Publication – Libraries in transition: are there creative alternatives?

Britain’s public services under more pressure than at any time in the past thirty years.  In identifying savings, councils across the country are scrutinising the services they provide and often coming up with similar answers.  As a result, certain services have become national tension points, used by the media as a barometer to compare the approach to budget reduction taken across local authorities.  Arguably no service area has generated more tension or been used as a higher profile indicator of a council’s approach to cutting spending than libraries.

Libraries In Transition, developed by the 2020 Public Services Hub (2020PSH) at the RSA and Social Enterprise London (SEL), is aimed at local government decision makers.  It proposes an innovative, cost-effective approach to the creation of new structures to sustain and nourish Britain’s libraries.  This combines 2020’s focus on how social value can best be delivered through improving the quality of the relationship between services and citizens, with SEL’s expertise and commercial experience in helping to establish and support social enterprises.