“Bloody amazing really”: voices from Scotland’s public libraries in lockdown
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2022-0067 |
| Published date | 23 June 2022 |
| Date | 23 June 2022 |
| Pages | 301-319 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Peter H. Reid,Lyndsay Mesjar |
“Bloody amazing really”: voices
from Scotland’s public libraries
in lockdown
Peter H. Reid and Lyndsay Mesjar
School of Creative and Cultural Business, Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The research examined Scottish public libraries and the libraries’response to the coronavirus
disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020–2021. The research focussed particularly around the way that the
libraries helped to support community resilience and cohesion during periods of lockdown. The study
considered issues around the closure of services in March 2020, digital services, the loss of physical library
spaces and governance models. The research presents the voice of service managers rather than being a user
study. The research was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), part of UKRI (United
Kingdom Research and Innovation), as a part of the council’s scheme to provide response to the pandemic
of 2020.
Design/methodology/approach –This was an exploratory study examining how Scottish public library
services responded to the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020. Three methods were deployed in the investigation.
First, the gathering social media and other web-based content from library services over the months March–
September 2020 (amounting to over four thousands snips of content) were analysed thematically. Second, 19
semi-structured interviews with service managers across Scotland were conducted. These were recorded,
transcribed and analysed. These elements formed the cornerstone of the research but were supported by a
short survey distributed to all public library services in Scotland focussed on e-lending during lockdown.
Findings –Findings are presented in respect of the lessons to be learnt from the closure of physical services
and the migration to digital only provision, the contribution madeto supporting communities, health and well-
being, the importance of the balance of physical and digital library services around governance models for
library services, as well as around the process of reopening services. This research explores how staff
responded to this unparalleled situation, how the staff maintained close relationship with the communities the
staff serve, what services themselves learnt through lockdown, and how the staff’s management practices
adapted. The findings present voices from Scottish libraries during 2020.
Research limitations/implications –The research presents a snapshot of activities during a period of fast-
moving change. The research, therefore, presents a snapshot of March–December 2020, which is, however, an
extremely important snapshot. The first lockdown was perhaps most interesting to study from a research
perspective because the authors witnessed, real-time, how the staff responded and reacted (with lessons learnt
and applied in subsequent regional or national lockdowns later in 2020 and in the 2021).The second lockdown
and subsequent periods were outside the scope of this research.
Practical implications –Recommendations are offered around the need for a national conversation about
digital content provision in public libraries and the exploration of possibilities of a national approach, the role
libraries have as digital enablers (in supporting effort to overcome the digital divide in society), the crucial
nature of continued strong advocacy for public libraries, the importance of the library as a physical space, and
on how to maintain the flexibility, agility and autonomy which emerged during lockdown.
Social implications –The research presents strong testimony about the social value of public libraries as
free, safe and public spaces within communities. It also highlights the continued digital divide which exists in
many places and the important role that public libraries have in beingdigital enablers for many members of the
public. The closeness of library service staff to users is strongly evidenced in the testimony from managers as is
the need for parent organisation (local authorities or in culture or leisure trusts) to recognise more fully the
breadth of services the public library provides and how these are “essential”for many users.
Originality/value –The value and distinctiveness of this research lies in the fact that the research captured
the voices, thoughts and perceptions of Scotland’s public libraries during the period of lockdown in 2020. The
evidence gatheredsuggests importantconversations are required around equity of e-lending provision, the role
of libraries as digital enablers, the balance between physical and digital provision and around the ways
Scotland’s
public libraries
in lockdown
301
Funding: The authors acknowledge the funding support by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
(UKRI) under award number AH/V006940/1.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 24 March 2022
Revised 6 June 2022
Accepted 8 June 2022
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 79 No. 2, 2023
pp. 301-319
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-03-2022-0067
libraries are managed (directly by local authorities or in culture trusts). The research affords lessons for public
library provision beyond Scotland with many issues being transferable to other contexts.
Keywords Digital libraries, Public libraries, Resilience, Communities, Scotland, Management, COVID-19,
Physical spaces
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Scotland’s public libraries are one of the most visible and accessible parts of the nation’s
cultural landscape. They are to be found across thecountry, in cities, towns and villages,close
to the people who use them and are often amongst the most visible piece of cultural
infrastructurewithin a community. Theyrepresent a free, trustedcivic space providing access
to readingmaterials and so much else. In March2020, Scotland’s 541 librarieshad to shut their
doors, as the COVID-19 lockdown came into place. Although the buildings closed, librarians
across Scotlandcame up with new ways to reach their communities. Thisclosure represented
the biggest upheaval and greatest challenge for public libraries in their one hundred and
seventy years of existence; greater than either of theWorld Wars, when they remained open.
This article reports on research funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council
(AHRC) examining how Scotland’s libraries adapted to lockdown in 2020. The research
explored how, through their digital offering, they helped to support community resilience, as
well as the issues that library services themselves had to contend with during lockdown. It
considered how they responded to this unparalleled situation, and how they maintained their
relationshipwith the communities they serve,what difference they made, how theysupported
well-being,as well as what they learnt. Itpresents voices from Scottishlibrarians during 2020.
This paper reports on the following objectives of the AHRC-funded project: (1) how
libraries evolved in terms of providing digital and remote only services; (2) how Scottish
public libraries, through their remote, online provision, helped foster and support community
resilience (including in, inter alia, socially, culturally and in respect of well-being); and (3)
evaluating the opinions and perceptions of the library services about their activities, both
digital and physical. The research also considered how differing governance models (culture
and leisure trusts versus direct local authority control) affected service delivery and how
policy- and decision-makers could be informed by the study. These latter elements are
touched on this paper but not covered extensively.
Background and literature review
The core principle of the Public Libraries (Scotland) Act 1853 was the provision of libraries
“for the Instruction and Recreation of the People”. Scotland’s public libraries remain a
statutory service under the terms of the Local Government Act 1994 which incorporates and
consolidates the existing legislation, and which states “a local authority shall have a duty to
secure the provision of adequate library facilities for all persons resident in their area”. The
word “adequate”has been the source of some debate but attempts to pin it down are
undesirable because of the nature of different services, communities and geographical
locations. When the How good is our public library service framework was developed in 2013 it
sought to support and inform what adequate provision of universal public libraries services
throughout Scotland might look like without providing prescriptive definitions [1].
Since the inception of the modern public library movement in the 1850s, evaluating their
impact has been part of the landscape (Shirley, 1947 p. 327). Toyne and Usherwood (2001
p.149) highlighted the necessity “to consider the impact [of libraries] on individuals or groups
in the community”and not just to “measure what is measurable and consequently often miss
what is important”.Goulding (2006, p. 4) noted, despite the public being generally
predisposed to and broadly positive about libraries, many commentators, socially, politically
and economically, portray them as either being at crisis point or of lacking relevance to
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