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From the beginning, public libraries have been about providing equality of opportunity.


INSIGHT Building Collections


Shaping collections for social impact


IBRARIES are perfectly placed to deliver social impact. Our network of physical and digital contact points and our position of trust and connection give us a unique reach into communities.


Over recent years, how we understand the results and effects of what libraries deliver has shifted. We have moved away from purely transactional measures, towards greater understanding and evidence of outcomes and impacts. In a world where public services need to be able to prove their value and relevance to attract and retain funding and commissions, it is more important than ever that we can demonstrate the real-world impacts of what we do. And that we can present them to funders and decision makers in a way that speaks to their priorities. Amid this drive to redefine our place and perception, there has been a tendency to focus on the more socially visible aspects of library services: the social groups, activities and interactions. These are incredibly relevant and important, but so too is our resource provision and it is easy to overlook the impacts of this.


Social benefit


Reading and information create significant social, personal and wellbeing benefit. They help people to feel better about their lives, to develop empathy and connection, to understand their world and their place in it and to navigate towards better opportunities. This is real impact. However, the impact our content has is only as good as the content itself. So, how do we shape collections for maximum impact and how do we understand and demonstrate impact? Our collections have social value


June 2021


in themselves, but we can enhance this by aligning stock selection and collection building with other, more demonstrably impactful libraries services, projects and priorities. This will also create a coherent library service overall and enable lending and information resources find a more targeted audience. Selecting stock that compliments wellbeing services, projects and partnerships, for example, will not only enhance those projects, but will also provide a framework for gaining maximum use and impact from the stock.


Shifting demand


Similarly, aligning to libraries’ huge impact in connecting people, selecting content that lends itself to social interaction (through reading groups and other social-reading activities and projects) places the resources squarely at the heart of our work reducing social isolation and loneliness. At Suffolk Libraries we run Discovereads, a programme aimed specifically at connecting people with and through books; to get people reading new things and talking about them with others; to build a reading community and sense of belonging. In recent times in public libraries, there has been a shift in demand for information, from traditional reference and research resources (and ‘traditional’ in this context includes online resources, it’s more about content than format) towards more life-critical information needs – the things that people need to know to live and improve their lives. In areas that include health, wellbeing, employment, Universal Credit and personal finance, increasingly people are calling on libraries as a reliable and objective source of information and guidance. We need to shape our resources offer to meet this shift,


Paul Howarth (paul.howarth@suffolklibraries.co.uk) is Head of Content and Resource Development, Suffolk Libraries. www.suffolklibraries.co.uk


providing frameworks and materials to support frontline staff in answering these needs with confidence, and working with partners for more specialist information and advice.


Transformative power


As well as doing all of this, we need to be capturing and demonstrating the impact of our collections and resources through credible and objective research and the collecting of case studies. We’ve started to do this for other areas of library activity, but often shy away from including the impacts of our less obviously ‘social’ core services such as book lending and information provision. If we don’t understand the value of our collections and we can’t demonstrate their intrinsic value, how can we effectively advocate their provision? From the beginning, public libraries have been about providing equality of opportunity. We were “levelling up” way before it became a buzz word. Our collections are key to our transformative power and we need to be doing everything we can to increase the reach and accessibility of these socially crucial assets and the opportunities they provide. IP


INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 15


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