The following is an edited version of the address made by Libraries Connected President Ed Jewell to the London Libraries Conference 2025.
 

Public libraries in the present and future

Public libraries remain one of the UK’s best-used and most trusted services. Over a quarter of adults and more than twice as many children visit us every year. Surveys consistently show libraries are seen as reliable, welcoming and valued institutions, well ahead of many other public services. In an age when trust in many institutions is under pressure, that’s an achievement for us to value and hold dear.

That trust and reach increasingly places us at the heart of wider initiatives, supporting literacy, health, skills and enterprise. That’s a strong foundation to build on, but with the growing array of challenges ahead we need to be clearer than ever about our direction of travel. I want to frame my remarks this morning around three questions: where are we now as a profession, what are we trying to achieve, and how do we align the two?


The best and worst of times

I think these are the most challenging of times and the most exhilarating of times to work in libraries. On the one hand, we face unprecedented financial pressures. Our frontline services are stretched and strained like never before. And I know all too well what those ‘pressures’ mean.  It’s the challenge of running busy branch libraries single-handed; it’s buying resources from our own pockets to keep programmes going or even redecorating rooms ourselves to make sure our buildings remain welcoming for our users. We are a passionate profession. We care deeply for those we serve and go to extraordinary lengths to support them. 

We are also all living through profound social and technological change. The rapid rise of AI and social media is reshaping how we create and share information. The emergence of ChatGPT reminds me a little of the arrival of Google a generation ago, but this shift is creating an even more fragmented online reality for many people. That’s why our physical libraries matter more than ever. They are places where we can come together and build a genuinely shared understanding in a way the digital world struggles to provide.

Literacy is also under pressure. The National Literacy Trust reported recently that children’s enjoyment of reading is at its lowest since 2005. The OECD warned that literacy levels across many developed countries are declining or stagnating, with average reading performance noticeably lower than it was a decade ago. I say this not as a counsel of despair, but as a call to arms. We know the power of reading.  Libraries can play a key role in a society-wide response to drive and support reading for all ages.
 

The librarian’s role amid cultural foment

More broadly, we find ourselves delivering services amid significant cultural change.  There’s always been a muttered, background discussion as to what books should be on our shelves and whose voices should be heard in our buildings. The tension and tone of that conversation is becoming ever sharper, though. We increasingly find ourselves having to remind users and stakeholders alike that we are here to protect the books we agree with and those that we do not with equal fervour. That is fundamental to our role as librarians.

Finance, technological and cultural changes can all feel daunting. And I don’t underestimate the toll this takes on our resilience and morale.  But it also forces us to confront something more fundamental. 

Why are we here?  Why do we turn up to work every day?  What are we trying to achieve?  If we can be clear in that, then we can unlock the opportunities that are in these challenges, rather than being responsive to them.

I became a librarian because I believe in freedom of opportunity, in every person having access to the skills and resources they need to shape their own lives.  At heart I believe we are about helping people to become literate in all its manifold and glorious variations, so they can become curious about the world around them and empowered to change it for the better.

While we are always careful to be apolitical, our library buildings contain the raw materials to spark questions, to kindle change, to undermine vested interests, and to disrupt the status quo.  We can provide the stability, safety, and the space needed for long-form thought. We can be places of welcome for those new to our communities and places of learning for those seeking to understand more about their lives, their health, their environment and their future.

That for me is our ‘why’. We are providing safe spaces for people to encounter new ideas.  It’s something I see every day. A family at their first baby rhyme time, a student finding a quiet place to study, a group meeting to share and create, someone seeking advice or support, or simply a reader happily lost among the shelves.

Matching the ‘why’ with the ‘where’

The key thing for us now is to align that ‘why’ with our ‘where’.  We can be as idealistic as we like but if our ambitions aren’t rooted in reality, they will fail to take flight.  If we take as our ‘why’ that our libraries are civic spaces that inspire lifelong learning, support health and wellbeing and enrich our economic and cultural lives, we can then start to align ourselves with the broader social needs of our communities and set a direction for our service planning, our funding bids, our development and service delivery. 

And this is where things start getting really interesting, as we grow from traditional roles and start looking at how we can use our skills and services to give communities new ways to engage with information, culture, learning and literacy. 

It’s this approach that enables Wandsworth to title its new strategy Libraries First! This positions libraries at the centre of local life, making the case for sustained investment in them as places of advice, learning, technology, culture and sanctuary for the whole community.

It’s this innovative approach that places Merton Libraries as a ‘significant health provider in the borough’, using technology and existing resources to bring together information around health and wellbeing, delivering physical activities and access to health monitoring equipment in all seven of its libraries.

And it’s that integrated approach that has driven the impressive Camden Reading Together strategy, which is looking to build a collaborative, borough-wide framework that will provide the crucial scaffolding to grow reading for pleasure for all ages.

Our communities need free, well-funded, properly staffed, dynamic public libraries if they are to navigate the challenges ahead. We need to constantly remind our stakeholders and funders that we are not just storehouses for books. We are the compass and the engine of civic life.  We help people find their direction, and we power their ability to get there.