Public libraries: political vision versus public demand?

摘要

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to review UK government policy on public libraries sincern2003, and to examine its relationship to other forms of demand for public librariesrnDesign/methodology/approach - The published literature from government and professionalrnbodies is reviewed, alongside published statistics on library use.rnFindings - Since 2003 public libraries have been the subject of sustained interest from UKrngovernment, in the form of a range of policy initiatives and incorporation in the Best Value and morernrecent Common Area Assessment monitoring frameworks. Alongside this, professional bodies andrnother commentators have put forward views on the role of libraries, but even taken together it is notrnclear that these represent the needs or aspirations of library service users.rnOriginality/value - This paper provides an overview of the demand for UK public libraries, and itsrnsynthesis will be of value to librarians, government departments and professionals in this and relatedrnfields.