NEWS FEATURE
Libraries are key solution to £63 billion problem
A House of Lords committee has highlighted how libraries are playing a major role in tackling the £63 billion annual cost of digital skills shortages to the UK economy.
THERE is a £63bn a year cost to the UK GDP as a result of a digital skills gap according to the government. This figure appears in its 2022 New Digital Strategy to “make the UK a global tech super power” (
www.gov.uk/government/publica- tions/uks-digital-strategy) published by DCMS.
This report zeros in on a lack of high-end tech skills: employers saying less than half of new recruits have the advanced digital skills required and that this lack of talent is the biggest con- straint to growth. It also talks about the “hidden middle” – the people who exist between digital exclusion and advanced digital skills.
Digital exclusion is a sideshow and public libraries get a couple of brief men- tions on pages 41 and 45.
A year later and the report by the House of Lords Communications and Digital Committee says (https://
bit.ly/3rsXDfu) the government has got its telescope the wrong way around, saying: “The Government’s ambition to make the UK a technology superpower and boost economic growth is being undermined by high levels of digital exclusion.”
While the Committee blames the scale of exclusion on “political lethargy” it also presents evidence that focus- sing on the top level (lack of advanced skills) or even the “hidden middle” won’t fix the problem.
It said: “Basic digital capability is set to become the UK’s biggest skills gap: five million workers are likely to be ‘acutely under-skilled’ in this area by 2030, according to the Industrial Strategy Council.”
It includes evidence from Anthony Walker, Deputy Chief Executive of
12 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
techUK, who “said the Government and industry tended to focus on high- end technical skills, without sufficient acknowledgement of bottlenecks in basic digital skills for life and the work- place. He argued that “you get to that third point only if you are doing the other two”.
Not surprisingly public libraries are amongst the most mentioned insti- tutions in the report. In its opening summary it recommends the Govern- ment boosts support: “Domestic and international evidence suggests place- based inclusion support works. The Government should build on existing examples in the UK, focusing on librar- ies and other local amenities.” Libraries get many other mentions, with evidence from Iceland and Estonia and their role in democracy (“the rollout of voter ID meant libraries were having to help many voters upload photographs to apply for identifica- tion documents, for example”) to the implementation of universal credit (“an awful lot of people had to fill it in who were not online… people [were] going to their local library or Citizens Advice to do this”).
It highlights how little support they get to fill these gaps: “We noted how- ever that the current level of support suggests staff in these organisations may lack sufficient resources and train- ing to address the scale and variety of help needed. Libraries Connected, a representative organisation, said that while libraries were playing an increas- ingly important digital inclusion role, staff ‘cannot meet the demand’ due to a lack of capacity, restricted opening hours and limited equipment. The Local Government Association also told us that pressure on council budgets has
led to a 43.5 per cent net decrease in expenditure on libraries between 2009 and 2019.”
A paragraph later it restates: “Librar- ies and community organisations have taken on additional responsibilities to fill these gaps, but without sufficient resources and training.”
As well as giving evidence, Libraries Connected responded to the report and has also published an Arts Council England-funded report with Good Things Foundation (
https://bit.ly/3NYSFyI) The value that libraries offer in ‘filling gaps’ and how the sector can manage continuous mission creep to its advantage is discussed in detail by Luke Burton, Director, Libraries at Arts Council England on page 32. He says AI will mean more gaps and the Lords Report agrees saying “digitally excluded groups are likely to be poorly represented in some datasets that inform algorithmic decision-mak- ing. They face a growing risk of marginalisation as a result.” Luke talks about how public libraries are likely to be called on again to fill that gap.
Luke Burton, Director, Libraries, at Arts Council England.
July-August 2023
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