Library policies
Brighton & Hove City Library Service comes under the remit of the Culture and Enterprise Directorate of Brighton & Hove City Council and forms part of the portfolio of the Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Tourism. In setting strategy, planning and making decisions relating to City Libraries and the library service consults as much as possible with key stakeholders, partners and residents in the community to gather their views and opinions on their local libraries.
The Libraries Plan 2009-20012 sets out the Council’s vision for the service, building on the recent successes, and setting out our aspirations for the next three years, in the context of the overall plans and ambitions for the city as a whole. We are committed to maximising the role of Libraries as focal points for community and personal development, and regenerating libraries as community hubs.
Our vision
“Libraries at the Heart of our Communities: Broadening Horizons, Improving Lives”
This simple statement recognises the powerful role that public libraries have in supporting community and personal development that underpins economic activity and enriches people’s lives. Libraries make a difference on an individual level: inspiring people; widening their view of the world and what is achievable; supporting learning, and enabling access to knowledge and information. Libraries also bring people together, providing a focus for community activity and interaction, reducing isolation and supporting social cohesion. Public libraries are at the heart of sustainable communities.
Our priorities
There are seven priorities identified for Libraries over the next three years:
1. Community libraries development: We will develop libraries as local hubs in their communities, increasing community use, working in partnership with other agencies to provide improved access to a wide range of services at the local level. We will begin a phased programme to regenerate three community libraries, enhancing their role as community hubs, and seeking opportunities for mixed use development. We will review opening hours and make adjustments to meet local needs, and aim to increase library membership and use.
2. Improve value for money and performance: We will develop our services, implement a marketing campaign and monitor use and satisfaction in order to improve our performance. High priorities are to achieve our challenging income targets and attract new external resources to support some of our projects.
3. Support individual and community development through reading and learning: We will work in partnership with others to support reading and learning across the city. In particular, we will help develop and implement a City-Wide Reading Strategy to improve reading and literacy levels of children and adults. We will build on the success of our existing services to children such as Bookstart and Homework Clubs to support children’s learning and development. We will implement our Learning Strategy to support lifelong learning and skills development.
4. Enable access to information and knowledge: We will improve our online resources and services, and develop new partnerships to extend our ability to refer people on to other agencies for more in-depth knowledge. In response to the high percentage of library users who seek health information, we will work as part of the local Health Information Partnership to improve our provision. We will work with the local universities to improve access to collections for local residents and students. We will seek external sponsorship to support the care and promotion of our Rare Books collections.
5. Accessible and inclusive services: We will implement improvement plans as a result of the recent Equal Access Services and Mobile Library Service reviews. We will implement our Equalities Action Plan to improve access to services in all six of the identified equalities areas (race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, age and faith/belief).
6. Modernise libraries services: We will develop our website, introduce new online services and extend the use of self-service in libraries. We will introduce new technology and new ways of working, to improve customer service and efficiency in the use of resources. We will be using technology to find new ways of reaching our customers, especially young people.
7. Strengthen the libraries workforce: We will implement effective workforce development plans to improve the skills and knowledge of our staff, and have achieved the Investors in People award in 2009.
Our strategies, policies, performance and consultation
We have a number of library policies, strategies and other documents available to download that relate to our vision, aims and work at Brighton & Hove City Libraries. Information on our performance is included in this section.
We also carry out regular consultation exercises to find out what our local communities want from Libraries Services, and publish the results of those consultations.
Back to top