Welcome to Libraries in Lockdown
In March 2020, Scotland’s 541 libraries had to shut their doors as social distancing and lockdown came into place. Although the buildings closed, librarians across Scotland came up with new ways to reach and serve their communities. This study, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) is taking stock of how Scotland’s libraries adapted to lockdown. This research has been conducted by Professor Peter Reid and Lyndsay Bloice of Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen in conjunction with the Scottish Library and Information and Council. It has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI).
The research examines Scottish Public Libraries and their response to the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-21 and in particular the way in which they have, through their digital offering, helped to support community resilience and cohesion. The research also explores the issues that library services have had to contend with during lockdown.
The methods deployed in this study included the gathering and analysing of social media and other web-based content from library services over the months March-September 2020 (amounting to over four thousands snips of content) and 19 interviews with service managers. Findings are presented in respect of the lessons to be learned from the closure of physical services and the migration to digital only provision, the contribution made to supporting communities, health and wellbeing, the importance of the balance of physical and digital library services, around governance models for library services, and the process of reopening services.
Recommendations are offered around the need for a national conversation about digital content provision in public libraries and the exploration of possibilities of a national approach, the role libraries have as digital enablers (in supporting effort to overcome the digital divide in society), the crucial nature of continued strong advocacy for public libraries, the importance of the library as a physical space, and on how to maintain the flexibility, agility and autonomy which emerged during lockdown.
The methods deployed in this study included the gathering and analysing of social media and other web-based content from library services over the months March-September 2020 (amounting to over four thousands snips of content) and 19 interviews with service managers. Findings are presented in respect of the lessons to be learned from the closure of physical services and the migration to digital only provision, the contribution made to supporting communities, health and wellbeing, the importance of the balance of physical and digital library services, around governance models for library services, and the process of reopening services.
Recommendations are offered around the need for a national conversation about digital content provision in public libraries and the exploration of possibilities of a national approach, the role libraries have as digital enablers (in supporting effort to overcome the digital divide in society), the crucial nature of continued strong advocacy for public libraries, the importance of the library as a physical space, and on how to maintain the flexibility, agility and autonomy which emerged during lockdown.
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Authors' introduction
They see to it that even children can make use of the rich collections; that readers can read publicly-owned books at home; they regard as the pride and glory of a public library, not the number of rarities it contains, the number of sixteenth-century editions or tenth-century manuscripts, but the extent to which books are distributed among the people, the number of new readers enrolled, the speed with which the demand for any book is met, the number of books issued to be read at home, the number of children attracted to reading and to the use of the library. |
We got this research wrong. A startling admission for academics to open their report with perhaps. We entitled it Libraries in Lockdown; that was wrong. We ought to have entitled it Librarians in Lockdown, and probably, in our heart of hearts, we knew that, all those months ago when the research was proposed. For it is unquestionably, undeniably the people in Scotland’s public libraries who made all the difference. It was they who migrated their offering online, they who found solutions to problems they had never had to consider before, they who were redeployed to other important functions, they who worried and cared endlessly about their users and their communities. Services only exist because people make them happen.
This research has also been fun. Important, but also fun; and not just because, in the best librarian traditions, there were lots of photos of cats on the social media posts that we looked at. It was fun because we were working with an engaged and collegiate community of professionals who were very willing to share what they had done; a community that gave realistic assessments about things that went well, and things that did not; and because they wanted the wider library world to learn from the events of 2020. This research looks at Scotland but it affords lessons and learning more widely.
There are interesting results here about how libraries did respond, the challenges that they encountered and issues that are likely to remain well beyond the end of the pandemic. The difference which exists across Scotland is also depicted in this report. Some of the issues are variations on themes that have existed in the past, and some are new, being derived entirely from the circumstance of lockdown. That said, there is strong evidence throughout about the contributions that libraries have made to their communities. Indeed, it is the closeness of libraries to the people that they serve and the understanding they have of their communities that have been most evident in the research.
We wish to express our sincere thanks to all of those who gave up time to be interviewed for this research. It was interesting to observe that many of them said that they had enjoyed the opportunity to speak about what their services had been doing, and that the interview was the first real opportunity they had to stop and think about it, and to reflect. That they found it useful was a bonus as far as we were concerned.
This research examines the role that Scottish public libraries have played during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, and how they have helped to support community cohesion and resilience. The research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of their scheme to provide response to the pandemic of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has probably resulted in the most profound challenges for the global community since the Second World War with the whole world impacted by it to some degree. The focus of research has, rightly, been on the scientific and medical disciplines for the development of vaccines and remedies.
