Cumberland Council’s library service operates a public library network comprising 3 main libraries and 12 branch libraries, all provided with staffing. It also works in partnership with community settings to operate 8 library links. There is also a digital library service, offering free access to e-books, audio books, newspapers and magazines to all library members, and a home delivery service delivering books to residents unable to leave their homes due to health conditions and who have no one who can collect reading material for them.
In addition to the public library service, Cumberland Council also operates a prison library and a school library service covering the county of Cumbria. A shared service agreement, with Westmorland and Furness Council, underpins the delivery of the public library service, providing shared access to the stock of library resources as well as staffing expertise for back-office functions and logistics. This document focuses solely on the public library service.
This library provision serves a population in Cumberland of 273,300 (Source: Office for National Statistics – Census 2021).
Cumberland Council is a relatively new unitary authority formed in April 2023, and its library service was created from part of that formerly operated by Cumbria County Council across a wider county footprint.
Cumberland Council takes a fresh approach to the delivery of inclusive services that are shaped by its residents and communities. Linking the design and delivery of the library service with identifiable local needs, and basing this on an evidence-based approach, is supported by Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS).
The Cumberland Council Plan 2023 to 2027 sets out the ambitions for the Council in five strategic themes, all of which the library service has a role to support in terms of an offer to residents and local communities:
- improving health and wellbeing
- addressing inequalities
- local economies that work for local people
- environmental resilience and climate emergency
- delivering excellent public service
Cumberland Council has initiated a programme of work, ‘Libraries Fit for the Future’, to evaluate its current library services and identify ways it can support the overarching Council themes by looking to:
- continue to deliver good library services that are welcoming and accessible to all
- offer residents convenient, local access to library and council services that empower them to achieve positive health and wellbeing and economic outcomes
- deliver services in an effective and efficient way that guarantees long-term financial sustainability
Cumberland Council has a statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 ‘to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons’ for all those who live, work or study in the area (section 7).
There is no definition in the Act of what constitutes a “comprehensive and efficient service”. The DCMS is responsible for superintendence and promoting the improvement of libraries across England but does not seek to prescribe how councils discharge their statutory duty nor to defend the status quo just by virtue of it being the current provision. Cumberland Council considers that its operation of the public library service discharges this duty as described by the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964.
The detail of delivery of a comprehensive and efficient service varies among councils, depending on the unique needs of their areas. Local councillors and officials are responsible for deciding library budgets and how services are managed and delivered. The DCMS advises this must be carried out:
- in consultation with their communities
- based on evidence of local needs
- in compliance with their statutory obligations
- while considering the available resources for delivering their public library service
A strategic needs assessment (SNA) is a component of this, gathering and analysing information about the population, along with library usage, to provide a description of the current and future library needs of a local population.
This analysis includes:
- analysis of feedback from stakeholders: these are Cumberland library staff, local residents, whether library users or non-users, Council members and officers, and community and third sector groups in the authority area
- data to understand current and future demographics to develop an understanding of current and possible usage patterns of libraries
- current performance within Cumberland’s libraries
- Cumberland Council’s strategic priorities and what this means for library provision
The SNA will enable the council to identify where it may need to focus its resources to ensure it delivers its statutory duty under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 and to provide services delivering both library outcomes and broader council priorities. This information will be used to inform proposals on how Cumberland develops its library service in the medium term.