Prioritizing Library Services For Those With the Greatest Needs
One of the critical findings of Open to All? The Public Library and Social Exclusion (2000) was that people who use public libraries the…
Karl Marx and Critical Librarianship
Karl Marx is critical to an understanding of the Needs Based Library because he introduced the theoretical concept of the Base and the Superstructure.…
News from Nowhere: The Needs Based Library
In too many workplaces people are unhappy and alienated from what they do. This has a negative impact on their efficiency, effectiveness and productivity,…
Snuffy’s Revenge: the Community Led Library
"Snuffy" is the name of a character who appears in The Classic Slum by Robert Roberts. This delicious slice of British social history paints…
Old Wine In New Bottles: The Traditional Public Library
The Traditional Public Library has not changed fundamentally from when it was first introduced in the mid-nineteenth century. While many people continue to believe…
Horses and Water: the Learning Organization
It has often been said that you can take a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink. Conventional management thinking suggests that…
Roads and Fences: the Myth of Public Library Neutrality
As the saying goes, if you stand in the middle of the road you will get run over. Or, more colourfully perhaps, if you…
Public Libraries and Participation
The Canadian Index of Well-being has tracked participation in leisure and cultural activities and identified a number of important trends: "Leisure and culture make…
Public Libraries and Happiness
Can public libraries make people happier and healthier? There is close link between equality and happiness. The people who live in more equal countries…
Public Libraries and Well-being
Can public libraries contribute to individual and community well-being? The research suggests this is so. As a result libraries should embed this within their strategic objectives.
Public Libraries and Inequality
Can public libraries make society more equal? Inequality has become a dominant concern and focus of public policy discourse at international, national, regional and…
Evaluating Public Library Impact and Outcomes
Searching for meaningful and measurable impact and outcome measures has become something of a Holy Grail for public libraries. The approach to date has…
The Community-Led Public Library
What does a Community-Led Public Library look like? At the core of the Community-Led Library is relationship building, both internally (within an organisation) and…