The impact of Scotland's libraries

Scotland's school libraries have no national mandate for adequate library provision. Scotland's public libraries, though they do face a national mandate for adequate library provision, have no enforced standard for what that must offer. As a result, across the public and school library sector, Scotland's communities face a lack of equitable access.

Scottish Book Trust is undertaking an independent research project, led by our Research and Evaluation Manager Éadaoín Lynch, to report on the value and impact of our public and school libraries – and showcase how they are intrinsic to removing inequity across many intersections of Scottish life.

We work across every local authority, striving to offer an opportunity for all people to tell their stories; as such, we are uniquely positioned to bear witness.

Methods include:

• Surveys of public and school librarians
• Interviews with public and school librarians
• Qualitative feedback from library users
• Quantitative data gathering on library opening hours and capacity

This hub serves as a platform to share findings and resources throughout the research project. Key findings and reporting will be published here at the close.

Preliminary findings – Public librarian survey

Following the surveys circulated in autumn/winter 2023–24, Scottish Book Trust has prepared a preliminary findings report on Scotland's public libraries.

These findings showcase the pressures faced by the library sector, the successes delivered by indefatigable library workers and the profound impact that libraries have on their communities in terms of digital inclusion, reading for pleasure, learning opportunities and active citizenship.

Next steps

Scottish Book Trust is currently compiling the preliminary findings from the school librarians survey. That report will launch in Libraries Week 2024 (8–14 October) and will be available on this hub.

Scottish Book Trust has also completed deep-dive research interviews with public and school librarians across Scotland, as well as a hugely successful library user survey, which gathered nearly 2,000 responses from across every single Scottish local authority.

These will be analysed in our final report, including our recommendations arising from this comprehensive and mixed methods research. 

Final reporting will launch in early 2025 and will be available for download from this hub. 

Any queries, including press and media queries, can be sent to the Research and Evaluation team at [email protected](this link will open in a new window).