皇冠体育app

A package of measures to support a vibrant, sustainable, 21st Century public library service was announced by Culture Minister Ed Vaizey today.

Outlining his vision for the future of libraries in England, Mr Vaizey announced that:聽 the Arts Council will make 拢6 million available to help libraries work with arts and cultural organisations and local communities; a series of pilots will test automatic library membership for primary school children; and, for the first time, comparative reports will be published to show how library authorities鈥� services compare across England.

Mr Vaizey said:

鈥淒espite the pressures on local authority budgets there continues to be innovation and development in library services up and down the country.聽 And now that Arts Council England has taken on responsibility for the development of libraries, individual services are forging important new links with arts and cultural organisations.

鈥淚 want to see libraries expand their role and become hubs for access to local arts and culture.聽 皇冠体育app Arts Council fund is a hugely exciting development for our vital library services.鈥�

皇冠体育app聽three new initiatives are:

• a 拢6 million Arts Council fund - as part of the Grants for the Arts programme - designed to help people get involved in arts and cultural activity through libraries.聽 皇冠体育app grants, which will be open to applications from September, will be available to library authorities in England to fund partnerships with artists, arts organisations and cultural bodies;

• new 鈥榗omparative profile reports鈥� for all library authorities in England, commissioned and paid for by DCMS for one year.聽 皇冠体育app reports, developed by the Chartered Institute for Public Finance and Accounting (CIPFA), will allow library authorities to benchmark their services against others across the country.聽 皇冠体育app DCMS-commissioned reports will be based on 2011/12 survey data, are expected to be published in December and will help library authorities to consider their performance and improve services. 皇冠体育app data will be publicly available on-line;聽 and

• adopting former Children鈥檚 Laureate Michael Rosen鈥檚 idea of piloting the introduction of library cards for primary school children.聽 DCMS, the Department for Education and the Arts Council will launch pilot projects in September to explore which models work best.

Ed Vaizey made the announcement in a speech to the 7th National Library Services conference in London.

A full copy of the speech is available .

Notes to Editors

1. Further information on the Government鈥檚 work with libraries is available .

2. At the government鈥檚 request, Arts Council England assumed responsibility for the development of public libraries in October 2011.聽 皇冠体育app Government and the Arts Council invest more than 拢500,000 a year to support development work in libraries.聽 Further information about the Arts Council鈥檚 role is available .

3. Arts Council England will release details of how library services can apply to the Grants for the Arts fund to encourage public libraries to work with artists and arts organisations before the fund opens to applications in September 2012.

4. DCMS is commissioning CIPFA comparative profile reports for library authorities in England in December, which will be based on CIPFA鈥檚 2011-12 libraries data.聽 This will allow authorities to compare their services to a grouping of comparable authorities, known as their 鈥渘earest neighbours鈥�, and improve services if necessary.聽 Library authorities will be able to commission their own individual reports from CIPFA for years other than 2011-12, including their reports for 2010-11, which are available now.

5. Former Children鈥檚 Laureate Michael Rosen addressed the idea of library cards for primary school children to Ministers at DfE.聽 皇冠体育app Government will announce the pilot areas and different models in September.

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