idea of what can be made available to them but, tragically, many others remain unaware of the true potential of libraries. Communicating the purpose of one's own particular library is part of the role of an information professional, a part that is easily neglected in favour of more pressing routine matters.

Public libraries

Much of the debate concerns the role of the public library but this is relevant, not only to public librarians, but to all information providers: for many of our clients the public library is their first contact with the world of information provision and information professionals. This situation is a double-edged sword: if that initial contact was a positive one, their mental image of libraries will reflect this and will provide a good basis for further contact. However, if their previous library experience only involved visiting a small branch library, however positive that experience may have been, they may have acquired a somewhat truncated impression of the global potential of libraries. Someone accustomed to using a small library stock, where the retrieval system can be bypassed and items located through browsing, may experience problems when faced with a large university library. Hull (2000) found, for example, that for female students there was a statistically significant relationship between their having difficulties in physically locating items on the shelves in the university library and being a member of the public library.

Development of public libraries in the UK

Clearly the public library, with either positive or negative connotations, forms a part of the Weltanschauung 1 of many, if not all, citizens of the developed world. But old memories die hard; when the Hollywood actor Kirk Douglas, a son of Russian Jewish immigrants, told his father about the free public library in the early part of the 20th century, his father refused to believe the existence of such a place: a place where you could freely browse a collection of books and then take them home, for free! A strange echo of this incredulity occurred recently, nearly a century later, in a public library in Darlington, northern England, when a young boy brought in his father, who asked the librarian 'Is it really all free?'

When the public library service was first conceived in the UK, it was driven by a paternalistic motive to provide a sober, improving pastime to the new urban working classes - mainly to save them from the 'demon drink'. The plan was not entirely successful in that the British working classes are still not generally known for their love of temperance. In addition, rather than serving the working classes, many public library services were soon colonised by the more articulate and demanding middle classes, to create a service perceived by many of the working classes as irrelevant to them. Over the years this situation has generated a backlash and a demand that public libraries should serve the needs of the entire community which they purport to serve. This debate is ongoing.

In 1998, the then UK Culture Secretary, Chris Smith, was still promoting the 'official' definition of libraries as 'the people's universities . entirely egalitarian places. The Duke and the dustman can walk through the door and be treated the same way' (Watson, 1998). There are many who would disagree with this rosy view, and who maintain that the public library's efforts to be welcoming to all have been, at best, lukewarm, failing to be inclusive of the working classes and other socially excluded groups. In consequence, the public library service in the UK has continued to be used more by the, generally more assertive, middle classes and to reflect their values and answer their needs. Some would go as far as to portray the public library as a servant of the class system and argue, 'that the class system pervades every aspect of society, including library usage . that libraries themselves are a means of social control and are therefore alien to working class life and rejected by working class people' (Muddiman and others, 2000).

Many library users are still rooted in the idea of publicly funded libraries as a force for self-improvement and not for entertainment:

It amazes me that we have to go on insisting on this. The idea of a free library presupposes the value, to the individual and to society, of reading, and the value of reading presupposes the value of books. If we fill a library with potboilers and that genre of contemporary literature described as crossover because it crosses us over from maturity to infancy, we abandon the grand educative function which libraries were philanthr opically invented to serve. First, the serious books give way to footling books, then the books give way altogether to something else. Records, tapes, CDs, DVDs, and now computers. (Jacobson, 2005)

The worst fears of Jacobson and others, who believe that the true function of public libraries is no longer being served by the purchase of non-book materials, are confirmed on perusal of the LISU statistics (2005) for England which record a huge increase in the issue of video stock for the five years to 2004: 32 per cent for English counties, 35 per cent for unitary authorities, 33 per cent for metropolitan districts and 24 per cent for London (Table 2.17a). This is matched in the same areas by a huge fall in the number of books issued for the same period: down by 25 per cent, 27 per cent, 25 per cent and 24 per cent respectively (Table 2.15a).

However, without a doubt UK public libraries, in the wake of the economic downturn, are changing: some are closing down, others are being transformed into something which no longer fulfils many people's mental picture of what a library should be. In a March 2010 interview with Margaret Hodge, the then Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, Stuart Jeffries, reported:

She told me that running a successful public library in the 21st century is tough. Technological advances and higher expectations of service mean that libraries must, in her glum progressivist phrase, 'move with the times to stay part of the times'. 'I do care passionately about libraries,' she says, 'but they have to change. The footfall is down and book issues are massively down. Only 14 of 151 local authorities have libraries that offer ebooks.' (Jeffries, 2010)

Changed perceptions of libraries

Should the role of libraries be changing? The format of materials has clearly moved on from the etymological origin of the word, librum, a book. Most librarians would agree that it is the content, not the format, which is important. Was it too great an insistence on the book form that led to the perceived rejection of libraries by the younger generation? Was it an attempt to reflect diversification of format which led so many university libraries to change their names to learning resource centres? It is interesting that a number have now reverted to being libraries, possibly because no-one understood what a learning resource centre was. In the UK, public libraries are currently revamping themselves with new names - 'Explore', 'Inspire'; even 'palazzo of human thought' (Jeffries 2010) has been mooted! Will anyone realise what these places are?

Total rejection of the book form calls up a very pertinent quote, variously attributed, which is worth repeating: there are two kinds of fools: one says, 'This is old, therefore it is good,' and the other says, 'This is new, therefore it is better.' It behoves information providers to keep a sense of proportion in deciding format and not be bedazzled by the latest technological advance: in some situations the printed book can still be a clear winner.

It is argued by some that after tempting the non-user through the door with the prospect of the latest technology, librarians can then coax them into 'self improvement'. A sign in a northeast England library temptingly offers 'Borrow 3 books and you can borrow a DVD free' (borrowing the DVD normally costs £2 per week) - is this the equivalent of 'Eat your greens and you can have chocolate'? Or perhaps it is a somewhat cynical acceptance...