Tag Archives: local development

The City We Need Now 2.0 – Library Implications

The COVID-19 pandemic came at a time of already insufficient progress towards development goals. Achieving the UN’s 2030 Agenda has gone from hard to much harder, and with it, the need for ambitious, concerted, innovative effort has grown.

Both the challenges we face, and the potential for finding solutions, are so often concentrated in cities. As the places and structures in which people live, work, socialise, learn and create, our ability to realise our potential, and our rights, is heavily influenced by them. Getting cities policy – or policies – right, makes a huge difference.

With the half-way point in the 2030 Agenda fast approaching, the World Urban Forum just next month, and with the General Assembly reviewing the implementation of the New Urban Agenda recently, this question is high on the international agenda.

To shape thinking, the World Urban Campaign, of which IFLA is a member, launched a 2.0 version of its The City We Need Now campaign. This looked to bring together thinkers from across the board in the urban policy space, in order to identify themes around which to build action.

On 25 April, following consultations around the world, the key conclusions of this work were published, highlighting 10 priority areas for action. These are being promoted by Campaign members, and brought to decision-makers, from the local to the global levels.

The document is a helpful one for libraries, both in terms of identifying themes which matter for libraries, and actions where libraries have a strong role to play.

This blog summarises these, in order to help libraries and library associations draw on this as a resource for advocacy, especially with local governments and local government associations. It focuses on each of the identified highlights in turn:

1) The city we need now is healthy and promotes wellbeing: an obvious priority in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, this nonetheless focuses on how to improve quality of life durably, including in the face of non-communicable diseases. Improving mental health and wellbeing, as well as the determinants of health (education, housing, social connections) are all underlined.

Libraries of course have a long-standing role in supporting wellbeing, through their collections (including growing awareness of the potential of bibliotherapy) and simply offering a quiet space. They can contribute more actively to healthy living through supporting public health campaigns and enabling access to eHealth.

2) The city we need now is free from violence, war and fosters a culture of peace: the threat of insecurity has always been there for many, with Russia’s war against Ukraine only the latest reminder. The Campaign highlights the need, in addition to an immediate end to aggression, to support initiatives that bring people together and move them away from conflict.

In their role as community hubs, open for all of the community, libraries are well placed to support here, acting as living labs. They are on the front lines in some cases, for example Colombia where they have been among the first public services to return to areas previously marked by conflict. Through supporting democratic engagement and empowerment, they also strengthen people’s ability to find solutions and act.

3) The city we need now is resilient, low-carbon and adapts to climate change: COP26 marked a major reaffirmation of the need for action to reduce emissions and promote adaptation and resilience. Cities are part of this, both as actors in limiting climate change, and in needing to respond. The Campaign calls for stronger engagement in climate action, as well as a drive to change behaviours.

As IFLA highlighted in the run-up to COP26, libraries have the potential to play a powerful role in climate action and empowerment. Through informing decision-making, sharing information that drives behaviour change, and providing a space for communities to build consensus around action, there is much that they can do to make a difference here.

4) The city we need now is inclusive and promotes gender equality: linked to the highlight around a culture of peace, the Campaign underlines the need for tolerance – and indeed celebration – of diversity, and forms of decision-making that include everyone. It calls for proactive efforts to educate and share experiences, and value the lives and experience of all.

As spaces open to all, libraries can act as catalysts for successful multiculturalism and broader equality, designing services which respond to the needs of all. Focused programming can go further, especially when libraries benefit from investment and training. They can also offer a ‘safer’, more structured environment for all to get involved in decision-making.

5) The city we need now is economically vibrant and provides opportunities for all: the need for people to have a livelihood and to encourage local business and job possibilities also features. The informal economy, as well as new forms such as the shared economy, can play a role, but of course rely on people knowing about opportunities, and having the skills to realise them.

Public libraries in many countries were founded on the principle that they would help people continue to learn throughout life, and they continue to do this in a huge variety of ways as a core part of the lifelong learning infrastructure. In parallel with this, they offer crucial support for jobseekers, both in applying for support (where available) and finding new opportunities.

