CULTURE
AND CREATIVITY
THE NEXT TEN
YEARS
www.culture.gov.uk/role/creative_next10.html
Comments
from The Library Association
Introduction
1) The Library Association
welcomes the opportunity to comment on DCMS’s vision for the future. We congratulate
the Department for undertaking this exercise and opening it to public scrutiny
– long-term planning is not something often associated with government! We
do not comment in detail on individual proposals in this document unless they
are specifically to do with library provision. Many of our comments are to
do with the ideas and policy thrusts that overarch the detail.
2) There is much we applaud
in the vision for the next ten years - we are sure that the Department is
right in staying with its four objectives of excellence, education, access
and the creative economy. We note also the emphasis being put on freeing the
creative potential of individuals as the overall aim of cultural policy in
the next ten years. This emphasis on the individual chimes in well with the
focus on the learner in lifelong learning and the encouragement of the entrepreneur
in small business – all seek to centre attention on the person rather than
the institution. Our chief concern is that The Association, its members and
the library and information services they provide, have the opportunity to
be closely involved in the programmes outlined in the document.
Creativity
3) The document is right
in seeing creativity as being at the centre of the knowledge economy and the
future prosperity of the nation. Creativity is not something confined to the
arts but is present across human experience and activity – it was the creativity
of the engineer in the 18th and 19th centuries that laid
the foundations of our economy and power. The document, perhaps a little disappointingly,
concentrates on creativity in the
creative industries themselves and has much less to say about how creativity
can be stimulated across all parts of the economy and human life. For this
we are referred to a companion document – Opportunity for All – published
jointly by DfEE and DTI. Perhaps the DCMS case – and indeed that of The Library
Association – would be more telling if we were seen as part of the main fare
rather than a side attraction. This is the great strength of NESTA (and a
feather in the cap for DCMS too) – the National Endowment for Science, Technology
and the Arts – in that it seeks to support creativity across a wide spectrum
of human activity.
4) The Association is
concerned that the links should be made – and demonstrated – between libraries
and creativity, prosperity and human fulfilment. This should cover the aims
and concepts explored in Opportunity for All, such as “innovation and
technology transfer”, “intangible assets”, “commercial exploitation of research”
or making “Europe the most dynamic knowledge economy in the world by 2010”,
as well as the more arts focused proposals in the DCMS document. It should
also look at the actual and potential roles of libraries and information services
in knowledge management (KM) and how KM supports and facilitates creativity
and the improvement of quality – KM, of course, was seen as one of the main
drivers towards competitiveness in the 1998 Competitiveness White Paper, Building
the Knowledge Driven Economy. The Association is keen to grasp this issue
and would welcome doing it in conjunction with DCMS and Resource.
5) However some quick
pointers as to what we are doing:
a) The Library Association
has been reviewing a number of major policy areas through a series of Policy
Advisory Groups (PAGS). They are designed to introduce an independent and
fresh approach to these policy areas as well as make recommendations. We will
be establishing a PAG to look at competitiveness and the knowledge driven economy
in the near future, with the object of it reporting to the LA in the Spring
of next year.
b) The LA has already
done a great deal of work with the Arts Council of England in encouraging partnerships
and ventures between libraries and arts organisations and so widening people’s
access to creative opportunities. We jointly commissioned the research that
resulted in the report Public Libraries and the Arts: Pathways to Partnerships
and are now engaged in a project with the Reading Partnership looking at
testing reader development models of partnership between libraries and other
agencies with other art forms
c) Reading is itself a
major creative experience and not sufficiently recognised in the DCMS document.
The Association has contributed to a number of important initiatives in promoting
literature and reader development in public and school libraries especially
– these include early support for the Branching Out programme, the creation
of Launchpad and the Reading Partnership, and shadowing activities around the
Carnegie and Greenaway awards for children’s books. Reading is not only enjoyably
but it helps equip individuals with an emotional vocabulary and improve skills
for dealing with social situations.
d) Many libraries and
librarians – in community education, voluntary groups and workplaces as well
as public libraries – help adults take the first steps to literacy and belatedly
start the journey of understanding, exploration, participation and creativity.
