Baroness Elizabeth Sanderson of Welton has been appointed by the
Government to help develop a new strategy to make sure public
libraries are providing the best possible service for their
communities.
Libraries provide a vital service and the strategy will help
establish ways in which they can improve to meet the needs of
people in their area.
Baroness Sanderson is an experienced former journalist and
government adviser who joined the Government benches in the House
of Lords in 2019.
She has been appointed as the independent chair of a new advisory
panel and will be expected to provide a fresh, challenging and
impartial perspective on libraries to help formulate innovative
new policy ideas.
Through the autumn and winter she will lead a number of sessions
with the advisory panel of contributors who will be drawn from
the library sector and beyond. Participants in the panel sessions
will be confirmed in due course.
All sessions will be attended by representatives from Arts
Council England, Libraries Connected, and the cross-party Local
Government Association.
The sessions will help gather information to inspire a set of
recommendations which will form part of a new government public
libraries strategy for 2023, succeeding the
previous strategy which
came into force in 2016.
Input into the development of the recommendations will also come
from the British Library, local authority library services and
community-managed libraries, as well as other government
departments, to bring in a wide range of views and insights.
Libraries Minister of Whitley Bay said:
Libraries have a unique and precious role in communities across
the country — something which was thrown into relief during the
pandemic. As we bounce back from that, we want to make sure we
are drawing on a wide range of expertise and best practice to
give them the support they need to keep serving the public so
well.
Baroness Sanderson and the panel of expert and outside voices
will help us achieve this and I look forward to seeing the
recommendations they put forward.
Baroness Sanderson said:
I’m thrilled to be taking up this new role. Libraries play such
an important part in our lives, be that instilling a love of
reading in childhood or encouraging economic, social and mental
wellbeing throughout adulthood and into old age.
Too often undervalued, they are one of the most critical forms of
social infrastructure we have and I look forward to working
alongside the experts, and listening to a wide range of voices,
so that we may help develop ideas as to how we may promote and
protect our libraries into the future.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
- The role is unpaid.
- Participants in the advisory panel sessions will be confirmed
in due course.
- While responsibility for managing library services sits with
local authorities, the Government has a duty to ensure councils
are meeting their statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and
efficient library service, as well as providing support to
councils looking for ways to improve their service.
-
DCMS funds Arts Council England, which is the national
development agency for public libraries. ACE is delivering
the Government’s £20.5 million Libraries Improvement Fund,
which will transform library services in England by helping
them upgrade their buildings and improve digital
infrastructure. Awards made through the scheme this year
include £495,000 for the Sandwell Library and Information
Service in the West Midlands and Sheffield Libraries which
was given £340,000.
-
Libraries Deliver:
Ambition for Public Libraries in England was the first
ever national libraries strategy, produced by the Libraries
Taskforce and co-sponsored by the Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport and the Local Government Association.
The Libraries Taskforce ceased in March 2020, with
its final
closure report published in June 2021.