6) The city we need now has a strong sense of place and has room for diverse identities: in effect, this is the culture goal of the Campaign, stressing the need both to consider cultural factors, and to engage cultural actors in order to support sustainable development. The sector has, however, suffered from the forced closure of venues and limits of travel. There needs to be investment now, in order to ensure future returns.

Libraries are often the densest, and best-used cultural networks cities have, enabling people both to access their shared culture, and achieve their broader cultural rights. They need to be better recognised within cultural policies however, in particular those that look to realise the potential of culture to drive integration and success in wider policy goals.

7) The city we need now is managed through public participation and democratically governed: as stressed already above, there is a pressing need for citizens to be involved in decision-making, not just in order to increase a sense of engagement and belonging, but also to improve the quality and relevance of decisions taken. The Campaign notes in particular the value of open data, and proactive outreach to all members of the community.

Libraries are increasingly realising their role as part of the democratic infrastructure. In addition to traditional work in helping people to take informed decisions, many provide space for democratic debate for the community as a whole, key public legal information to help people realise their rights, and portals for engaging with open data. Some even help designing these portals in order best to meet user needs.

8) The city we need now fosters comprehensive and integrated planning and development: the way in which buildings and neighbourhoods are planned and used is a key concern, and something over which city authorities can have a significant impact. The need to move towards more localised communities (15-Minute Cities) is on the agenda, as is the need to regenerate and re-use existing places, rather than simply taking more land.

There are already great examples of libraries sitting at the heart of efforts to bring life back to previously run-down areas, including IFLA’s publication on new libraries in old buildings. There is also clearly an important role for information in effective urban planning and policy, something that library and information professionals are well placed to support, either within governments or wider research centres.

9) The city we need now ensures access to housing, services and mobility: closely linked to better planning is the need to ensure that everyone can access the services and opportunities that they need. Clearly, improving housing provision is also essential, as this unlocks a major series of other economic and societal benefits (health, wellbeing, disposable incomes, education).

Through operating as networks, public libraries already represent an example of decentralised service provision in action (and indeed, in many cases act as multifunctional service centres, partnering with other parts of government). When libraries are accessible on foot or by bicycle, this reduces the need for polluting travel, or for excluding those without their own form of transport. In parallel, through internet access provision, as well as helping people find out about their rights, libraries can also support access to housing and the defence of tenant rights.

10) The city we need now learns and innovates: building on a point already made above, the Campaign stresses the need for intelligent policy making, based on strong information management, a readiness to innovate, and the encouragement of partnerships and connections.

Libraries in the government and parliamentary fields already do just this at the national level, helping to ensure that decisions are based on the latest data and research. The skills and services they offer are also invaluable at the local level, and could certainly be drawn on more.

 

The City We Need Now campaign is not over. With key moments coming up this year, the above highlights will be referred to regularly in a variety of events and processes. Take a look at The City We Need Now site, and in particular its regional campaigns, to find out about new opportunities, or simply reach out to your own local government associations to talk about how libraries can make a reality of the Campaign’s goals.

The 10-Minute International Librarian #84: Celebrate the Local

Libraries have a mission to put global information into the hands of people, wherever they are.

Through their own collections policies, inter-library loan and document supply, and advocacy for internet provision and open access, they help overcome barriers to information.

This is a vital mission, allowing ideas to spread, mutual understanding to build, and innovation to happen.

Yet libraries are, alongside their focus on global access to information, also about fitting into their communities, responding to their needs.

They are both international and local at the same time, with a duty both to respond to local needs, and to act as a key part of the local cultural, educational and research infrastructure.

Demonstrating this attachment to the community, to the area, can also be a great way of building engagement.

So for our 84th 10-Minute International Librarian exercise, celebrate the local!

Think about the particularities of your area and your community. Are there possibilities – in your collections, your services, your staff even – to draw on this as a source of strength?

What about the particular needs of your community that might mark them out from other places? Can you identify these and think how to respond?

