Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal April 2009 Volume 7(2)

Community development

Lifelong co-operation

Libraries already play a big role with young people but, Jamie Wakefield asks, should they establish a more formal partnership with community learning & development?

Understanding young people is the key to engaging with them. As a society, we often feel disconnected from our youngest members and for public libraries this can be the biggest hurdle to attracting young users. There often needs to be a change of perception about who young people are. As Dave Black, who recently won YouthLink’s partnership award for youth work, said: “If you can see past the media picture of a youth being a hoodie-wearing, alcohol-drinking, knife-wielding monster, you will see a person, not just a caricature. Working with that person, helped by professional youth workers, is the best way to meet any of the challenges that our community has.”

Equally, there needs to be a change of perception among young people of what a library is. Old stereotypes and misconceptions persist, especially among the many young people who could most benefit from what they offer in the way of information on what is going on in the local community and on new opportunities for learning and retraining.

In community learning and development, challenging misconceptions is crucial. Community capacity building aims to help marginalised communities to engage with vital services such as those provided by libraries.

There is a clear common purpose between the two areas of work. Reaching out to young people and engaging with them is at the heart of community learning and development practitioners whether involved in youth work, family learning or community capacity building. Libraries wanting to provide services to young people would make a good start by linking up with community learning and development professionals.

As many public library services have already found, the youth services department within their local authority is a useful partner. Scotland has a long history of successful youth work activity and linking into existing activities can connect a library directly to a young audience. The nationally recognised purpose of youth work is to: “Enable young people to develop holistically, working with them to facilitate their personal, social and educational development, to enable them to develop their voice, influence and place in society and to reach their full potential.”

It is easy to see that the target group for youth workers is exactly the target group for libraries seeking to reach out to young people. Many libraries have found that their Community Planning Partnership can connect them to community learning and development practitioners working in the local area.

Many library staff have found that by partnering with community workers they can maximise their resources (facilities, budgets, expertise) for the benefit of those in the community who most need their support. Community workers can help promote and support their local library as a focal point for community activity – a place where young people are motivated to engage more closely with community initiatives; where those looking for work are supported in their job search and in their learning needs; and where new arrivals to the area or to the country are offered the information and support they need.

This is already happening up and down the country, but it is much more effective, and reaches many more people, when planned and delivered in partnership. By linking into existing activities such as family learning, storytelling groups and early learning groups, libraries can raise their profile among families and by extension young people. Youth initiatives are far more likely to succeed if they include local youth work professionals.

It is vital to share best practices. Lifelong Learning UK works to interconnect the different areas of work within the lifelong learning sector. There are important exchanges of knowledge and understanding to be made between libraries and community learning and development. Lifelong Learning UK is able to demonstrate  clearly the competencies of both professions through our work with both libraries and community learning and development practitioners to develop National Occupational Standards.

These NOSs make it easy for library managers to identify the knowledge and competencies from community learning and development that can be brought into a library. The NOSs can be used as a staff development tool and appropriate training brought in to develop library workers’ community engagement skills.

Alternatively, libraries could employ a community engagement officer with appropriate experience. Using NOSs to create the job description makes the recruitment process easy and tailored to the libraries’ needs. Simply having one person with this experience can lead to skills being both formally and informally cascaded to other staff.

There is so much to gain from working in partnership with other lifelong learning providers. Through sharing of best practice and making use of each other’s expertise, everyone in the lifelong learning sector can recognise the best ways to connect with young people and help them recognise how much they have to gain from using Scotland’s libraries.

Information Scotland Vol. 7(2) April 2009

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