LIBRARY ASSOCIATION RESPONSE

1. Introduction

1.1 The Library Association is the professional body which represents some 25,000 librarians and information workers in the United Kingdom. Under the terms of its Royal Charter, The Association has a duty to promote high quality library and information services and to advise government, employers and others on all aspects of library and information provision.

1.2 We welcome the opportunity to comment on the Report of the Education and Libraries Task Group of the Library and Information Commission, Empowering the Learning Community which we view as a focus for library and information provision at the beginning of the 21st century.

1.3 We are impressed by the breadth of knowledge and expertise represented by the members of the Task Group and we welcome the commitment of DCMS, Re:source and DfEE to take forward the recommendations in it.

1.4 We broadly support all of the recommendations made in the report and offer below comments on some aspects.

2. The definition of lifelong learning

2.1 The definition of lifelong learning adopted by the Report is admirably broad "it embraces pre-school children and those retired from formal employment, covers reading for pleasure or to satisfy personal curiosity" (3.1.1).

2.2 The Library Association welcomes this inclusive definition of lifelong learning. The concept is broader than that suggested by the themes identified by Learning to succeed (1999): the 16-19 age group, adult basic skills and employment market skills. Lifelong learning is not just an intellectual process; it incorporates imaginative and intuitive learning. Learning is both formal and informal and happens in institutions and also in communities.

2.3 The concept of lifelong learning as contained in this definition is wider than skills and employability. It encompasses early years development, cognitive and personal; social and cultural formation; and the satisfaction of intellectual curiosity. Of course it may be argued that these impact on employability. But we believe that they are culturally important in their own right, independent of any potential economic impact, and should be encouraged as such.

2.4 However, we feel the Report does not successfully address this breadth of vision outlined by its definition of lifelong learning. The Report focuses on the support of 'formal' learning. We believe that other less formal patterns of library-sustained learning should be acknowledged and encouraged. Many of these are vital in supporting lifelong learning. Two examples that support this assertion are:

• The Effective provision of pre-school education project's interim findings suggest that the quality and range of parents' activities with children, in particular visits to the library, can compensate for parents' social and educational disadvantages in supporting a child's cognitive development;
  
• Recent reader development projects, which are thriving in both the public and school library sectors¹, demonstrably sustain lifelong learning and aid the development of basic skills. DCMS Wolfson funding has confirmed them as a major area of activity for public libraries.

2.5 We believe that the library community should focus on developing strategies to support formal and informal learners in accessing library provision across sectors - public, school, further education, higher education, the private sector and the voluntary sector. Co-operation must be lateral, as creative partnerships will be essential in fostering learning.

2.6 We support:

• An audit of learning resources, opportunities and activities in each sector which support formal and informal learning to define the broad range of lifelong learning support activities in libraries;
  
• An audit of resources, opportunities and activities supporting formal and informal learning which are not currently available to learners through libraries;
  
• The stimulation of an important strand of informal learning activity in school libraries by seeking support from DfEE, similar to DCMS Wolfson funding, for school library reading projects.

3. A learner-centred approach

3.1 The focus of the Report is the development of structural co-operation to support lifelong learning. This places institutions, rather than the learner, at the centre of the Report. We believe that the primary focus must be the learner. Structural flexibility and change will inevitably be demanded as libraries respond to the needs of the individual to support patterns of formal and informal lifelong learning.

3.2 We support the statement that 'there will need to be sufficient flexibility to allow funding to move across traditional boundaries' (Foreword, p2). However, there is a lack of central encouragement, especially through funding arrangements, for the creation of partnerships both between libraries, and between libraries and other providers, to achieve the seamless service that learners will seek.

3.3 This can be exemplified by public libraries, which are used by informal and by formal learners. This needs to be recognised in the arrangements for funding formal learning; for example, an element of the course fee could be earmarked to support public library provision. It also needs to be recognised in the structure of Individual Learning Accounts which currently cannot be used to pay for the cost of photocopying, reservations, interlibrary loans, online access etc. at the public library.

3.4 We suggest that:

• The learner, rather than the institutional structure, is placed at the centre of future developments as many services delivered and maintained on historical patterns will have to change fundamentally to provide for the people libraries serve;
  
• Library services (in public, schools, schools library services, FE and HE sectors) should be accessible through 'formal' learning funding streams including Individual Learning Accounts

4. Barriers to Access

4.1 The Report does not fully address the issue of barriers to access and the challenge to libraries of widening participation. There is a need to recognise the role that librarians, in all sectors, play in delivering the widening participation agenda as outlined in Learning works (Kennedy, 1997). This role needs to be linked to the learning process through broader policy agendas such as social inclusion, regeneration, employment and citizenship. This could be achieved by, for example:

• Targeting funding to initiatives that seek to encourage the 'difficult to reach' to participate in learning;
  
• Building on the concept of 'inclusive learning', as developed by the Tomlinson Committee in its report on learning difficulties and/or disabilities to the Further Education Funding Council, throughout the library sector;
  
• Promoting the concept of learning champions in the community and providing the appropriate facilities to support learning and learners in deprived communities;
  
•  Development of the strong base of homework clubs and study support activities provided in 47% of public library authorities² to address the learning needs of socially excluded young people;
  
• Building on existing good practice involving libraries with 'open' systems of learning, such as the Open University, the Open College, etc. and using this to develop links between libraries and initiatives such as Learndirect.

4.2 In the school and further education sector some libraries cannot meet the challenge of supplying an adequate amount of learning resources within their own institution, let alone in a wider lifelong learning context. Also Schools Library Services, whose funding by institutional purchasing arrangements, define their service provision and fail to allow their engagement with the wider learning agenda.

