Library catalogues have existed for centuries, and in electronic form since at least the 1960s. They facilitate bibliographic management, description, discovery and access. The advent of web-scale discovery, however, has led to a redefinition and complication of the role of the library catalogue as it becomes just one part of a complex portfolio of full-text subscription resources, metadata and finding aids, multimedia content, digitised archival materials, web resources and publisher information. This web of library collections, federated content, and myriad self-contained digital resources represents a fragmented ecosystem of interrelated technologies, metadata standards, federated content and resource typologies that represents institutional as well as commercial interests. At the same time, each of these strands of the web produces data relating to a range of library activities, including but not limited to bibliographic description and classification, collection development, purchasing, user accounts and interactions with the library and its resources. As a result, libraries are repositories not only for physical and digital information resources, but for enormous amounts of data about the interactions between those resources and human actors, such as library staff and users. Researchers are, as a result, already using library data sources, including historical and contemporary catalogues, borrowing records, library classification data and metadata, in their research.

Introduction

In recent years, the bibliographical data (bibliodata) landscape has entered a critical phase of digital transformation. This era is characterised by the growing amount of data available, greater automation and data exchange capacities and the increased ability to produce data-based knowledge.

These overarching trends have also produced a number of tensions in the landscape that now call for closer analysis. First of all, there is a tension driven by the need to adapt and change traditional curation approaches. Historical models have been tested by the transfer of older descriptions to newer standards and platforms as well as by the pressures of curation for a growing but sometimes elusive user base. Second, there is a tension between open and closed data exchange ecosystems, which has also exposed conflicts between the solutions of stakeholders from different sectors and business models. Third, there is a tension based on the gap between the quality of current data and the growing expectations of stakeholders engaged in databased knowledge and research. For many of these entities, older means of information retrieval are simply no longer enough.

Since this chapter aims to analyse these tensions from the perspective of the humanities community, we need to address the specificities of the humanities environment. In particular, we must examine two large groups of stakeholders of critical importance to the humanities: libraries, archives and museums (LAM) and the research sector. A range of varied stakeholders represent these two groups, including research infrastructures, publishers, information services, libraries and archives.

Introduction

The collective holdings of libraries everywhere seem, at first glance, to be little more than an abstract notion. It's something that we can easily grasp as a concept, but they are nevertheless immeasurable and it's beyond our ability to attach specific properties or characteristics to them. But aggregating and analysing library data – bibliographic descriptions and holdings information – can make the conceptual concrete, and in doing so, provide valuable intelligence to librarians as they organise, steward, share and preserve their collections.

A collective collection is ‘the combined collections of two or more institutions, viewed as a single, distinct resource, usually through aggregation and analysis of metadata about the collections’ (Lavoie et al., 2020, 982). The purpose of collective collection analysis is to understand and, ultimately, more effectively manage collections at scale – that is, collections that span the boundaries of any single institution's local holdings. Collective collections are of ever-increasing importance to libraries as they seek opportunities to find new sources of efficiency by leveraging scale, while at the same time discovering new opportunities to leverage and amplify local collection strengths in a collaborative setting.

Collective collections are integral to shared print programmes, like the Eastern Academic Scholars’ Trust (https://eastlibraries.org) or the Research Collections and Preservation Consortium (https://recap.princeton.edu), where groups of libraries co-ordinate management of their collective print holdings. They also lie at the heart of resource sharing networks like Borrow Direct (https://ask.library.jhu.edu/faq/44698), where materials and users are connected beyond the boundaries of local offerings.

Introduction

The central collection of the British Library is made up of approximately 170 million items, of which 13.5 million are books, with a digital collection over a petabyte in size (‘Facts and Figures of the British Library’, 2020). With 746km of shelving, the catalogue of this august institution plays a central role in ensuring that works are not misplaced, where they would likely never be found again (although works do still go missing from time to time (Dawar and Kennedy, 2009)). Yet, as any seasoned navigator of the British Library's catalogue knows, not all items are locatable. Some items, usually newer publications, can take a while to be acquired and to appear. Others, though, more mysteriously, are marked as ‘destroyed’. These items are generally those that were subject to the bombings of the Blitz in 1940s London, when the Library was at its old home in the British Museum.

As Richard Ovenden has powerfully charted in recent times, knowledge – and the institutions that preserve it – frequently come under attack (Ovenden, 2021). There is also no reason to assume that, in the digital age, the threats to knowledge have receded. Indeed, at the time of writing, the British Library suffered a terrible cyberattack (www.bl.uk/cyber-incident) that knocked its digital catalogue offline. It is unclear when it will fully recover.