What more can you do to attach yourself to the community you are in, in order to realise the potential of your library at the heart of ‘place-building’ and community cohesion?

Share your ideas in the comments below.

Good luck!

 

This idea relates to the IFLA Strategy! Key Initiative 3.3 Empower the field at the national and regional levels

As we publish more ideas, you will be able to view these using the #10MinuteInternationalLibrarian tag on this blog, and of course on IFLA’s Ideas Store! Do also share your ideas in the comments box below!

 

Libraries in the Post-Pandemic Future of Cities

Cities and Pandemics: towards a more just, green and healthy future - front cover of reportUN HABITAT, the United Nations Programme for Human Settlements, recently released Cities and Pandemics: Towards a More Just, Green and Healthy Future.

Drawing both on the organisations’ long experience of supporting sustainable urban development – most notably through delivering on the New Urban Agenda – and lessons learned during the COVID-19 Pandemic so far, the report aims to  provide recommendations for the future of cities.

This blog highlights some of the key points made by the report, and their relevance for libraries.

 

A critical issue

From the start, and the foreword provided by UN Secretary-General Antonio Gutteres, the report is clear that the way that humans live has had a major impact on the spread of COVID.

From broader questions about the impacts of putting pressure on natural ecosystems (leading to risks of animal diseases getting into humans), to the more rapid spread of the virus among people living in cramped conditions, the need to reflect on how we organise our cities, towns and villages is clear.

Yet the report is also hopeful – cities can play a key role in the recovery from COVID, drawing on the knowledge and policy tools at their disposal. Indeed, in the past, it has been cities that have led the way in key public health advances, for example around sanitation or the promotion of open spaces.

In short, the Pandemic provides a basis both for reflection, but also optimism.

 

Key themes for a recovery

In setting an agenda for the future, the report sets out four key priorities:

  • Rethinking the form and function of the city, including reform to planning in order to support inclusion and productivity
  • Addressing systemic poverty and inequality, including both targeted support now, and work on longer-term solutions
  • Rebuilding a new normal, including efforts to promote wider changes seen as desirable (innovation, climate action, delivery of other public goods)
  • Clarifying urban legislation and governance, including greater freedoms for cities to respond to crises.

Across this, the report calls for a new social contract, addressing discrimination, ensuring participation, expanding capabilities, promoting redistribution, and adopting a rights-based approach in line with the UN 2030 Agenda.

This builds on the ability, already highlighted, of city governments to get closer to citizens than national authorities can, by developing place-based policies.

This opens up new possibilities to provide more targeted interventions which reflect local circumstances, cultures and needs, as well as to encourage behavioural changes. Clearly, as at any level of decision-making, this potential is only realised through effective and responsible governance.

Library and information workers reading this will already see a huge potential for libraries to engage in this work, both through their work to give individuals the information and skills they need to thrive, and as social and democratic spaces.

Libraries are, arguably, a microcosm of the wider work of local government, looking to find the most effective way of improving the lives of the communities they serve. They are well placed to support behavioural change in particular, through the provision of information, something that will be essential for climate action and improved health and wellbeing.

Beyond these broad points, there are two particular elements of the report which are valuable for our institutions, both in our own reflection, and in our advocacy.

 

Rediscovering the local

The report underlines the degree to which the Pandemic has obliged people to become more familiar with their local areas.

Both through restrictions on movement beyond a certain distance, and with many more people working from home, city centres have become emptier, while the suburbs, and suburban centres, have become livelier.

Beyond this, the report suggests that we may even see a resurgence in smaller cities, with people just as able to work from there as from anywhere else.

In practical terms, the lesson has been that more needs to be done to ensure that people can access key services and meet their daily needs locally, for example within a 15 minute walk.

For libraries, this can be a case for denser networks and/or (as the report also suggests) a greater emphasis on working outside of the walls, while also working to build comfort in a post-COVID world.

Of course, this is not a new issue. Many libraries already had active programmes of outreach to those unable to come to them, due to distance or personal circumstances. Many more have developed such services as a result of the pandemic.

