Living Libraries

Issues about libraries raised by the AHRC-funded project, 'Memories of Fiction: An Oral History of Readers' Life Stories' (2014-2018), are central to this follow-on project, 'Living Libraries'. For 'Memories of Fiction' the project team interviewed members of library-based reading groups in the London borough of Wandsworth, and the PhD researcher interviewed LGBTQ readers. These interviews provide a wealth of material about the role of reading in peoples' lives. An unanticipated and significant project impact was uncovering the diverse ways in which libraries improve people's lives, which were explored in many of the project's blog posts (on its own website and for the Libraries Taskforce); in a public talk 'Our Lives in Libraries'; in The Big Issue; and the production at London's Omnibus Theatre, 'The Living Library'. 'Living Libraries' will maximise and take these impacts in new directions. 'Living Libraries' will inform public and professional discourse about changes in library provision and their effects. It will acknowledge the complex, diverse ways in which libraries are changing across England and Wales. It will thereby resist any singular, dominant narrative about what is happening to public libraries, situating public concern about library cuts and closures in a broad historical and geographical perspective. Within the national context, the project will focus on five libraries, to allow in-depth engagement with specific cases, ensuring that the original research is informed by and impacts on regions beyond London. First, we will work with five libraries that have radically changed over the past decade, looking at some of the most innovative as well as challenging aspects of these changes, and we will carry out interviews and talks at those libraries. The project will thereby provide a detailed view of challenges and opportunities for library provision, while documenting an important period of transition. The project's public engagement and impacts will stretch from the immediate to the long-term. Oral history will provide an immediate form of engagement: we will talk to a diverse range of people who have worked/are working in or otherwise involved with the selected libraries (8-10 people at each library, including librarians, cleaners, volunteers, and library users). For oversight of the broader context we will conduct interviews with five national figures, including Nick Poole (CEO of the Chartered Institute of Librarians and Information Professionals). The researchers will also invite project participants to contribute to public talks at the libraries, incorporating information from interviews (from both projects). By documenting memories of public libraries before and during recent and ongoing transitions, 'Living Libraries' will have the potential for long-lasting impact. It will contribute, for example, to understandings of what changes have had positive and/or negative effects, with the potential to inform how libraries are best funded and developed in future. To maximise the project's potential for informing public and professional discourse about changes in library provision, interviews will be openly available online (through partnership with the British Library), and will provide a basis for installations and performances in libraries (taking Memories of Fiction's production at Omnibus Theatre in new directions). Along with the interviews and talks, the artworks and performances will in turn feed into a short audio documentary, and a longer programme/series pitched to BBC Radio. These activities will be publicised through local, national and social media, to contribute to public awareness of the value of libraries. Finally, the project's findings will be presented as a policy pack which will be available online and will be sent directly to stakeholder organisations, many of whom have expressed interest in such a resource.