A Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK: : 1996‐1997

Citation

Hannabuss, S. (1998), "A Survey of Library Services to Schools and Children in the UK: : 1996‐1997", Library Review, Vol. 47 No. 7, pp. 363-368. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr.1998.47.7.363.1

The aim of LISU is to act as the UK national centre for the collation, analysis, and dissemination of statistical data relating to library and information activities, and, as a result, encourage good practice in librarians’ knowledge and use of statistics. This is the eighth report (the press release says the ninth) in its series of surveys of library services to schools and children which began with a survey of England and Wales in 1989‐1990, and in 1991‐1992 expanded to include Scotland and Northern Ireland. The major coverage here is of children’s services in public libraries, and of schools’ library services (not school libraries as such, although there is much of interest here to school librarians).

This survey appears at the time when another major survey of public library services to children is being conducted (by the Place for Children project, based at the University of Wales Aberystwyth and funded by the British Library Research and Innovation Centre), a survey to be published in 1998, and this LISU survey “has collaborated with the project team to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort and as a result, some data collected by them has been included in section 3 alongside that collected directly by LISU”. It will be interesting to see the Place for Children survey in due course. As for this LISU survey, it is in four sections: Introduction, Staffing, Public Library Services to Children (including service provision, resources, and expenditure), and Schools’ Library Services (including stock, expenditure, expenditure trends, and income). Useful appendices provide population figures, comments (rather erratic), and the questionnaires used for the two groups. The report covers the period 1 April 1996 to 31 March 1997, and the questionnaires were circulated in May 1997 and analysis began in June 1997.

As usual, the observations made in the Introduction are useful statistically and politically. Local government reorganisation has affected the data. The period is the first year of operation of the reorganised unitary authorities in Wales, Scotland, and parts of England. More than before, therefore, gaps and non‐responses exist in the survey which will presumably be rectified next time around. Key findings are that 13.6 per cent of authorities met children’s materials funds targets for public libraries in 1996‐97, while for schools’ library services in England and Wales 64 authorities (71.1 per cent) reached these targets. “Many are still a long way off.” There is an appearance of poorer provision in the English unitary authorities following local government reorganisation. Shrinking services in England are shown up by steadily reducing expenditure, and only in Wales and Northern Ireland are spending levels up on 1991‐1992. In schools’ library services, recent years have seen many changes like local school management and budget delegation: more services are now actively seeking money from schools, some failing, and more entering joint agreements.

In Staffing, responsibility for services is mixed ‐ in England half have joint responsibility for public library and schools’ library management, none in the unitary authorities, only nine in Wales, and in Scotland most have two separate posts. Salaries for postholders vary between £25,000+ down to £15,000+, although the interpretation of “responsibility” has clearly been different throughout the survey. Useful information on school librarians appears here, and readers are referred to the more thorough Survey of Secondary School Libraries (Library Association, 1997) (available at http://www.lahq.org.uk/, go from the LA Homepage). Estimated population per staff 1996‐1997 for the total UK is: about 11m population, population per staff (000s) for children’s public library only 16.7 and for all services to children 11.2, number of pupils (000s) 8,898, pupils per school librarian (000s) 5.4, and pupils per chartered librarian (000s) 2.2. About 66 per cent of school librarians were assumed to be chartered; an increase was noted although the stability of it and causes for it “cannot be ascertained” (improved knowledge of the situation of a genuine increase, Creaser and Murphy ask).

Turning to Public Library Services to Children and service provision, many provide bookmarks/leaflets, teenage collections, seasonal/holiday events, and under‐fives’ sessions; fewer provide parents’ meetings, reading schemes, information skills training, and newsletters. Most authorities (72 per cent) make no charge to children for requests (the average charge for those that do is 35p), although many charge for cassettes, CDs, and videos. Ninety‐three per cent offer talking books, 60 per cent videos, 53 per cent toys and games, and 64 per cent magazines and comics. “Charges are more commonly applied in the English counties than elsewhere.” Eighty‐three per cent provide story sessions and 54 per cent run homework clubs. The average age of transfer to adult services is 15 years 6 months. Promotion is widespread (for example, English unitaries 77 per cent with outside events and 95 per cent with bookmarks/leaflets).

