14 February 2003
Local authorities were this week puzzling over how to pay for a government plan to put cafés, crèches and web experts in every public library.
Arts minister Tessa Blackstone, launching a a ten-year strategy for libraries, said that they `should be open when people want to use them, including evenings and weekends, and offer family-friendly facilities like cafés and crèches'.
Users should be able to get any book plus `expert help on everything from basic literacy to setting up their own community websites', said the Department for Culture, Media and Sport strategy paper, Framework for the future.
It gave libraries the key priority areas of promoting reading and learning for all, encouraging access to digital skills and services, and tackling social exclusion.
Julie Hill, senior projects officer at the Local Government Association, said: `The problem is that the department sets the strategy and the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister controls the money. That is not terribly helpful.'
She questioned the hints in the report that the government would seek closer control over the 149 local library authorities.
Hill said it was unwise to take a `one-size-fits-all' approach to libraries. Many are in old buildings that cannot easily be adapted to provide cafés or crèches, she pointed out.
PFfeb2003
