The statutory duty to provide libraries has attracted lots of attention, although it is not really clear what it is. One aspect that is undoubtedly part of the duty, but gets little attention is the employment aspect. Every local authority has a duty to provide library services to anyone in employment within its area. As far as I know, most authorities simply try to concentrate on providing library services to residents, and non-residents in employment are simply left to their own devices.
Brent has been seeking to be more pro-active in trying to get its own employees to join at Wembley Library in the Brent Civic Centre. The most recent figure I heard was that around 250 had enrolled, with the vast majority actively involved in using the services. Of course some of these may be Brent residents as well. I hope that following on from this success, the idea can also be rolled out to other major employers in the area.
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