Introduction

This chapter captures an ongoing professional debate which has been running since the Library Association was established in the late 19th century and asks the question: ‘should public libraries be focused on equity or excellence?’ This debate goes to the very heart of the battle of ideas in public libraries: should the priority be upholding standards of professional excellence or should it be meeting the needs of all sections of the community? The debate was reignited by two key publications. In 2007 Bob Usherwood published Equity and Excellence in Public Libraries: Why Ignorance Is Not Our Heritage, in which he argued that too many public librarians avoid making value judgements when selecting stock and deciding service priorities. As a result, they are failing to counteract the current culture of ignorance and the dangers it brings. In 2010, John Vincent and I published Public Libraries and Social Justice as a direct response to Equity and Excellence. We suggested that it was better to compromise on high professional standards so that libraries could truly be open to all.

Ignorance is not our heritage

Equity and Excellence in the Public Library is an important contribution to a vital professional debate by one of the UK's leading scholars in the field. Usherwood examines and discusses how library professionals can meet the demands of policy makers to open up the public library system without destroying its values. Based on a critical literature review, a survey of library professionals and consultations with other stakeholders, in his book he discusses the challenges involved in providing a service that prioritises equity and social inclusion while at the same time attempting to promote and maintain quality, excellence and ethical standards.

Library and Information Science (LIS) has always been a contested space, long before the current ‘culture wars’ and ‘woke’ agendas. This book captures some of the major debates that have taken place within the profession during the first quarter of the 21st century and suggests how these can be used to inform the future development of public libraries. The topic of this book is important and timely because public libraries are caught up in the battle of ideas that is currently taking place in many parts of the world, most notably Europe, North America and Australasia. This book is needed both to provide historical context to these contemporary debates and to educate and support current LIS practitioners as they negotiate issues such as censorship, racism and decolonisation.

Reimagining the Public Library uses a 25-year time frame (2000 to 2025) to take a historical look at the development of public libraries. Its main reference points are Framework for the Future: Libraries, Learning and Information in the Next Decade (DCMS, 2003) and An Independent Review of English Public Libraries (DCMS, 2024). Here the essential question is: what has changed in terms of government policy and action about public libraries between the publication of these two reports? Other reference points over the same period are Open to All? The Public Library and Social Exclusion (Muddiman et al., 2000) and Come Rain or Shine: Preparing Public Libraries for the Future in an Age of Uncertainty (CILIP, 2024). The critical question is: how much of the learning that was captured in Open to All?

Introduction

This chapter considers the thorny issue of how to meaningfully measure public library performance and asks the question: ‘can evaluations of equality, happiness and well-being be used as proxy performance measures for public libraries?’ Traditionally, public library performance has been assessed in terms of quantitative metrics such as the number of people who visit the library, take out a library card and borrow books and other items. But these numbers tell us nothing about the social impact and value of public libraries. If, however, libraries can be evaluated in terms of the direct and indirect contribution they make to important social outcomes such as equality, happiness and well-being, then they will be better positioned to argue for increased resources, and they will be more able to defend themselves from potential cuts. One of the reasons why it is relatively easy to close a library – rather than a school or a hospital – is that they have not been able to justify their existence by providing hard evidence of their social value.

Libraries’ Holy Grail

Searching for meaningful and measurable impacts and outcomes has become something of a Holy Grail for public libraries. The approach to date has been an attempt to replace quantitative statistical indicators with qualitative outcome measures. But maybe there is another way forward which can translate some of our traditional performance indices – visits, circulation, membership – into proximity measurements for much larger societal impacts and outcomes. This would eliminate the need for each public library to devise its own unique set of outcomes. Instead, all public libraries could focus on their individual contributions to big-picture agendas which have a high local, provincial and national profile.

Introduction

This chapter pulls together all of the lessons that can be learned from the professional debates that have taken place over the last 25 years and asks the question: ‘do public libraries have a sustainable future, come rain or shine?’ The CILIP report Come Rain or Shine (2024)is intended to prepare public libraries for the future in an age of uncertainty. It concludes that

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many things, not least of which is the inherent fragility of the capitalist economic system, which is predicated on everincreasing growth. In Library Land, the pandemic has also exposed a number of inherent fragilities, including discriminatory class- and race-based practices. In turn, these practices reveal that, rather than being agents of social inclusion, public libraries have a history of being agents of social control and exclusion.