There is not, however, one single part of society which has been left unaffected by the pandemic and by the lockdowns and social distancing restrictions. The cultural sector which relies so heavily on participation and engagement in physical spaces has been particularly badly affected, analogous in many respects with the impacts felt by the retail and hospitality sectors.
Scotland’s public libraries are one of the most visible and accessible parts of the nation’s cultural landscape. They are to be found across the country, in cities, towns and villages, close to the people who use them. From Shetland in the north to Wigtown in the south, they are often among the most visible piece of cultural infrastructure within a community. They represent a free, trusted civic space providing access to reading materials and so much else. Their closure because of lockdown from March 2020 represented the biggest upheaval and greatest challenge to them in their one hundred and seventy years of existence.[1]
This research, therefore, examines how they responded to this unparalleled situation, and how they maintained their close relationship with the communities they serve. The research explores what difference they made, how they reached vulnerable groups, how they help to support health and wellbeing, what they themselves learned, and how their management practices adapted. It presents voices from Scottish libraries during 2020.
The opening words of A Culture Strategy for Scotland states: ‘Scotland is a place where culture is valued, protected and nurtured. Culture is woven through everyday life, shapes and is shaped by society, and its transformative potential is experienced by everyone’.[2] In 2020, public libraries in Scotland were absent in their traditional forms but this study attempts to shine a light on how they continued to play a part weaving culture through everyday life.
Peter Reid & Lyndsay Bloice
[1] Greater than either of the World Wars, when they remained opened.
[2] A Culture Strategy for Scotland https://www.gov.scot/publications/culture-strategy-scotland/pages/1/
This research has also been fun. Important, but also fun; and not just because, in the best librarian traditions, there were lots of photos of cats on the social media posts that we looked at. It was fun because we were working with an engaged and collegiate community of professionals who were very willing to share what they had done; a community that gave realistic assessments about things that went well, and things that did not; and because they wanted the wider library world to learn from the events of 2020. This research looks at Scotland but it affords lessons and learning more widely.
There are interesting results here about how libraries did respond, the challenges that they encountered and issues that are likely to remain well beyond the end of the pandemic. The difference which exists across Scotland is also depicted in this report. Some of the issues are variations on themes that have existed in the past, and some are new, being derived entirely from the circumstance of lockdown. That said, there is strong evidence throughout about the contributions that libraries have made to their communities. Indeed, it is the closeness of libraries to the people that they serve and the understanding they have of their communities that have been most evident in the research.
We wish to express our sincere thanks to all of those who gave up time to be interviewed for this research. It was interesting to observe that many of them said that they had enjoyed the opportunity to speak about what their services had been doing, and that the interview was the first real opportunity they had to stop and think about it, and to reflect. That they found it useful was a bonus as far as we were concerned.
This research examines the role that Scottish public libraries have played during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns, and how they have helped to support community cohesion and resilience. The research has been funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) as part of their scheme to provide response to the pandemic of 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic has probably resulted in the most profound challenges for the global community since the Second World War with the whole world impacted by it to some degree. The focus of research has, rightly, been on the scientific and medical disciplines for the development of vaccines and remedies.
There is not, however, one single part of society which has been left unaffected by the pandemic and by the lockdowns and social distancing restrictions. The cultural sector which relies so heavily on participation and engagement in physical spaces has been particularly badly affected, analogous in many respects with the impacts felt by the retail and hospitality sectors.
Scotland’s public libraries are one of the most visible and accessible parts of the nation’s cultural landscape. They are to be found across the country, in cities, towns and villages, close to the people who use them. From Shetland in the north to Wigtown in the south, they are often among the most visible piece of cultural infrastructure within a community. They represent a free, trusted civic space providing access to reading materials and so much else. Their closure because of lockdown from March 2020 represented the biggest upheaval and greatest challenge to them in their one hundred and seventy years of existence.[1]
This research, therefore, examines how they responded to this unparalleled situation, and how they maintained their close relationship with the communities they serve. The research explores what difference they made, how they reached vulnerable groups, how they help to support health and wellbeing, what they themselves learned, and how their management practices adapted. It presents voices from Scottish libraries during 2020.
The opening words of A Culture Strategy for Scotland states: ‘Scotland is a place where culture is valued, protected and nurtured. Culture is woven through everyday life, shapes and is shaped by society, and its transformative potential is experienced by everyone’.[2] In 2020, public libraries in Scotland were absent in their traditional forms but this study attempts to shine a light on how they continued to play a part weaving culture through everyday life.
Peter Reid & Lyndsay Bloice
[1] Greater than either of the World Wars, when they remained opened.
[2] A Culture Strategy for Scotland https://www.gov.scot/publications/culture-strategy-scotland/pages/1/
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