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   64th IFLA General Conference
   August 16 - August 21, 1998

The contribution of public libraries to higher education opportunities for the socially and economically deprived in rural societies

Abstract:

Paper

In United Kingdom terms Cumbria is geographically very isolated. Long distances separate its communities and over 40% of its population lives in settlements of less that 10,000 people. Many of these communities face severe disadvantages as the normal facilities, expected as part of life in the last years of the twentieth century, are available only in the larger towns, which are often a considerable distance away.

The county covers 6,000 square kilometres. It has a population of 492,000, which is growing in Eden and South Lakeland Districts, and declining in West Cumbria and Barrow-in-Furness. Its workforce is approaching 250,000.

Its economy is dominated by high and medium level technology manufacturing, especially on the West Cumbria coast. This is complemented by tourism, which provides relatively low paid jobs to a predominantly female workforce in the rural setting of the Lakes. Much of the West Coast's economy suffers from a legacy of industrial dereliction and poor infrastructure which hampers attempts to foster economic development. Elsewhere in Cumbria the rural economy is under threat with perhaps 4,000 jobs likely to disappear from agriculture during the remainder of the 1990's.

Not only are Cumbria's communities isolated one from another because of the sheer physical mass of Cumbria and its internal geography, Cumbria is also isolated from much of the rest of Britain, and even more so from mainland Europe, yet is a Unique Region in both the United Kingdom and Europe. In part, because of this very remoteness, it is regarded by many as a Special Place. One of outstanding natural beauty where the natural and managed landscape has blended over the centuries of the present Millennium. It inspired the Romantic Revival, with its enormous impact on English Language and Literature. At this time it has leading world industries in Energy and Marine Engineering. It is home to the Lake District National Park and a World Heritage Site at Hadrian's Wall, which was built from 122AD onwards and illustrates Cumbria's heritage, not only in the last 1,000 years, but also in the first Millennium.

The Cumbrian ways of life and traditions are still reflected in its individual communities, it history, social geography, and its dialects.

For all of these circumstances, Cumbria is unique. It faces major challenges in maintaining its ways of life and traditions, in educating its young people, in re-skilling and training its population, in communicating between individuals and communities, in and outside Cumbria. The decline in its traditional industries and its poor physical infrastructure of road, rail and air links hampers attempts to foster economic development.

In no area of Cumbrian life is this more apparent than in the field of education and learning. There are a large number of small primary schools with limited teaching resources and which have difficulty in covering the full range of the national curriculum. In secondary education, in many areas, it is not possible to provide a full range of subjects to give Cumbria's young people real opportunities for their future. Many rural secondary schools have no Sixth Form, and therefore no opportunity for their pupils to obtain `A' levels, other than by transferring to other, more distant, secondary schools. These 'A' levels are the qualifications young people need to gain in order to secure a University place. Further Education faces similar difficulties and challenges with numbers of students often insufficient to justify commercially the range of courses wanted by local people.

Higher education developments remain very limited. Recent years have seen the establishment of a small University Campus at Carlisle, as an outpost of the University of Northumbria at Newcastle. This Carlisle Campus specialises in Management Studies. Its location at Carlisle, however, makes access to it extremely difficult for many Cumbrians. Other Higher Education opportunities have been provided by outreach courses in Further Education Colleges, with mentoring and support in the main from the University of Central Lancashire at Preston. Almost invariably these courses require attendance during the second and third years in an institution in another part of Britain. This is not a realistic option for many students as financial constraints increasingly impinge on the Higher Education Sector.

Similar problems exist in the provision of related Public Services. Traditional and conventional solutions will not provide these opportunities in Cumbria. Nor does Cumbria have the critical mass of population and population density to make it commercially viable for the international telecommunications industry to invest in an electronic communications infrastructure, such as a comprehensive Broadband Network, to allow Cumbria's industries, education services and communities to be able to participate in the evolving Information Society of the next millennium. Cumbria now needs a solution to these disadvantages by developing a new, community-based method of providing Life-Long Education at every level: the Genesis Project, which will prepare Cumbria, its people and its industries for the challenges of the twenty-first century and beyond.

At this point, I think it would be helpful if we place the development of Genesis within the wider framework of the Emerging Global Information Society of the twenty-first century.

The invention of the printing press - the Gutenberg Revolution as it is sometimes described - has been, arguably, the most significant event in this Millennium which is now drawing to a close. It brought about the Reformation - which was in itself a Revolution. It stimulated the Renaissance, and it spawned the Industrial Revolution. I suppose it is an understatement to observe of this wonderful world of ours, that the place has never been quite the same since.

We now find ourselves looking towards a new Millennium. And standing at the threshold of a new Revolution that promises to be as profound and far reaching in its consequences as was Gutenberg's moveable type.

The Electronic Transmission of Information will create a new and very different society to any that we have known. The following quotation is from The Bangemann Report, published in May 1994,

"Throughout the world, information and communications technologies are generating a new industrial revolution already as significant and far-reaching as those of the past.
It is a revolution based on information, itself the expression of human knowledge. Technological progress now enables us to process, store, retrieve and communicate information in whatever form it may take - oral, written or visual - unconstrained by distance, time and volume.

This revolution adds huge new capacities to human intelligence and constitutes a resource which changes the way we work together and the way we live together."

And whether we like it or not, we who work in Educational Institutions and in Public Funded Libraries are being forced to recognise that that resource : Information, is a marketable commodity. As a result many of us who work in the traditional public funded sectors of library and information management may be suffering a range of feelings and emotions. Feelings that range from being uncomfortable and ill at ease, to something close to real fear or grief at the erosion of the Public Service Ethos. To which many of us have committed our Adult lives.