This key role comes in Opportunity for All but less so in Culture
and Creativity
Children and Young People
6) It is, of course, essential
that children and young people have the opportunity to grow towards their full
potential and participate directly in creative activities and engage with artists
and other creators. The Association warmly endorses this principle and the
pledge that “in time, every pupil will have a chance to work with creative
professionals and organisations, and thereby to enrich their learning across
the whole curriculum” (paragraph 3.12, p 18).
7) Again our main points
are about ensuring the involvement of the library and information sector in
these developments:
a) We welcome the Creative
Partnership initiative. However we need to know much more about the content
and mechanics of such partnerships before we are able to comment constructively.
Our chief concern is that libraries – notably school libraries, school library
services and public libraries – should be seen as an important element in these
partnerships. Libraries not only encourage reading – one of the most widely
enjoyed creative activities - but many support and encourage other art forms
as well. Each library is also a treasure trove of the collective human imagination
and a potentially energising resource to support the exploration, experimentation
and creativity of young minds.
b) Again the Culture Online
initiative is welcome, but full comment will have to await greater detail of
the service being provided. We would, of course, expect libraries of all types
to be access points to Culture Online and some to be active contributors as
well. At this stage we would warn that Culture Online should not be seen as
the answer to future cultural provision on the People’s Network, National Grid
for Learning or other associated networks. If the content on these networks
is to be seen as current, interesting and comprehensive in coverage, then there
will be a need for continued heavy public investment in the creation of such
content. If the first term of the new Labour Government is seen as one of
creating and rolling out networks, then the new Government will have to address
issues of sustainability and content creation and refreshment.
c) We welcome the idea
of a nationwide “books for babies” scheme. Public libraries have been at the
forefront in developing these in most authorities across the country. We have
contacted the Department separately on the issue of bridging the funding gap
between the current schemes, reliant on sponsorship that is disappearing with
the announcement of the national scheme, and the start of the national scheme
itself. We are also pleased with progress in the Sure Start programme and
the fact that all projects now have a library target. However we were surprised
that more was not made in the DCMS document of the opportunities that the various
out-of-school learning projects, currently supported by NOF, and other extra-curricular
activities present for activities stimulating creativity.
d) We have commented before
about the widely varying standards to be found in school libraries, and the
precarious existence of many schools library services under the fair funding
regime. As these services play such an important role, along with public libraries,
in stimulating the imaginations of children and young people, we will be looking
to the Government to explore ways of improving the quality of both these services
and ensuring greater security for schools library services. We hope that this
can be achieved as part of taking forward the Empowering the Learning Community
agenda. We would favour a school libraries standards fund to help tackle
the inadequacies of many school libraries and improve the standard of provision
by schools library services.
Building a New Infrastructure
to support Artistic and Creative Excellence
8) Most of the proposals
contained in chapter 5 are outside the proper remit of the Library Association.
That said we support all efforts to provide more effective and coordinated
support for artists and others engaged in the creative industries. Many of
our members provide a service to this community.
9) However, at the risk
of taking some parts out of context, we have a few comments on some of the
proposals:
a) Copyright – we note
that it is proposed that NESTA should “act as a repository of rights, to help
the UK to protect and exploit its intellectual property”. We have warned before
that there must be a balance between the rights of producers and consumers.
