Public Libraries and social inclusion

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Public Libraries and social inclusion

• Bibliocom, Rome, 30 October 2003
• Rob Davies
• MDR Partners
• LearnEast Project

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• www.learneast.com

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This presentation

• Establishing a mainstream role for public
  libraries in social inclusion success factors
• Preliminary assessment
• EQUAL agenda social inclusion, lifelong
  learning, employment skills disadvantaged
  groups
• Sources
• LearnEast/ABSIDE study France/Italy/UK still
  in progress
• Desk research, interviews
• Workshop in Bordeaux, France (October 2003)
• SEIN study commissioned by EC DG INFSO on local
  cultural memory organisations (CMO) draft
  findings

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EQUAL Programme

• European Social Fund
• Test and promote new ways of combating all forms
  of discrimination and inequalities faced by those
  groups most disadvantaged in the labour market,
  both those in work and those seeking work,
  through transnational co-operation.
• Groups include
• women, ethnic minorities, people with
  disabilities, older workers, refugees,
  ex-offenders, drugs and alcohol misusers.
• also action to help the social and vocational
  integration of asylum seekers.
• 3 out of 1300 projects involve libraries!
• ABSIDE, CARIBAL-EDIST,LearnEast
• Second Call for Proposals, Spring 2004
• http//europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/equal/
  index_en.html

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EQUAL principles

• Partnership
• public authorities, representatives of workers
  and employers, equality commissions, education
  and training communities, voluntary and community
  sectors, management authorities
• Thematic approach
• new ways of tackling problems common to different
  types of inequality
• Theme E - Promoting lifelong learning and
  inclusive work practices
• Transnationality
• partnerships from other Member States, learning
  lessons, developing new methods and approaches to
  training and job creation
• Empowerment/participation
• target groups can influence the design and
  evaluation of activities
• Innovation
• new methods of delivery, new systems or
  innovative actions
• Dissemination and mainstreaming
• help inform policy developments at a national and
  European level

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Success factors summary

• Policy and strategies
• Perceptions of library services
• Services
• Public Libraries role in the learning process
• Staff and training
• Content resources
• Equipment/IT infrastructure
• Evaluation/Impact measurement

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Policy and strategies

• National policies, strategies, key documents
• Lifelong learning
• Social exclusion
• Employment skills
• National sector-specific policies for public
  libraries
• Regional and local policies
• Co-operation and partnership agenda
• Funding programmes

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Partnerships

• National/regional agencies with local services
• health, employment
• Regional development agencies
• Local authority services
• social services, education, archives and museums
  etc
• Local adult and higher education institutions
• Community and voluntary organisations (NGOs)

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Policies and strategies - France

• No MoC policy or vision statement for public
  libraries in this area
• National digital divide activity (Les Espaces
  Culture Multimedia) - involves only a few public
  libraries
• Decentralisation to local level - sporadic
  individual initiatives
• Weak articulation between national, regional and
  local policies
• Sporadic co-ordination/funding support provided
  by regional DRAC
• Partnerships mainly governed by local interagency
  contracts

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Policies and strategies - Italy

• Libraries encouraged to respond to National
  Action Plans/strategies
• Social inclusion
• Lifelong Learning
• e-Learning
• Information Literacy
• Territorial development
• Regional co-ordination responsibility
• Multicultural libraries promote social inclusion
  for immigrants
• Structural funds seen as possible funding source
• Training and employment
• Technical innovation

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Policies and strategies - UK

• 1997 Specific role for public libraries within
  top down govt strategies inclusion,
  neighbourhood renewal, learning, skills
• Role in national and local partnerships, access
  centres for national services
• Support through specific agencies at regional
  level
• Role adopted in some way by almost all public
  library authorities
• Peoples Network 170 million IT, digitisation,
  training
• Public libraries currently eligible for wide
  range of non-traditional funding schemes
  bidding culture
• Future sustainability?
• Framework for the Future Libraries, Learning
  and Information in the Next Decade provides only
  3 million all for strategic development

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National/regional policies
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Regional libraries consortia
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Resource regional agencies
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Perceptions of library services

• Social exclusion target groups
• "Fellow citizens who lack the means, material or
  otherwise, to participate in economic, social,
  cultural and political life in Britain today. It
  is more than poverty and unemployment it is
  being cut off from what most of us regard as
  normal life."
• National public library tradition
• Culture books, reading, multimedia?
• Everything we do?

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Perceptions
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Services

• Types of service
• Simply information and resource access
• Mediation/guidance/resource selection
• Structured learning eg guided learning/tutoring/me
  ntoring/direct teaching
• Types of learning supported
• Formal/informal
• Skills literacy, numeracy, IT
• Content-based learning?

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Services

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Libraries benchmarking data
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Staff and training

• Recruitment and qualifications?
• Librarians, learning supporters or teachers
• Community background
• In-service training for learning support
• In-house/self-directed/on-line
• External (adult education)
• Motivation and skills

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Staff and training
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CREMISI/ABSIDE
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Libraries and learning

• If libraries are to fully exploit opportunities
  to realise their potential to support learning, a
  greater understanding of the totality of the
  learning process and its relationship to the role
  of libraries is needed.
• In order to achieve this, the library sector will
  need to work closely with policymakers and
  practitioners from the education sector as well
  as collaborating with organisations in the
  cultural domain.

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Role in learning process

• Formal or informal learning?
• Use of learning rather than education
• Shift towards student-centred learning
• Accreditation?
• IT competence qualification eg ECDL ?
• How does the library support learners?
• Engaging learners
• Planning learning experiences
• Exploring
• Reflection
• Generalising and implementing learning
• Evaluation

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Learning process
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Content resources

• Public libraries as designated access centres
  for national content services in learning,
  employment, skills
• On-line databases/information services
• learning and training opportunities
• employment opportunities
• Learning materials and resources
• e-Learning
• Audio
• Software
• Workbooks, manuals
• Language availability

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Content resources
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LearnDirect
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Equipment and infrastructure

• Buildings and access
• Opening hours
• Non-library community venues
• IT equipment
• PCs and peripherals
• Networks
• Specifications, compatibility, security
• Accessibility
• Upgrading, maintenance and support
• Connectivity and bandwidth
• Internet, multimedia content, videoconferencing
  etc
• Assistive technology
• eg induction loops

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Equipment and infrastructure
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Evaluation and Impact measurement

• Investment for sustainable service development
  comes from showing that you make a difference
• Service benchmarking
• Process and metric
• Focus groups and consultation
• Statistics
• Surveys
• Impact measurement
• Individual beneficiary monitoring (LearnEast)
• Data collection
• Longitudinal issues

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Evaluation and impact measurement
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Conclusions of UK benchmarking club (2002)

• All libraries regardless of size should be
  registered as UK Online centre
• All libraries should be recognised as LearnDirect
  Access Points and offer taster sessions in ICT
  and Internet use
• Libraries expected to be Information, Advice and
  Guidance Centres (IAG) providing a route into the
  learning jungle
• Some libraries in each authority, dependant on
  size and site, should provide Homework
  Clubs/study support facilities for school children

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Conclusions of UK benchmarking club (2002)

• Some larger libraries to provide learning centres
  where structured learning (perhaps provided by
  other agencies) can take place
• Development of a specific access/learning policy
  is good indicator of priority for learning
  support services
• Effective services need to be fully integrated at
  strategic and service point levels
• Formal recognition of library services
  contribution to local education authority and and
  Local Lifelong Learning Partnership objectives is
  a key element of good practice.

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Where will results be published?

• www.learneast.com
• http//www.abside.net