The vision and strategies behind Love Libraries’ modernised reading service programme
“The public library service is the British Reading Service. Support
for reading is, and always has been, core to public libraries.”
Tony Durcan, Society of Chief Librarians
“Reading is the core skill which opens up the world of knowledge, information and imagination whether the source is books or the internet. Reading therefore has to be at the heart of any modern public library service and finding ways to engage more people with reading, to make it an exciting and transformational activity, to make it something people want to do with their time, is a critical challenge for the library service.” Sue Wilkinson, Director of Policy, MLA
The first phase of the Love Libraries campaign happened in 2006. It focused on libraries’ exciting emerging offer to readers, using three rapidly madeover libraries to showcase a new vision of a modernised reading service, created by fusing national and local developments.
In this strategy section you’ll find:
- the vision and policy drivers for creating a modernised reading service.
- the relevance of libraries’ reading service to local authority and library performance
- research showing the importance of the reading service to the public and the impact it makes
- recently created tools for modernising the reading service
Love Libraries is now evolving. Its objectives are
- To communicate a positive image of libraries to the public
- To influence attitudes and spread awareness of what libraries have to offer the modern citizen, generating consumer demand
- To act as a coherent brand for such activity, promoting a “modern library service”
MLA now leads Love Libraries work, in consultation with the founding partners.