The Library Association, along with its sister organisations in the rest of
the European Community, has been one of the few champions of the consumer in
the copyright debates within the European Parliament, the Commission and the
Council of Ministers. In one sense the issue is quite simple – if too many
rights over access are given to the producers then it will be more difficult
for the artists and creative people of the future to gain access to the materials
they need if they are to develop to their full potential. We see that NESTA
should manage this “property” for the “economic benefit of the UK” and the
“wider public good”. We shall take close interest as to how these factors
are assessed. At the moment we believe that the over-restrictive nature of
copyright and licencing hinders the flow of electronic information, in particular,
restricting access by learners and acting as a damper on creativity.
b) Social Inclusion –
We welcome the DCMS encouragement for all parts of its sector to promote social
inclusion. The Association worked closely with DCMS in producing Libraries
for All and more recently Libraries, Museums, Galleries and Archives
for All. We are committed to taking social inclusion, and the equalities
agenda, seriously. We have established a Social Inclusion Policy Advisory
Group that will report to our Policy and Resources Committee before the end
of 2001. We are also delighted that a Diversity Council is likely to be formed
within the family of the LA and enable our profession to better reflect the
racial and cultural composition of the library and information workforce and
benefit from new perspectives and challenges. We will need to continue to
work closely with DCMS, Resource and others on this crucial issue.
But social inclusion
is not only a matter of social justice and ensuring that every human being
has the opportunity to live their life to its fullest potential – it also is
an essential element within creativity. The society that is able to celebrate
its diversity, and tap into a rich variety of heritage and experience, is also
one that is more likely to innovate and be commercially successful as well
as socially and culturally alive. Many libraries and information services
already work hard at being inclusive and this too is an area where the library
and information sector can, and must, contribute to culture and creativity.
c) Cultural plans – It
is too early to comment on the nature or effectiveness of these plans, both
regional and local. Nevertheless we welcome the commitment of DCMS to their
future. Regional Government and partnership working are likely to assume yet
greater importance in the future and it is important that the cultural sector
has the mechanisms in place to be able to make an effective contribution to
more overarching plans such as Local Strategic Plans or Regional Economic Strategies.
d) National Lottery –
We welcome the commitment to retain the current shares of Lottery income going
to DCMS activities up to 2009. You will know that it has been a cause of great
concern to The library Association that public libraries as public libraries
have not been eligible for Lottery funding for most capital purposes – where
funding has been gained it has been for refurbishing a listed building or providing
arts facilities: none has been available to improve and replenish the building
stock of libraries, for instance. Public libraries have not only be disadvantaged
by not receiving Lottery funding but have also often lost out on other funding
opportunities, notably local authority capital funding, as they have often
sought matching funding from sources such as the Lottery. We continue to press
the case for public libraries to be included in Lottery programmes as public
libraries.
e) International Collaborations
- The Information Services Management within the British Council has been very
effective in providing resources on British culture in countries across the
world. Similarly they reflect their international expertise back into Britain,
enriching the library and information community in the UK and making it more
responsive to the needs of the UK population. The British Council collaborated,
for instance, with the Library and Information Commission and The Library Association
in organising the “Keystone” conference on developing a national information
policy for the UK in March 2000. It is worth restating that, at a global level,
libraries are contributors to world peace as they seek to inform and share
information and works of imagination across national boundaries and other barriers
to understanding: they also help to underpin development and support democracy
and good governance. They are agents of the transfer of ideas and creativity
just as the exchange visits are.
Access and the Public
Library Service
10) The Library Association
fully supports the emphasis DCMS gives to widening participation in cultural
activities and improving access to such facilities and services. Naturally
all publicly funded library services – school, post-16 colleges and institutes,
higher education institutions, and national libraries as well as public libraries
– are concerned with this. It is a key part of the Empowering the Learning
Community agenda,
for instance, that includes improving access arrangements for users across
library sectors (and more recently museums and archives). Steps along this
road have already been taken in a number of areas – many university libraries
subscribe to the UK Plus scheme, for instance, that provides access to university
libraries by students of other universities. Similarly there are a number
of access arrangements between libraries of different sectors negotiated at
local level - these will often be part of wider joint working agreements as
at Sunderland.
