Libraries and Social Inclusion

Public libraries are open to all, and most services are free. They are located at the heart of many communities, and are often an essential part of the civic landscape that denotes a particular community. They serve a very diverse range of users and play a key role as gateways to other civic and community services. Public libraries are absolutely committed to tackling social exclusion.

Newham Libraries' Community Outreach Team visits 600 individuals and 90 community venues every month to take library materials and services to people who would otherwise have very limited opportunities to read and access information.

Merton Libraries employ a Community Arts & Libraries Officer to build links with Black communities through Arts events. Merton have also developed links with asylum seekers and refugees, taking the library service to some of the most disenfranchised people in the borough.

Multicultural Library and Information Service has been an essential part of Wandsworth's Library Service since 1977 and has pioneered ways of encouraging individuals and community groups in accessing library services and participating in wider community activities - Black History Month, for example.

Redbridge Libraries have won awards for their mobile library service. Not only does their newest mobile library have all the usual things like a wide range of stock and disabled access, it also has online links through 5 PCs to the library catalogue and the Internet. Redbridge use the mobile to serve hard-to-reach communities that few other services target.

Virtually all libraries offer free ICT taster sessions aimed at people excluded from other learning opportunities - people of all ages. Enfield Libraries provide an impressive and diverse array of services aimed at tackling groups at risk or already suffering the effects of social exclusion, from a monthly mini-bus service that picks up housebound readers and takes them to the local library to choose books and meet friends to a community outreach librarian specifically employed to reach out into local ethnic minority communities and take library services to them.

Targeting and employing young people on New Deal schemes is a key objective of Hackney Libraries - giving some people their first opportunity to offer something back to their local community as well as providing much needed employment in one of the most deprived parts of Britain.

All library services offer collections of Basic Skills materials. These can often be the first point of entry for many people alienated or excluded form any other form of learning. Camden Libraries have pioneered close working links with Basic Skills providers that place libraries at the heart of community learning.

Sutton Libraries are working with Sutton Dyslexia Association to support and promote resources developed by young people 10 - 16 with dyslexia.

London's Libraries co-operate to provide excellent coverage of community language materials. Local libraries can call on special collections that cover virtually all languages.

Libraries in London promote a huge range of events aimed at specific communities across London - some of the most extensive programmes are aimed at Black communities through October's Black History Month and London's lesbian and gay community through Pride events in June.

Libraries increasingly offer video conferencing facilities (with translation services if appropriate) - offering local people the opportunity to reach distant council and other services from an environment in which they can be made to feel far more comfortable.

Many libraries routinely monitor their staff recruitment to ensure that library staff reflect the communities they serve, trying to send a public sign that libraries are for all.

Many library services have changed their opening hours to enable more people to use the library - Sunday opening, for example, has transformed the use of libraries by making libraries even easier to get to for people who may have no other access to information, advice and resources. 

All of London's Library Services now offer access to the Internet - free. With the gap growing between the ICT rich and poor, this service is a crucial one for those who seek to equip themselves with ICT skills or know that they need access to electronic resources and information but cannot get it anywhere else.

For more information about London's libraries and their work, contact:

London Libraries Development Agency,
35 St Martin's Street,
London WC2H 7HP

tel & fax  020 7641 5266

e-mail  contact@llda.org.uk