Libraries Connected and CILIP are delighted to announce the commissioning of Evidence Base at Birmingham City University to create a new Workforce and Skills Strategy for Public Libraries.

The new Workforce and Skills Strategy will be a practical tool building on learning from the Public Libraries Skills Strategy which public library leaders can use to analyse their skill bases and skill gaps of their workforce. It will support workforce development and connect with key resources and concepts to strengthen our community. It will help the sector to attract a new diverse workforce, encourage pride in our future-ready skills base and support succession planning. The strategy will be developed over the next six months in consultation with library leaders, the library workforce, CILIP and Libraries Connected.

Isobel Hunter, Chief Executive of Libraries Connected, said: 

The pandemic has underlined the importance of a skilled public library workforce and we are looking forward to working with CILIP and Pete Dalton from Evidence Base (with Dr Sarah McNicol) to create a practical, progressive and future facing strategy that will ensure our public libraries support individuals and communities not just to recover but to thrive into the future.

Nick Poole, Chief Executive of CILIP, said:

Through the pandemic, the public library workforce has demonstrated resilience and the huge difference their skills make to the communities they serve. This has been echoed across other sectors. Working in partnership with Libraries Connected and Evidence Base on this strategy will allow us to capture the learning and share it across the public library sector and the wider library, information and knowledge workforce. This work will help the public library workforce to continue delivering excellent services for now and the future.

Pete Dalton, Director of Evidence Base, said:

We are delighted to be working with Libraries Connected and CILIP on this valuable and timely initiative. We are looking forward to undertaking widespread consultation to feed into the production of a strategy to support the development of the public library workforce over the coming years.