Technology for change
Technology and partnerships should underpin the changes and William points to emerging health checks such as breath tests, simple pin-prick tests and the poten- tial for online GP consultations. He says: “If you look at the very old-fashioned way in which we deliver everything from coun- cil services to medical services you realise that with the help of technology we should and could have a place in each community where you can go for self-improvement in the old-fashioned library sense and at the same time in a preventative way to work on the broader aspects of your wellbeing. That in turn may help the NHS to do a lot of preventive work that ultimately saves money.”
Measuring impact “In my experience, some chief exec-
utives get [the importance of libraries] and some don’t. Some people see librar- ies as a thing of the past and some see them as a thing of the future. To me it’s an issue of imagination.”
A model that fits Five distinct models have been identi- fied and these will each have a unique solution applied to them. The idea is that each library within Cambridgeshire and Peterborough will be a close fit to one of the models, making it simple and cost effective to replicate across the region.
The five models are: Anchor in the high street Centre for rural life Reanimating a community Hub for the region
Pop-up for reviving community assets.
Holding hands
William says that local communities will shape the models, but points out that there are potential pitfalls when trying to generate enthusiasm and involvement. There is “baggage” between local authorities and the service users that can prove a barrier to constructive engagement. This is where William and CiviQ come in, by being “the bit in the middle and taking both hands and walk them down the aisle, so to speak. We can turn cynical locals into enthusiastic and passionate locals who understand how they can take more control over their community asset, but at the same time have the confidence that the council will continue to support them and invest in resources and staff, but without the worst constraints of local government.
March 2019 William Sieghart
“I hope what we are going to do is hold hands with both sides and together we are going to rebuild the model of what a really good library should be.”
Making lives better
What that model should look like is still unclear. The project is less than five months into a planned three-year time- frame. Despite this, William is clear about the impact a library should have on its community. He said: “It’s a mark of any civilised society around the world that you have a centre for self-improvement and wellbeing in each community. That allows people, in particular those who are either lonely or poor or facing challenges in terms of access to resources, have somewhere they can go to try and make their lives better.” With that in mind, the “re-invention” of Cambridgeshire’s libraries will look at how services – not just traditional library services – can evolve and be incorporated into the library ethos. That means looking at what makes a community successful and vibrant – so things like health and wellbeing; tackling loneliness and isolation; lifelong education opportunities; supporting business and employment; and delivering crucial services to those most in need. These are all things that are already being done at public libraries up and down the country, but William says that too often it is piecemeal. There is now an opportunity for library services to become indispensable – the essence of a community hub that supports local people through all aspects of their life.
One of the difficulties for any partner- ship working is the issue of who pays for services and how much. There are local, ringfenced health budgets available but securing access to them for library services will take more than the power of per- suasion. William says that proving that ser- vices delivered through libraries can have a positive impact will be a key part of the project in Cambridgeshire. “We have brilliant data experts helping us with what we are doing – looking at what we need to measure, why we have to measure it and how we measure it. We have the council’s own data experts who will be asking those questions, so that we can look to create a ‘life chances index’, and see the impacts we are having. “But it is never easy to get the data right, and that is why we are trying to plug data expertise into this from the very start.”
Supporting communities However, services do not make a com- munity – they can only support it, and William sees libraries as playing a more fundamental role in bringing people together – both physically and spiritual- ly. He says: “On a basic level, we want to commune with each other, but we don’t commune with people in the same way we used to. Technology has changed the way we interact with each other. But a library is the perfect place for people to come together – for sharing resources, for volunteering, for mentoring – all the things that bring people together physically.
“When I have been going around the coun- try, it’s apparent that we need the simple things – heat, staffing Wi-fi, loos and some- thing hot to drink – and the place will be packed 24/7 probably. Too many libraries are closed in the evenings, the times when most people are available and only actually open when most people are at work. Or they don’t have hot drinks or loos, and all of that can be off-putting to users. “It’s blindingly obvious when you look at some of the outstanding examples around
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Interview Willian Sieghart
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