On resources, estimates of total bookstock for the UK are 2.18 per capita, on loan 0.67, additions 0.30, and issues 9.48. Bookstock per capita is highest in London (at 3.32 books per child), and lowest issues per capita are in Wales. In the UK as a whole 59 per cent of children’s bookstocks are fiction (it varies from 43 per cent in Redbridge to 77 per cent in Cheshire), and 37 per cent of this stock was on loan at 31 March 1997. Stock turnover is 5.5 issues per book. Ratios were lower for non‐fiction, with 25 per cent on loan, a replenishment rate of 10 per cent and stock turnover of 2.9 issues per book.

Expenditure on public library services to children shows overall that in 1991‐1992 some £16m was spent (£1.49 per capita), increasing in 1994‐1995 to nearly £18m (£1.65 per capita), and now in 1997‐1998 estimates suggest a spend of less than £16m (£1.39 per capita). Figures for Wales and Scotland are falling following local government reorganisation, and authorities in Northern Ireland “reported massive reductions in the estimated materials fund”. Over the UK about 68 per cent of the bookfund is spent on fiction and 32 per cent on non‐fiction. About 10 per cent is spent on other items like audio‐visual. Many have no separate budget for promotion and activities. Because of reorganisation there are some frustrating gaps in the tables of material fund per capita for Wales and Scotland and expenditure on children’s services in the English unitaries. Many of the estimates look a mixture of conservative, guarded, and reticent.

The final section of the LISU survey deals with Schools’ Library Services. In England these are generally provided by authorities which also provide public library services, although reorganisation has created new patterns like co‐operative arrangements (for example in the English unitary authorities, the Bristol School Library Service provides services for the four authorities which formerly comprised Avon). In Scotland most of the schools’ library services were disaggregated to the new unitary authorities, some staying with education, others becoming the responsibility of the library service. In Northern Ireland there has been no change. The dominant pattern in England and Wales is one of a schools’ library service managed by the local authority library service on an agency basis for the local education authority. Half get funding centrally from the local education authority, while the others operate under devolved budgets to schools. Full information is provided on sources of funding. Most schools’ library services serve all schools, though some exclude grant maintained schools, and others offer only advisory services at secondary level. Useful tables of the various patterns are provided (by type of service, offered to, managed by, with main source of funding). Information is also provided on the range of recipients ‐ LEA primary, middle and secondary, grant maintained, FE/6th form college, nursery/special, independent school.

The UK schools’ library service (estimated stock, 26 million) has stock on loan 15 million and additions of 2 million. There is wide variation and overall a general drop in levels of stock per pupil served (some 12 authorities now hold less than one item per pupil served!). “This is a worrying indicator of worsening provision … in over one‐fifth of the schools library services in the UK it could take more than 20 years to replace the current stock.” Replenishment rates tend to be higher in the English counties and lower in London, and currently very low in Scotland because of reorganisation. Expenditure on staff adds up to £18m (compared with £15m on materials), a total of £5.47 per pupil served, and an increase of 5.4 per cent over 1995‐96. Materials spending represents just over 40 per cent of the total and there is wide variation: for many, expenditure depends on income earned from schools. Twenty‐four authorities spent less than £1 per pupil in 1996‐1997, and spending tended to be highest in the English counties and lowest in Scotland. Income from schools and other sources varied widely too, often going up (but not necessarily in real value), often going down. Chronological comparisons from the tables reveal no surprise ‐ times of caution and stringency.

These statistics will prove of professional value to any practitioner or analyst in the information and library world, and any policy‐ maker, educationalist, and ILS educator too. Despite gaps, many of which are circumstantial and/or unavoidable, this survey offers a rich vein of managerial information for decision making, benchmarking, and political argument which make it a desk‐side tool for the effective manager. A topical snapshot of fast‐moving times, it will always need updating and its successors from LISU ‐ and elsewhere ‐ will doubtless perform that task. As for now, there is the challenge of interpreting the findings and acting on them, as well as making sure the policy makers who affect the destinies of information and library services well know the concerns the professionals feel about the quality and delivery of products and services to children and young people.