4.3 As the Report points out, there is a need to address inequalities in access to quality library provision across the education sector (see section 5 below) by the development of standards and through revision of funding practices, which have a restrictive effect on library service provision.

4.4 In Learning to succeed (1999) the Government outlined its strategy for dealing with non-higher education based post-16 education and training, recognising that the majority of the work will be undertaken in further education colleges. This report fails to recognise the financial problems within the further education sector, and notably within libraries in this sector.

4.5 We support:

• An exercise that maps learning needs and activities against structures of access and provision.

4.6 The result of the mapping exercise should be the identification of examples of transferable good practice, using a framework which covers different types of communities and different groups of people using a methodology which, over time, can be evaluated.

4.7 We suggest:

• New funding arrangements for Schools Library Services which incorporate core, non-delegated funding which would allow them to develop new cross-sectoral projects linking schools and public libraries;
  
• The creation of standards for school and academic library provision which address the theme of universal access to quality learning resource provision (see section 5 below);
  
• The establishment of funding arrangements for further education libraries which take into account the breadth and depth of the curriculum offered and the diversity of the client group.

5. Integration of the delivery system of learning

5.1 To allow libraries to empower learning communities three distinct themes of integration need to be addressed:

• The integration of library and learning resource centres within learning institutions, and their recognition within the institution as a vital element in the delivery of learning and the development of teaching;
  
• The cross-sectoral integration of libraries to form a seamless network to support lifelong learning;
  
• The adoption of a definition of the learning support skills required by library staff to enable them to effectively interact with learning, to ensure learners receive appropriate support across all library sectors.

5.2 Implicit within the lifelong learning agenda is the de-institutionalisation of learning; a breaking down of the traditional definitions of where learning takes place. This makes the creation of an integrated delivery system of learning a priority.

5.3 Because the Report focuses on the existing institutions rather than placing the learner at the centre, there is an overall lack of clarity on how libraries contribute to the delivery of a seamless system of learning.

5.4 An important contribution is the skills base from which librarians work. The Report mentions the need for training on more than one occasion (Foreword, p.4; 1.1.2; 1.2.3; 4.1). However, the emphasis in the Report seems to be on librarians as guides to available resources, rather than on their interactive role within the learning process.

5.5 Only a few institutions in the education sector formally acknowledge library staff to be part of the learning process. In public libraries the role of the librarian is even more infrequently recognised. Despite public libraries work with Sure Start projects, study support and homework clubs, open learning services and reading development programmes, public librarians are seldom recognised as agents of lifelong learning. There remains a major advocacy job to be done to convince key players of the vital role librarians perform in lifelong learning. There is a need to define the learning support skills required by library staff which need to be integrated into professional education and development.

5.6 We suggest:

• The adoption of a formal definition of how libraries, and librarians, support lifelong learning in an interactive way rather than simply as a resource provider;
  
• Work with inspection bodies such as OFSTED, the Adult Learning Inspectorate and the Quality Assurance Agency to formulate effective inspection procedures to ensure that school and academic libraries are recognised as integral to the learning process;
  
• There is a need to build on existing good practice of partnerships between public libraries and post-16 institutions.

6. Quality assurance

6.1 There is a need to address the issue of quality assurance in terms not just of learning provision and mediation but also in terms of the provision of information, advice and guidance. It must be recognised that a range of disciplines give information and guidance on learning, for example, libraries, careers, FE, youth workers, community workers. We feel the Report does not give enough emphasis to the potential value of cross-sectoral co-operation. Lessons can be learned from the organization of the NOF training in setting up any programme of information-advice-guidance

6.2 A potential quality issue not raised in the Report is the provision of libraries with no professionally qualified staff. Some further education colleges and secondary schools do not employ professional library staff but do provide libraries. Two thirds of secondary school libraries are managed by teachers or support staff without qualifications in librarianship. In the corporate and industrial sector such evidence that there is suggests that library and information services have little engagement with learning.

6.3 Quality needs to be assured by both external inspection and internal self-assessment evaluation. Currently inspection of school and academic libraries is subjective as the inspectors are not library professionals. The guidelines for inspection supplied to inspectors fail to address library provision with rigour and insight. Inspection is often based on subjective criteria and the personal knowledge of the inspector.

6.4 Libraries in all sectors concerned with lifelong learning need to engage in self-evaluation or peer-accreditation programmes, such as those developed for school libraries in Scotland³, which analyse the quality of their contribution to learning.

6.5 We suggest:

• The appointment of professional librarians as inspectors to carry out the inspection of libraries in schools and academic institutions as they will be able to assess the effectiveness of the library in the learning process;
  
• A change to the pattern of inspection regimes to incorporate self-assessment, self-evaluation and cross-sectoral peer-accreditation;
  
• The establishment of enforceable library standards to ensure the provision of quality library services.

7. Conclusion

The Library Association broadly supports all of the recommendations made in the Empowering the learning community report. The suggestions we have made are in the spirit of support for the overall aims of the Task Group. We hope that our comments prove useful and welcome the possibility of further engagement in this debate.

The Library Association, October 2000

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¹. The engagement of school libraries with reader development has been revealed by a recent survey undertaken by the Survey and statistical research Centre at Sheffield Hallam University for The Library Association. 37.4% of secondary school libraries arranged a regular book club and 49.5% arranged a book week.

². The Library Association research into public library authority provision of study support (July 2000)

³. Taking a closer look at the school library resource centre (1999)