However, as we move beyond the pandemic, the value of ensuring balanced and well-distributed urban services is a useful argument for our institutions, with an emphasis on flexible design that allows both for adaptation to future events, and the provision of a wider variety of services.

 

Digital inclusion as a priority

Another major area of focus in the report is digital inclusion, given how starkly the pandemic has underlined the costs of not being connected.

UN HABITAT strongly underlines the value of public WiFi provision, noting its installation in transport locations in India as a means of allowing more people to get online. It also calls for wider efforts to promote broadband connectivity, especially in marginalised areas such as informal settlements.

Significantly, the report does not stop at pure connectivity, but highlights that this should be accompanied by efforts to build skills and offer wider support. It calls for accessible digital inclusion and training programmes, with an emphasis on disproportionately excluded groups (women, persons with disabilities, the elderly and others), in order to help them use new applications and tools.

These are, of course, also areas of obvious library strength. Even in the best connected countries, public internet access in libraries plays an essential role in allowing people to get online, either as the only option, or as a complement to other means (such as a shared home connection, or a mobile device).

During the pandemic, there have been many positive stories of libraries turning their WiFi towards the outside, allowing people to access the internet from car parks, while others have lent WiFi hotspots.

Just as important, however, is the work in many libraries to build digital skills, from basic know-how (turning a device on, using e-mail etc) to media and information literacy. This can come through anything from informal support to formal classes, and of course be targeted, for example towards building health literacy.

Even when other options exist, libraries have unique characteristics – their reputation, their space, their staff (if trained themselves), their focus on providing a universal service. Crucially, they also allow people to get online together, promoting a more social experience of the internet.

 

As highlighted earlier in this piece, there is a lot in UN HABITAT’s work that will resonate strongly with libraries – a strong shared focus on inclusion, excellent service provision, and on finding solutions at the local level.

The emphasis on providing services close to people, and on the urgency of digital inclusion (both in terms of connectivity and skills) provide a useful support for efforts to promote strong library networks, with well-supported staff and effective outreach to communities.

As city governments look to take on board the recommendations made by UN HABITAT, they can gain a lot by including libraries in their reflection. In doing so, they will be better able to harness a powerful resource in achieving the goal of a more just, green and healthier future.

The Multi-Functional Library: What Libraries Can Represent for Local Governments

The 10th World Urban Forum is taking place in Abu Dhabi next week, bringing together representatives of villages, towns and cities from around the world.

Given the powerful role of local government in decisions about libraries – and public libraries in particular – this is a key audience.

IFLA will be attending, and will use the opportunity to highlight what can be gained from close engagement with libraries as a means of delivering on a variety of local goals and public goods.

Here are just ten examples of what a library can represent to a local authority:

1. A Cultural Centre: libraries are fundamentally about books and literature. They provide an opportunity for everyone to engage with the written word, provide a showcase for authors – especially local ones – and have been key players in initiatives such as UNESCO Cities of Literature.

2. A learning hub: not just through supporting a love of reading, but also through advice, informal and more formal opportunities, libraries are also a core part of the infrastructure for promoting literacy, especially beyond school age. Literacy in turn is an enabling skill for progress in so many other areas.

3. A further education portal: libraries’ contribution to learning doesn’t stop there. In many places, they provide the space for other training opportunities, developing computer skills or entrepreneurship. They can also be a stepping-stone towards more in-depth learning opportunities.

4. A public health information point: many local governments have a role in promoting health and well-being. Information plays a key role in this, enabling people to make better choices about they eat and live, and how to manage conditions.

5. A guardian of local history: Many libraries maintain collections of local materials, documenting an area’s past. Through holding, and giving access to relevant publications and materials, they are a key reference for local historians, as well as for those carrying out wider research.

6. A showcase for the circular economy: libraries are already a great example of the sharing economy in the case of books. More and more are realising their potential to demonstrate other practices and techniques for sustainable consumption, as well as places to provide sustainability education.

