Public libraries: political vision versus public demand?

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to review UK government policy on public libraries since 2003, and to examine its relationship to other forms of demand for public libraries

Design/methodology/approach

The published literature from government and professional bodies is reviewed, alongside published statistics on library use.

Findings

Since 2003 public libraries have been the subject of sustained interest from UK government, in the form of a range of policy initiatives and incorporation in the Best Value and more recent Common Area Assessment monitoring frameworks. Alongside this, professional bodies and other commentators have put forward views on the role of libraries, but even taken together it is not clear that these represent the needs or aspirations of library service users.

Originality/value

This paper provides an overview of the demand for UK public libraries, and its synthesis will be of value to librarians, government departments and professionals in this and related fields.

Citation

Boughey, A. and Cooper, M. (2010), "Public libraries: political vision versus public demand?", Aslib Proceedings, Vol. 62 No. 2, pp. 175-201. https://doi.org/10.1108/00012531011034982