Public libraries across the UK and Ireland are being given the opportunity to help future-proof their services thanks to a £200,000 funding boost.
The Carnegie Library Lab from the Carnegie UK Trust will create partnerships with up to 15 public libraries to support innovative practice and show that book lending is only service that libraries can deliver. The initiative will also pilot a new programme of online learning material.
This resource will be developed using material from the International Network of Emerging Library Innovators initiative run by the billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates' foundation as part of a global libraries programme.
Liz McGettigan, former head of libraries and information services at City of Edinburgh Council, said: "The public, whether or not they use public libraries, value them greatly.
"Many people understand and appreciate the services public libraries deliver in terms of book-lending, literacy and local and family history. Yet libraries are continually reinventing their offer, delivering new services and engaging with their users in innovative ways.
"It's essential that this process of innovation and improvement continues and develop."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article