The Carnegie UK Trust – Beyond Books. The role of enterprising libraries in promoting economic wellbeing. Jennifer Peachey.

“Public spending cuts are changing the physical landscape, governance models and staffing of the public library service. Changing demographics, varying consumer needs and new technologies as media for learning and accessing information have also provided challenges to the public library service. Some public libraries have taken these challenges as an opportunity to reconsider what they offer to members of the public and how to deliver on this offer. The Trust believes that much can be learned from these innovative and enterprising libraries. As part of the Trust’s work on the future of public libraries, we were particularly keen to understand their engagement with economic wellbeing more fully. Public libraries contribute to the economic wellbeing of individuals and communities through: supporting access to education, training and employment, enabling people to fulfil their potential, helping people maximise their income, and supporting enterprise. The Enterprising Libraries programme involved four projects that were already exploring creative ways of encouraging enterprise and digital skills development. Independent evaluation
of the projects was conducted to ensure that lessons and experience from the projects were captured and could be shared with public library professionals and policymakers. The four case studies discussed in this report demonstrate four diverse and innovative ways in which libraries can work towards supporting and promoting economic wellbeing: hosting digital careers events; facilitating children’s interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects; supporting individuals to borrow, share, lend and learn skills and develop small enterprises; and sharing knowledge about one approach to enterprise support between library authorities. They show clearly that public libraries have the potential to contribute directly to economic wellbeing in their communities and that there are many ways in which they can do this alongside the more well-established activities, such as running jobs club or helping with online benefit applications.”