11) Nevertheless the social
inclusion and access themes are crucial to public library services. [We have
already stated – paragraph 9b - how importantly The Association takes the
issue of social inclusion]. We have the following observations relating to
the points made in the DCMS document:
a) Free access – We welcome
the moves toward free admission to national museums and galleries. Similar
principles apply to public libraries and access to their stock and services.
Therefore we are particularly disappointed that the Government has yet to endorse
the principle of free access to the internet in public libraries. This principle
has been supported by both the Review of the Public Library Service in England
and Wales (Aslib, 1995) and more recently by the Select Committee on Culture,
Media and Sport. We trust that the Department will review their policy in
light of concerns about access and social inclusion and do more to encourage
free access to the internet.
b) National Public Library
Standards – The Library Association was a partner with DCMS in developing the
Public Library Standards. We are, of course, delighted that they have now
been published and that public library authorities in England are expected
to work towards their achievement. We believe that they will be an important
influence in reversing the trend of the past decade and more of shorter opening
hours, less choice and quality in the stock, and fewer professional staff.
However we continue to have concerns that the core funding of the public library
service is inadequate to meet the challenge. We would wish to explore with
Government ways of helping to improve the local funding of the service and
of establishing a national standards fund similar to that for schools.
c) Public Library Services
in Rural Communities – The Association welcomes the suggestion that the possibilities
of locating mini libraries in post offices should be explored. We would caution,
however, that this will not always be possible and may not even be desirable
in all cases. Rural communities should have viable resource centres that amount
to more than a single spinner of videos, a shelf of books and a terminal –
the nature, size and replenishment arrangements of such resources will need
careful planning. They may not be “mini” and they certainly should not be
static. It is important too that they are seen in the context of the overall
library service to the rural community. Partnership with other community
providers – for instance the pub, the church, the school, the garage, the hall,
the shop and services such as meals on wheels or the Royal Mail – will be essential
to sustain and improve rural library services, together with the imaginative
use of ICT as a new platform for delivering services. However the nature of
the partnerships is likely to vary from one locality to the next.
We would agree that the
post office offers a number of attractive features notably a Government commitment
to enable post office staff and submasters to become “Government General Practitioners”
and funding of £270 million over a three year period (with a promise of more
if needed) to help this transformation take place. The concept of “Government
General Practitioner” is close to that of the community information and advice
offered by the local library. There are clear possibilities of a fruitful
collaboration between libraries and the post office – this will need to be
engineered at both the national and local level, and with the Government’s
renewed commitment to the regional agenda, possibly at a regional level as
well. We would look to DCMS, or possibly Resource, to take this forward but
would be more than willing to actively support such an initiative. We believe
that work also needs to be done on exploring the wider partnership possibilities
and models that might exist to deliver a range of services in rural areas.
Again we would hope that DCMS would take the lead in helping to tackle this
issue with DETR and the Countryside Agency, and The Library Association would
wish to contribute to this process.
d) The People’s Network
– The network represents the largest national investment in public libraries
ever. We applaud the decision to fund this development and are delighted that
we are on schedule to have connected every public library to the information
super highway by the end of 2002. We must now work to address the issues of
sustainability and content creation, and continue the drive to spread ICT skills
and more general information literacy across the population as a whole.
e) Volunteering – The
Library Association is pleased to be involved in the joint Home Office and
DCMS initiative in exploring potential roles for volunteers in the public library
service. However we accept it is sensitive area. We remain against job substitution
but are keen to identify those areas where volunteers might complement the
service and enrich the library experience of users. To this end we commissioned
research on the use of volunteers in public libraries and will shortly be publishing
a set of guidelines on involving volunteers in the public library service,
which we have prepared in consultation with volunteer organisations.
