She will lead a new advisory body in an impartial capacity.
A new public library plan that is expected in 2023 will be informed by the panel’s work.
Baroness The government has recruited Elizabeth Sanderson of Welton to assist in creating a new strategy to ensure that public libraries are offering the greatest support for their communities.
The plan will assist identify ways that libraries may enhance their ability to serve the needs of people in their community. Libraries provide a crucial service.
In the House of Lords since 2019, Baroness Sanderson has served as a government advisor and a seasoned former journalist.
She has been chosen to serve as the panel’s independent chair, and as such, will be expected to provide a novel, thought-provoking, and unbiased perspective on libraries to assist in the formulation of creative new policy concepts.
She will host a number of sessions with the advisory panel of authors, who will be chosen from outside the library sector, over the fall and winter. The panel session participants will be announced as soon as possible.
Representatives from the cross-party Local Government Association, Libraries Connected, and Arts Council England will attend each session.
The meetings will assist in gathering data to generate a set of suggestions that will be included in a new government public libraries plan for 2023, replacing the one that went into effect in 2016.
To include a variety of perspectives and ideas, the British Library, local authority library services, community-managed libraries, and other government agencies will all contribute to the creation of the suggestions.
Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay, Minister for Libraries, stated:
In communities all around the nation, libraries play a special and priceless function that was highlighted by the epidemic. As we recover from that, we want to make sure we are using a variety of best practices and areas of expertise to provide them with the assistance they need to continue providing excellent service to the public.
We will do this with the assistance of Baroness Sanderson and the team of outside experts, and I eagerly await the suggestions they will provide.
Baroness Sanderson said:
I’m thrilled to be taking up this new role. Libraries play such an important part in our lives, be that instilling a love of reading in childhood or encouraging economic, social and mental wellbeing throughout adulthood and into old age.
Too often undervalued, they are one of the most critical forms of social infrastructure we have and I look forward to working alongside the experts, and listening to a wide range of voices, so that we may help develop ideas as to how we may promote and protect our libraries into the future.
ENDS
Notes to editors:
The role is unpaid.
Participants in the advisory panel sessions will be confirmed in due course.
While responsibility for managing library services sits with local authorities, the Government has a duty to ensure councils are meeting their statutory duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service, as well as providing support to councils looking for ways to improve their service.
DCMS funds Arts Council England, which is the national development agency for public libraries. ACE is delivering the Government’s £20.5 million Libraries Improvement Fund, which will transform library services in England by helping them upgrade their buildings and improve digital infrastructure. Awards made through the scheme this year include £495,000 for the Sandwell Library and Information Service in the West Midlands and Sheffield Libraries which was given £340,000.
Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England was the first ever national libraries strategy, produced by the Libraries Taskforce and co-sponsored by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Local Government Association. The Libraries Taskforce ceased in March 2020, with its final closure report published in June 2021.