Introduction

This chapter looks at two particular aspects of social exclusion – race and class – and asks the question: ‘are these the final frontiers of professional library debate?’ Social class is a key determinant of people's life chances and yet this critical issue has been peripheral to public library strategies, structures, systems and culture. What are the reasons for this? First and foremost, public libraries are class-based institutions, and so it is vital that this is concealed through the deployment of a liberal ideology that positions them as ‘classless’, ‘neutral’ and ‘apolitical’. Second, public libraries are managed and led by middle-class professionals who either do not recognise the class struggle or do not see its relevance to the communities they serve. Racial differences are more obvious, and since the Black Lives Matter movement more attention has been paid to race in public libraries. But this tends to be a part of the wider intersectional movement which views race as an aspect of identity rather than a form of oppression. Attempts to get the Library Association to recognise race and class have been rejected on the spurious grounds that its royal charter does not permit it to engage with political agendas.

Social exclusion and social class

Introduction

This chapter looks at collection development and asks the question: ‘are books any different from baked beans’ in terms of how library collections should be managed? Framework for the Future (DCMS, 2003) and Building Better Library Services (Audit Commission, 2002) both made books and reading their central priority, and so it is easy to imagine that when a librarian suggested that ‘books are no different than baked beans – our job is to ship them in and ship them out’, this caused something of a stir within the LIS profession. Collection development goes to the very heart of public libraries – it is their life blood, and many librarians were offended by the suggestion that books were no different from baked beans. Context, of course, is everything, and the context for this debate was the suggestion that librarians should not remove any books from their shelves, and that unwanted or unused books should be stored in warehouses, waiting for the day when somebody might want to borrow them. Not only was this an unrealistic suggestion but it struck at the heart of modern collection development – which holds that only those books that are needed and used by the community deserve their place on the library shelves. And they have to merit that place by being circulated on a regular basis – at least once every six months, for example.

The Strange Rise of Semi-literate England

In 1992 there was a lively debate in the Times Literary Supplement (TLS) and the Library Association Record on the views expressed in W. J. West's book The Strange Rise of Semi-Literate England (1991b).

Introduction

This chapter considers a particular aspect of race and identity within the context of the ‘War on Terror’ and asks the question: ‘what is more important for public libraries – to police government policies or retain the trust of local communities?’ Despite their class-based character, public libraries have tended to be trusted by most sections of the community. They are viewed as a public good, like the NHS, which can do no harm. This safe and secure image was severely shaken and dented when public libraries were enrolled as agents of the state to police the Conservative government's anti-terrorist strategy. Libraries were asked to spy on what their readers were borrowing and report any suspicious activities to the police, along with the name and address of the presumed terrorist. This led to a librarian at the University of Nottingham being arrested when he helped a student to access some ‘terrorist related’ material. Suddenly librarians were being asked to choose sides; as US President George W. Bush declared at the launch of his anti-terrorism campaign, ‘Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists’ (Voice of America, 21 September 2001). Such simplistic arguments polarised communities in the UK and made Muslims the targets of racist attacks.

‘Hey, Minister – leave those books alone’

In 2008 the government tried to recruit librarians, internet site providers, students and lecturers in its ‘War Against Terror’ (Pateman, 2008c). Following the Prime Minister's national security statement to Parliament in November 2007, the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) was asked to produce guidance for public libraries on the management of ‘extremist and inflammatory material’.

Introduction

This chapter looks at the historical development of public libraries since their establishment in 1857 and asks the question: ‘which model – traditional, community led or needs based – is most likely to have a sustainable future?’ The traditional public library still predominates, with strategies, structures, systems and cultures that have been modernised and reformed but not fundamentally changed for over 170 years. It is this model that makes public libraries such low-hanging fruit for cashstrapped councils and neoliberal ideologues. The community-led library had its day in the 1970s but was crushed by the juggernaut of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's monetarist policies, which understood the cost, but not the value, of public libraries. The needs-based public library is a rarity within capitalist societies, but can still be developed under the right conditions, which include strong leadership and a constant focus on the role and importance of ideology. Public libraries are part of the ideological superstructure which is shaped and determined by the economic base. But this process can also work in reverse, and the needs-based library, in particular, has the potential to become a call to action in the class struggle (Pateman, 2016).

Dialectical and historical materialism

There is more than one model of public library. Since its creation in 1857 the public library has gone through a series of developments. The original model was the traditional library. It was traditional in terms of its strategies, structures, systems and culture. This model predominated until the 1970s, when a new type of public library began to emerge: the community-led library, which was born out of the womb of the traditional library.