7. A shop window: clearly the internet is playing a growing role in informing people about council initiatives. However, it is not possible to be sure that everyone will visit a website regularly. Libraries offer a great additional means of getting posters, leaflets and other information in front of people.

8. An open civic space: public libraries should be open for all, often providing the only non-commercial indoor space in a community. In many cases, libraries have gone one step further, organising debates, or helping people to use open government data and so build democratic engagement.

9. An eGovernment access station: as many government services move to an online-only format, it is essential to offer a means for people who lack connectivity, hardware or confidence to fill in the necessary forms or make the necessary request. Libraries provide this.

10. A source of pride: finally, a great library can represent a real source of civic pride, both for locals and visitors. Either as historic civic buildings, or at the heart of equality-focused redevelopment programmes, they can add to the sense of belonging and engagement with place.

Don’t hesitate to share any other roles you think that libraries perform in the comments box below!

The Right to the City is the Right to a Library

A key theme at the World Summit of Local and Regional Leaders, taking place this week in Durban, is how action at the local level contributes to building a better world for everyone.

The Summit’s organisers – United Cities and Local Government – have strongly and successfully made the case for the role of regions and cities in delivering the Sustainable Development Goals, both through a dedicated Goal (SDG11), and contributions across the 2030 Agenda.

In this context, they have placed a strong emphasis on the concept of the ‘Right to the City’ as a framework for thinking through how to develop local policies, and so deliver on the commitments made.

Given the focus on the idea, this blog offers an explanation of what the Right to the City means, and how libraries fit in – both as an example of this right in action, and as a means of making a reality of other policy goals.

 

What is the Right to the City?

As a support to the session focusing on the subject at the World Summit, the Global Platform for the Right to the City has prepared a background paper.

This discusses the emergence of the idea, defined as ‘the right of all inhabitants (present and future; permanent and temporary) to use, occupy, produce, govern and enjoy just, inclusive, safe and sustainable cities, villages and settlements defined as common goods’.

In effect, it covers all existing economic, social, cultural and human rights, but does so from the perspective of place.

This marks it out from approaches that look only at national law-making, or the individual perspective, in order to take account of the impact of the environment where people live.

In doing this, it implies that the villages, towns and cities in which people live – and so the people and bodies that govern them – have both the possibility and the duty to change lives, and deliver global goals.

According to the Global Platform, the Right to the City has a number of dimensions: the idea that cities have a social function, that public spaces are important, that rural-urban linkages need to be strengthened and made sustainable, that economic and civic life should be inclusive, that political participation should be enhanced, that people should not be subject to discrimination, and that cultural diversity should be preserved and promoted.

In each of these areas, the background paper sets out recommendations and actions for local, national and global decision-makers.

 

Libraries as an Example of the Right to the City at Work

The thinking behind the Right to the City will be familiar for anyone interested in libraries.

As documents such as the Public Library Manifesto set out, libraries serving communities are founded on a belief in the importance of public services dedicated to enabling and empowering all members of society.

Public libraries in particular are often the only free, non-commercial indoor public space in a community, giving people a context and setting for realising their own potential and creating links with others. In doing so, they help develop social capital, as well as being a source of civic pride.

Libraries also have a specific mission to take steps to reach out to those members of the community who would otherwise risk exclusion. This is essential. While possibilities may officially be open to all, without a specific focus on groups vulnerable to exclusion, those who need them most may struggle to seize them.

As set out in the Public Library Manifesto, as well as in laws in many countries, libraries have a mission to develop programming for specific groups, or otherwise take the steps needed to reach everyone meaningfully.

Through this, libraries provide a service with a strong spatial dimension, illustrating the Right to the City at work.

 

Libraries as Partner for Delivering the Right to the City

The potential contribution of libraries stretches beyond simply being an example of the Right to the City at work. Yet the services and support that libraries provide can be as much of an enabler as an end in themselves.

This is easy to see when it comes to cultural diversity, given libraries’ role in giving access to collections that reflect the diversity of their communities, in preserving this creation for the future, and in stimulating new creation.

