1. Introduction

Early years have been a traditionally strong area of activity for public libraries. This is reflected in the 80% of UK public libraries who offer Under 5s sessions [ 1 ]. This activity has greatly increased following the expansion of the early years sector as a result of the government’s childcare strategies and the announcement of the £1 billion Sure Start programme.

Beyond the impact on the community, Early Years library services are significant to public libraries for four reasons:

1. They are a clearly identifiable way in which libraries are delivering key government policy (social inclusion, education, attempts to alleviate child poverty)
2. They are attracting high level commercial sector partnership support
3. Early years are typical of new areas of library development which are being facilitated and supported by a range of partnerships, rather than through core library funding – raising concerns about sustainability
4. They are an example of the way in which public library authorities are able to respond to neighbourhood initiatives and focus on working with specific communities. 

In May 2000 the Library Association produced the results of a survey of public library involvement with the government’s Sure Start programme. This gave details of how 36 authorities in trail blazer or second round Sure Start authorities were working as partners in delivering Sure Start. The details proved useful both in terms of disseminating best practise within the library community and as data for advocacy

In April 2001 the increased awareness of the significance of libraries services to children under the age of 4 and their families prompted The Library Association to repeat and extend the survey. A questionnaire was sent to all heads of children’s library services in England as part of The Library Association’s  Early Years Advocacy Pack which aimed to support library services in Sure Start partnerships and as members of their local EYCDP.

The pack was also published on The Library Association Web site and it was possible to answer the questionnaire online. This was the first time that this had been attempted in a Library Association survey. The fact that over half of the responses were received online was seen as a sign of its success.

Responses were received from 88 English library authorities – a response rate of 65%. 4 authorities requested that their responses be treated confidentially. An additional 3 responses were received from other authorities not within the English regions (2 from Wales and one from the Channel Islands). These have been used within the report – where appropriate. The responses were equally distributed across the regions and were equally representative of all types of local authorities.

2. Early Years Librarians