Although no new legislation is anticipated, three publications have recently appeared
which are likely to affect significantly the future shape of British library services to
young people. In 1991 influential guidelines for children’s librarians were published by
The Library Association (Library Association 1991). These constitute the only national
guidance on the provision of services to children and young people, setting out service
philosophy and offering pragmatic advice to librarians. They have proved to be an
invaluable document, and since their publication a number of authorities have formally
adopted them as the basis of their library policy.
In 1995, the Department of National Heritage (the governmental body responsible for
public libraries) published its findings of a study of public libraries in England and
Wales, the first major examination since the seminal McColvin Report of 1942 (Aslib
1995). While the report, The Public Library Review, focuses largely upon adult services,
it reiterates in the strongest terms that services to the young should be ‘at the head of a
list of prime purposes at the core of public library provision’. Such a statement is a
welcome confirmation of the importance of children’s services. The Public Library Review’s
discussion of children’s services is cursory but any disappointment must be tempered
by the knowledge that another, perhaps more important, study into public library and
school library services to young people was being undertaken at the same time.
Investing in Children: The Future of Library Services for Children and Young People
(Department of National Heritage 1995), the report of the Library and Information
Science Council (LISC) Working Party on Library Services for Children and Young People,
is a most comprehensive and impressive document touching on all aspects of provision.
It is this document, with its highly significant recommendations, which is likely to
strengthen the place of children’s library services in the next millennium and determine
their nature. The report recognises that until legislation is strengthened to ensure that
children’s libraries are a core public library service, provision will remain piecemeal, with
some examples of excellent practice, but also some dire ones.
The structure of public library servicesWithin Britain, Scotland and Northern Ireland each have their own administrative
structure. Traditionally there has been a close rapport between the public library service
and education in the five Education and Library Boards of Northern Ireland and in the
regions of Scotland. In England and Wales there are three administrative structures: the
metropolitan authorities composed of large urban conurbations, the county authorities
which are predominantly rural but which may embrace some large towns, and the
library authorities of London.
Library authorities differ in the way they structure and deliver services to the young—
indeed, there are one or two authorities which still do not recognise the importance of
separate specialist provision. The most common structure is characterised by a central
department staffed by specially trained and qualified children’s librarians who are
responsible for services to the young throughout the authority. A variation of this is
evident in many areas where there is a designated senior post overseeing children’s
services but where their delivery rests with community, team or area librarians
responsible for both adult and children’s services within the regions. Usually the staff
614 APPLICATIONS OF CHILDREN’S LITERATURE