Conclusion
12) The Library Association
welcomes the main aims and directions of DCMS as outlined in Culture and
Creativity. We believe that it is important to define what we mean by
creativity, the role cultural institutions have in stimulating and sustaining
it, and how creativity fits into broader societal and economic concerns. The
messages contained in the DCMS document would have been more persuasive and
powerful if more of them had been incorporated into the White Paper Opportunity
for All in a World of Change, and that had been seen to emanate jointly
from DCMS, DTI and DfEE. However a separate paper would still have been required
as it remains important to state unequivocally that art and cultural services
are important for their own sake as much as for their contribution to other
agendas such as neighbourhood renewal or economic success - they are there
for enjoyment, stimulation, challenge, fun and spiritual refreshment. Arguably
unless you get that right the contribution to other agendas will also fail.
13) In this response we
have tried to look at the concept of creativity across the library and information
sector. It is not confined to “cultural” institutions such as public libraries
or the British Library – it is present in the information services of the corporate
sector or health sector, and in the library services of educational institutions
to name but a few. It is also an important aspect of knowledge management.
If DCMS (or for that matter Resource) wants to be seen as the lead, or coordinating
department, for the library and information sector then it will need to be
more aware of the extent of the sector and its direct involvement in matters
relating to the remits of the Departments of Trade and Industry, Education
and Employment, the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the
International Development Department. The NESTA approach to knowledge and
creativity needs to be embedded in Government – such things cannot be isolated
within individual sectors but must be looked at through the spectrum of all
human activity.
14) The Library Association
welcomes this chance to have contributed its thoughts on culture, creativity
and libraries. We also look forward to working with DCMS over the next few
years to meet the challenges that have been identified and move towards reaching
some of the more over-arching aims. From April next year, subject to gaining
the necessary approvals from The Library Association and the Institute of Information
Scientists to the detail of the unification process, it looks as if we will
be doing this as the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.
References
1. CULTURE, MEDIA AND
SPORT COMMITTEE. THE HOUSE OF COMMONS. Sixth report: public libraries:
report, together with proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence and
appendices. Stationery Office, 2000. (Session 1999-2000). ISBN: 0 10
237000 1
2. ASSOCIATION FOR INFORMATION
MANAGEMENT. Review of the public library service in England and Wales
for the Department of National Heritage: final report. Aslib, 1995.
ISBN: 0 85142 353 1
3. COOKMAN, NOELEEN AND
OTHERS. Use of volunteers in public libraries: a report to the Library
Association. The Library Association, 2000. ISBN: 0 9537404 2 0
4. DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE,
MEDIA AND SPORT. Libraries, museums, galleries and archives for all:
co-operating across the sectors to tackle social exclusion. DCMS, 2001.
5. DEPARTMENT FOR CULTURE,
MEDIA AND SPORT. Libraries for all: social inclusion in public libraries:
policy guidance for local authorities in England. DCMS, 1999.
6. DEPARTMENT FOR EDUCATION
AND EMPLOYMENT AND THE DEPARTMENT OF CULTURE, MEDIA AND SPORT. Government’s
response to “empowering the learning community”: a report from the Library
and Information Commission’s Education and Libraries Task Group. DfEE
and DCMS, 2001-06-14
7. DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
AND INDUSTRY AND DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND EMPLOYMENT. Opportunity
for all in a world of change. Stationery Office, 2001. (Cm. 5052) ISBN:
0 1- 150522 1
8. DEPARTMENT OF TRADE
AND INDUSTRY. Our competitive future: building the knowledge driven economy.
Stationery Office, 1998. ISBN: 0 10 141762 4
9. LIDDLE, DAVID AND OTHERS.
Public libraries and the arts: pathways to partnership: report to the
Library Association and the Arts Council of England. Arts Council of
England, 2000. ISBN: 0 7287 0796 6
Further Information
If you have any queries
relating to this response, please contact:
Guy Daines
Principal Policy
Adviser
The Library Association
7 Ridgmount Street
London WC1E 7AE
Tel: 020 7255 0632
E-mail: guy.daines@la-hq.org.uk
June 2001
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