National Libraries Day

Ed Vaizey and Dan Jarvis talk about libraries

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey and Shadow Culture Minister Dan Jarvis talk to Booktrust on the eve of National Libraries Day.

Culture Minister Ed Vaizey said:

'Public libraries provide a unique place in society where anyone can go to learn, read, access information, get online or find entertainment, and their ability to reach out and engage with groups who might otherwise be on the outskirts of the community makes their role in society all the more vital.

Now, more than ever, local authorities need to see the opportunities presented by their library services. Arts Council England is exploring how arts and culture can be embedded in libraries, bringing benefits to library users and increasing cultural provision in surrounding areas. I would also like to see greater use of digital technology to deliver services.

Libraries should be the vibrant hubs of local communities. The Libraries Development Initiative is piloting some truly innovative ideas that I hope will become models for others to follow. We have some really excellent leaders in library services and local government who have ideas that can ensure libraries remain well-used and at the heart of communities.'

Shadow Culture Minister Dan Jarvis said:

'National Library Day presents all of us with the opportunity to send a very clear message to the government; leave our libraries alone.

I am a regular visitor to the Barnsley Central Library. In the library is a plaque that reads: "The moment we persuade a child, any child, to cross that threshold into a library, we've changed their lives forever, and for the better."

The quote is from President Barack Obama and he is right. I believe that within each library lies a reservoir of potential. Libraries are in the middle of a difficult and necessary process of change, but they can emerge transformed. In an age where citizen engagement is reshaping our democracy, where education is more vital than ever, where we increasingly live in a knowledge economy, where access to information is almost as important to being able to fully participate in life as access to electricity; libraries should be more relevant than ever.

Is there any other place like a library? Is there any other public space where anyone, rich, poor, immigrant, unemployed, parent, schoolchild, retiree - anyone can come and sit, and think, and work, and read, and go online, without paying for the privilege or anyone asking you to leave? Libraries offer a place to learn, to socialise, to connect, to access the arts and enjoy literature and the news. Libraries teach children that reading really is fun and let adults read alone or in company. Libraries are instruments that can be used to inspire, motivate, innovate and raise the aspiration of any person that chooses to use them.

Like any institution, particularly one funded by the public purse, if libraries are to maintain their purpose and place in the 21st century then they must progress and modernise. But this is not a mandate to rebuild every library from scratch, or for mindless closures. Instead, it presents an opportunity to be visionary about the place of a library in a modern Britain.

I believe that in the darkest of times, we need the brightest of ideas. Now more than ever is the moment to harness the opportunities that libraries offer and employ them as ladders of social mobility and personal development. To realise that potential, libraries must evolve and develop. These are undoubtedly difficult times, and with them come difficult decisions, but there can be no excuse for government policies that are short-sighted and destructive.

As the shadow culture minister, I've commissioned a report entitled, "A Vision for a 21st Century Library". I did this because I want the debate over libraries in Westminster to be properly informed by practice on the ground and around the regions. I want to know why people value their local library service, and how library services can be developed.

Obama also said that: "More than a building that houses books and data, the library has always been a window to a larger world."

Libraries evoke strong emotions. You can't ignore the need for cuts, but this is also about more than just pounds and pence. Libraries represent a certain set of values, part of a wider sense of what kind of a society we are and what kind of a country we want to be. Whatever else, those are the values I believe in. That is why we must not to be overtaken by nostalgia and why we must be imaginative and ambitious.'