Love libraries – local government, meh!
Jinfo Blog

By Joanna Ptolomey

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I have quite literally been to the edge and back in the last week.  I attended the Edge2011 Conference last week and I did wonder if it had the power to innovate as I had hoped in my last LiveWire post.

We were all in a reflective mood as Mark Turley, Director of Services for the Communities for City of Edinburgh, asked why people value libraries and local services but not necessarily their local council.  He observed that the Edinburgh evidence and experience had suggested that communication was the key – people want immediacy and timeliness with information about services, and that includes libraries.

Many of the speakers spoke of having political champions for public and local library services – Brian Gambles (Birmingham City Council), Kevin Winkler (New York City Public Libraries) and Nicky Parker (Manchester City Council).  Without a political champion your service is going nowhere.  A common theme was that libraries were no longer standalone services – a theme carried through from the previous Edge2010 Conference.

Brian Gambles explained why libraries had to change and why they were addressing Birmingham’s problem of urban regeneration by putting a state of the art (and architectural flagship) at the centre of the city transformation.  Indeed the library is expected to push Birmingham into the mid-twenties range of the Mercer Quality of Living Index – currently Birmingham is ranked 56.  Libraries prepare to show your true value and it can be measured.

The new vision for the city of Birmingham is a library connected to the public realm – physically, socially, educationally and culturally.  Partnership and shared services is "numero uno" priority – university and colleges, health services, somewhere to pay your rent, galleries and event space.  It also makes financial sense.  Manchester’s Nicky Parker spoke of sharing spaces and partnering in their model. She was also courting the voluntary sector (non-profits) and small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). 

People love libraries (especially public) around the world.  Perhaps what they really love is the journey of discovery that it can take on in their lives.  People also don’t live or learn in boxes and perhaps we don’t need a place called the library.  A knowledgeable empowered population don’t need a destination space called a library – perhaps they need a knowledge hub or a social learning hub or a cultural exchange.

As we say in FreePint, whether it is on the LiveWire or in FUMSI, it is not the information that is important it is the knowledge and what we do with it.  I am working on a health information project where the shared experiences are just as important as the traditional information resource.  Gathering knowledge and being empowered is what makes a more effective and in some cases a healthier population.

Perhaps public services are starting to catch on – with libraries part of the equation.  Long may it continue.

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