Public libraries are doing more for their communities, but they need support

Source: The Conversation – UK

Public libraries remain a vital part of community life, providing free information and reading materials to everyone. Their role is particularly important amid a long-term decline in reading for pleasure among children and young people. But our research indicates that England’s public library collections are being hollowed out through long-term underinvestment.

In June 2026, former libraries minister Baroness Twycross confirmed that the government is developing a national strategy for libraries and reading in England, setting out ambitions for the next five years. The expectation was that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport would publish it over the summer. However, we have a new libraries minister but no published strategy.

A national strategy is long overdue. England’s previous strategy for public libraries covered the period from 2016 to 2021, while the legislation underpinning the service dates from 1964. Our research has shown that although the Public Libraries and Museums Act remains relevant, it no longer provides sufficient clarity about the purpose and expectations of a modern library service.

The national strategy matters because many of the challenges facing public libraries are systemic and cannot be addressed by individual services alone. Library services are reporting a decline in funds to buy and maintain books and other resources, complicated and expensive approaches to accessing digital reading materials for their borrowers, and continued pressures on workforce capacity.

At the same time, they are being expected to take on an ever-broadening range of roles as the government increasingly sees libraries as partners in delivering wider public policy. This ranges from improving digital inclusion and promoting reading to supporting public health and helping people use the NHS App.

These ambitions are not misplaced. Public libraries are trusted local institutions with an impressive record of adapting to changing social needs. If libraries can help people access healthcare, develop digital skills and connect with public services, that should be celebrated.

The NHS App partnership illustrates both the opportunity and the challenge. NHS England is right to recognise that libraries are spaces where people can receive help accessing digital health services and reliable health information. It is exactly the kind of partnership that demonstrates their continuing relevance. But partnerships like these rely on skilled staff, welcoming buildings, up-to-date collections and sustainable services. Libraries’ resilience has often masked the cumulative effects of sustained underinvestment.

What’s more, public libraries are entering one of the most significant periods of change in decades. Local government reorganisation is an ongoing process of replacing existing county and district councils with new unitary authorities. It has the potential to reshape many library authorities across England as councils continue to deal with the legacy of long-term financial pressures.

In September, the reorganisation was halted while the government carries out a review, including reconsidering decisions already made in some areas. This leaves libraries delivering services for their communities while simultaneously planning for structural changes, which may or may not happen.

What libraries need

The question, then, is whether the forthcoming strategy will focus on strengthening libraries and their core offer or simply continue to expand what libraries are expected to do for others. The capacity of libraries to support wider government priorities depends on the health of the library service itself.

Our recent research shows why this matters. Physical collections – books, comics, graphic novels, audiobooks on CD – continue to shrink while investment in new stock remains persistently low across many library services. Physical items that libraries loan are not an optional extra. They remain fundamental to reading for pleasure, literacy, lifelong learning, access to information and the distinctive identity of the public library itself.

A strategy that celebrates libraries’ contribution to health, education and economic growth without addressing the condition of their core functions risks treating symptoms rather than causes.

The strategy also provides an opportunity to improve how library policy is developed. The government has recently published research into what stops people using libraries and followed it with research examining how to engage people who don’t use libraries. It’s encouraging that the government wants to understand why many people do not currently use libraries and how participation might be broadened.

This follow-up study, however, reveals a missed opportunity. While the project actively engaged with library non-users to understand the barriers to using a library, when it came to finding solutions, the library non-users were not involved. Instead, the research developed potential ways to engage library non-users by working with library staff, library management, and the DCMS libraries team.

That is not a criticism of the expertise of library staff, which is indispensable. But if the government is serious about understanding what the public want from their libraries, future policy should be designed with them, not for them. This is something our research has repeatedly shown.

There are reasons for optimism. Alongside the forthcoming national strategy, the public library sector has launched the Library Alliance, published a new workforce strategy and continues to develop evidence on public library user trends and behaviour.

The new strategy needs to address the pressures facing the service itself. Asking libraries to do more for their communities must go hand in hand with strengthening the collections, workforce and financial support that allow them to do it.

Jo McKenna-Aspell received funding from The Combined Regions to carry out research into public library collections in England:
https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.32300343

Briony Birdi received funding from The Combined Regions to carry out research into public library collections in England: https://doi.org/10.15131/shef.data.32300343

Original source: https://analysis1.mil-osi.com/2026/10/27/public-libraries-are-doing-more-for-their-communities-but-they-need-support/