But it also applies to other areas, such as economic opportunity, political participation, and allowing for social mobility. This is down to their role in delivering access to information and the skills that allow everyone to use it – a vital first step for almost any other policy.

For example, through the equitable provision of information, libraries are connecting people with employment and training opportunities. This is the case in Tunisia, where women in rural areas are using skills developed at the library to create economic opportunities.

They are also making it easier for people to break out cycles of poverty, such as in Zagreb, Croatia, where libraries have proved to be ideal (and stigma-free) places to reach out to people experiencing homelessness and facilitate their economic and social reintegration.

They can also help citizens hold governments accountable, such as in Chattanooga, US, where the library hosts the city government’s open data platform, and has helped to make it as accessible and usable as possible.

Libraries also support engagement in policy development, such as in Medellín, Colombia, where libraries not only host pollution sensors, but also provide the skills to allow users to interpret the data received and reflect on what this means for local transport policy.

In short, libraries have the potential to be key partners for local governments on delivering on the Right to the City for their citizens.

 

Recommendations

This week’s meetings in Durban will be a great opportunity for local leaders from around the world to discuss how to turn the concept of the Right to the City into a reality.

In libraries, they not only have a pre-existing illustration of the Right at work, but also a key partner for delivering on it across the board. It’s now time to realise this potential!

Therefore, in order to deliver on the Right to the City, the following recommendations could be made:

  • Use libraries as a means of demonstrating what the right to the City means in reality
  • Enable libraries to use their potential as a public space to bring communities together
  • Integrate consideration of the importance of information and the skills to use it in any strategies for the implementation of the Right to the City, and make sure that libraries are part of delivery

Libraries at the Heart of Better Cities

World Cities Day 2019 focuses on the fact that to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals, it will be necessary to succeed in cities, where more than half of the world’s population lives.

Cities, in concentrating people, can also concentrate both opportunities and problems. They can be places where new possibilities emerge, new collaborations form and new ideas develop. However, they can also be marked by economic and social divides, as well as severe environmental damage.

The difference between the good and the bad is often associated with the ability of the members of communities to work together. When people living in an area have strong social connections, trust tends to be higher, and cooperation becomes easier.

The sum of these connections is sometimes described as social capital. Different levels of such capital have been cited as explaining variation in growth rates between cities and countries, or resilience in the face of disasters.

Given the major efforts required to deliver on the SDGs, we will need as much social capital as possible. Libraries can help!

 

Libraries as Social Infrastructure

Sometimes, these connections are only between people belonging to a certain family or group. While these can help in some ways, they can also risk being exclusive. As has been pointed out, the strength of mafia groups, for example, is an example of social capital at work, just not in a good way.

In a modern, diverse city, what is needed are connections that link together all people living in the space.

For this, it is important to have common reference points, and common spaces. Common reference points can come in many forms, such as culture, history, or simply information.

Common spaces are places where everyone can come and feel welcome, outside of home, work, or social life within a particular group.

Libraries, in providing both, represent a key part of the ‘social infrastructure’ of any town or city.

They ‘provide the setting and context for social participation’. This is the thesis of Eric Klinenberg, whose book ‘Palaces for the People’, has been strongly welcomed in the library field for its clear explanation of what libraries can offer.

 

Taking the Message Further

One of the reasons Klinenberg gives for writing his book is the sense that despite this contribution, libraries are not always recognised for their role.

They are less glamorous than other cultural institutions, but are also too often seen as less urgent or less necessary than other core public services such as the police or schools.

In effect, they – and the benefits they can bring to the cohesiveness, the inventiveness, and the resilience of cities – risk being overlooked.

This is a concern. There are few public services which offer such welcoming spaces, provide such a rich range of references, or are as inclusive as libraries.

It is certainly hard to imagine any that can claim to provide the combination of all three that libraries do. Clearly this is not to say that libraries are more important than other services, but rather that they make an irreplaceable contribution.

 

Therefore, as cities look to work out how they can promote inventiveness, change behaviours, and improve economic, social, cultural and political life, they should look to make sure that they are making the most of their libraries.

Happy World Cities Day!