This is an edited version of the speech Ed Jewell gave on the first day of the Libraries Connected Seminar 2024 at Chesford Grange Hotel, Kenilworth.
 

Introduction and thank you to Ayub, Libraries Connected staff and Board

It’s a genuine privilege to be speaking to you all today and it’s a real honour to be taking on this role after Ayub.  He’s been a wonderful advocate, visionary and leader for libraries.  Alongside his passion for the power of libraries, Ayub has bought a great depth of experience and keen insight to his role as President that has greatly helped Libraries Connected develop its position as a key sector support agency.  I’m really pleased that Ayub will continue on the Board of Libraries Connected as Past President, but it’d be remiss of us now not to thank him properly for his valuable contribution as President.

Alongside Ayub, many of the Libraries Connected Trustees are here.  The Trustees form a vital link between our membership and the Board and bring a cornucopia of talent from not only the libraries sector, but also policy, finance, charities and fundraising. 

I’d also like to thank Isobel and the Libraries Connected Team for their tireless work.  In my day job I have the good fortune to work with many different teams across the public, private and third sectors. Each team is unique in its own way and has its own strengths and challenges – but I’ve got to say, the Libraries Connected team is genuinely the A-team.  Responsive, intelligent and intuitive they’re everything you could look for in a team. 

My own background and vision

When Isobel mentioned to me that we were considering holding the Seminar in Kenilworth, I must confess I got goosebumps. Kenilworth has a special place in my heart, as 27 years ago I lived in a small student house not more than a mile from this conference hall.  

In 1997 I was studying Philosophy and Literature and I came very close to switching to Philosophy, Politics and Economics, which would have taken my career down a very different path.  But during the university holidays I started working in Guernsey’s school library service and I started to realise the potential for libraries to underpin substantive, long term social change.  

While our libraries quite rightly fight to be ‘apolitical’ spaces, that are open to a diversity of information and debate, they have always struck me as profoundly political institutions. Our buildings contain the raw material to spark questions, kindle change, undermine vested interests and disrupt the status quo.  Strong, healthy libraries are at the heart of our civic society. 

Our communities need free, well-funded, properly staffed and dynamic public libraries if they in turn are to constructively engage with the challenges ahead; be that in dealing with immediate issues such as the cost-of-living crisis, mental health and educational attainment, or developing challenges, such as the advent of AI, climate change and the changing nature and make-up of those very communities. 

We need libraries to provide access to information and opinions from across the political and cultural spectrum, helping citizens navigate competing agendas in an increasingly fragmented world. Our libraries can provide a shared, safe civic space for people to gather and learn together, free from both judgement and cost. To my mind, libraries are the essential service within a functioning free society. 

Isobel and I recently visited Northern Ireland to learn more about their libraries and what I saw there is something I’ve seen repeatedly across the British Isles.  Vibrant, well-used libraries delivering services that were responsive and relevant to their communities – whether it be sensory story times, board game sessions for elderly residents, or introductory skills classes for adult learners.  What is clear to me is that we succeed when our services are hardwired into our communities’ DNA.
 

The agenda for next two years

Having reflected on the last 18 months as President Elect, I can see that my role as President falls into roughly three parts.  As Chair of the Board of Trustees for Libraries Connected, I’m responsible for ensuring as a charity Libraries Connected is legally compliant and financially sound, as well as responsive, representative, innovative and ambitious.

Beyond those immediate responsibilities, some of my time clearly needs to be spent getting to grips with how Libraries Connnected can best help address the gnarly problems we all face, particularly looking at training, recruitment, advocacy and funding. 

CILIP’s Come Rain or Shine report highlighted that the library sector workforces is facing a retirement cliff edge, with 44% aged over 55. We need to act now to develop a strategic, sector wide approach to training; both in terms of training programmes and how that training is financed.  We also need to continue to question and improve how we are recruiting into our services to ensure that the teams within our libraries have the skills and diversity to inspire and support their communities.

I want to ensure our funders and key stakeholders fully appreciate the potential that properly funded public library services can achieve. That libraries are natural partners within local authorities to work with, to deliver programmes that achieve broad educational, health and cultural ambitions.

I intend to support Libraries Connected’s continuing advocacy work, particularly in the development of a public affairs strategy to influence Government on key policy issues relating to public libraries. 

By 2026 I want to see the gap between our professional aspirations and the funding reality narrowed. For us to be in a position where our work is seen and its value properly acknowledged. For libraries to be recognised as the go-to partner by government and the third sector. For public libraries to be recognised as the essential service truly I believe they are.

To do that we need to be able to accurately demonstrate the collective impact of our services. One step towards this will be the creation of a Data Observatory by Libraries Connected. The Data Observatory will look to develop ways to measure the engagement and impact of public libraries more effectively, looking beyond purely baseline statistics.

Alongside the Data Observatory I would like to see Libraries Connected work to establish the Future Hub proposed in its Strategic Plan. The Future Hub will coordinate and commission a rolling programme of collaborative research on the challenges and opportunities of the next decade, including inequality, climate change, technology and skills. This will be our North Star, helping to inform the work we do around service development, recruitment, training and funding requirements.

We must also ensure the essential and valuable work the Universal Offer and Regional Groups have been doing continues and is strongly supported. Their work around literacy, digital, culture & creativity and health & wellbeing is vital in growing and demonstrating the relevance of our public libraries.

Libraries Connected is also working to be ready to seize opportunities that benefit the whole sector. From the coordination of micro-grants to the brokering of contracts, we are seeing Libraries Connected take on an ever more substantive role in supporting the infrastructure of the public libraries sector. 

One highlight of my time as President Elect was taking part in the round table Libraries Connected organised with ACE on developing a cross-sector approach to literacy for early years children.  Working with key stakeholders we sought to build on the Sanderson Review’s recommendation for Universal Child Membership, to create a funding proposal that could be delivered through libraries to strengthen children’s literacy within the early years sector as a whole.

As we look ahead to whatever happens after July 4, Libraries Connected stands well positioned to act as a convener for the sector, bringing together key players to create opportunities to broaden the scope and impact of our libraries.

That leads me on to the third part of my role as President, where I’m out and about listening and learning from your work. The last eighteen months as President Elect have been like no other professional experience I’ve ever had. Working as a member of the Board of Trustees, chairing the Advisory Committee and visiting other authorities, I have consistently been blown away by the richness of talent in our libraries.  Libraries Connected’s strength as an organisation very much lies in the collective breadth of experience of its membership. So, while as President there are strategic goals I would like to see us work towards, my main concern is to ensure that individual members’ voices are heard and local needs understood by the Executive team and Board.