For example, the Ethos of the Public Library Service for the last 150 years has been based on the Principles of Free Access to knowledge and information, for the individual, at point of contact with this community resource. A resource which provides opportunities for Life-Long Education, paid for by the Community for the benefit, even the intellectual enrichment of the individual.

How does this long-held Ethos square with the dogma of the Market Economy, Information as a Marketable Commodity, Competitive Tendering of Services, and the syndrome first developed in New Zealand as `User Pays'.

How profound the importance of this Emerging Information Society will be, is reflected in the following,

"A new information society is emerging in which management, quality and speed of information are key factors for competitiveness..."

"The move towards an information society, and the opportunities which it provides, will in the long run be as important as the first industrial revolution. It is difficult to predict the pace at which this change will take place. The economies which are the first to succeed in completing this change satisfactorily will have major competitive advantages".

There are not the words of an Academic, or even of a political `spin-doctor'. They are from the European Union's White Paper on Competition!

We in the Public Sector are faced - confronted is probably a more appropriate word - by an Information Revolution driven by the Market Forces of the Private Sector.

In practice, how will this effect our Society, our Community, our family? This is what the British Labour Party had to say, in its 1995 policy document, Communicating Britain's future,

"Patterns of employment will change as new technologies replace old products or services with new, and lower costs by reducing the amount of labour required. New employment will, however, come from the provision of interpretative and explanatory services - building "added value" into the availability of raw data. New export possibilities will, however, generate further employment. Overall, we believe that the information revolution will have a beneficial impact on employment".

Clearly, then, we live in times of rapid change both in our local communities, and in the emerging Global Society of the next century. These changes have the potential to bring remarkable opportunities : to enhance our economic growth, the creation of wealth and jobs, the ability to make available life-long Education, in the most liberal sense of that word, the People's University, and to retain and renew the fabric of our local communities and traditions. These opportunities range from enhanced Participatory Democracy to Electronic Commerce for Small and Medium sized businesses (SMEs). Perhaps then, we should pause for a moment, and ponder the words of Francis Bacon, Shakespeare's contemporary. Words whose sound advice echoes down the centuries to us now, thanks to Gutenberg,

`He that will not apply new remedies
Must expect new evils;
For time is the greatest Innovator.'

Remember that the Victorians intended that the Public Library for example, was to be the Working Man's University. When Andrew Carnegie performed the Opening Ceremony of the Elder Library, Govan, Glasgow, in 1903, he was in no doubt as to its purpose. And why he was spending so much of his fortune providing the English Speaking World with Public Libraries, he said,

"I should like to say to the workers of Govan that Mrs Elder had you chiefly in mind when she donated funds for this monument with a soul in it ... Here is an institution which knows, neither rank nor wealth within its walls, which stops the ignorant peer or the ignorant monarch at its threshold, and declines to unveil to him its treasures, or to waste time upon him, and yet welcomes the workman according to his knowledge or thirst for knowledge."

This mirrors almost exactly the substance of a speech by Sir John Potter, Lord Mayor of Manchester, when in 1852 he opened the first Free Public Library as a result of the Public Libraries Act of 1850. Supported on the platform by the Radical and Liberal Establishment of the time: such as the Earl of Shaftesbury, Charles Dickens, William Thackeray and John Bright, Sir John Potter, was clear that this provision was:

"... for the wants of the scholar and the student of every class."

I provide these quotations to remind us of the historical context in which many Public Funded Libraries have developed, and their original Ethos. And that these Libraries are not only about the provision of Information, but about Education in all its aspects. About opportunities for training, re-skilling, life-long learning in all its diverse and liberal forms.

I would contend that education and training have a critical role to play in underpinning the move towards a global information society. This role is not only Informational. It is Inspirational: in raising awareness and skill levels across all sections of the population and workforce, and in continuing to support lifelong learning in line with the rapid evolution of Information Technology and its potential applications.

And so, as I have indicated, the world is in the throes of a technological revolution that can make distance and geographical location a factor of the past. Developments in Information Technology and Computing can now give people in local communities access to knowledge, learning, education and information without this being dependent on the particular physical location of people and premises. Instead these can be accessed through new communication systems that will network to other people, and to this knowledge and information, in other parts of Britain, and throughout the world. Those in the future who are committed to a process of Learning will no longer need to travel distances to particular locations. The new and rapidly developing Information Technology Systems can provide Cumbria with the opportunity to use this technology to overcome distance and sparsity of population, in providing a unique process of Life-Long Learning.

The philosophy central to Genesis is to build a relationship with the people of Cumbria such that it creates a Sense of Identity with local people, and enhances people's lives. Because of Cumbria's particular circumstances it is especially well placed to develop this Project. It is unfettered by many of the academic traditions of the past. Therefore, it has a special opportunity to develop a process of Life-Long Learning, including Higher Education, that will be pivotal in providing a new kind of learning in society. Its significance will be international and community based.

This philosophy is derived from a series of research projects in recent years whose findings have highlighted the problems facing Cumbria. These findings cam be summarised as follows:

• Only 3 counties in England do not have their own HE facility.

• Cumbrian youngsters consistently score well above the National Average in `A' level passes.

• Yet only 33% of them go onto HE - 10% below the National Average.

• Almost 50% of these young people do not return to work in Cumbria.

• Participation Rates for 17 year olds in Cumbria following a course of Full-Time Education are lower than in any region of England.

• Yet Cumbrian enrolment in the Open University is 25% above the National Average.

• Cumbria comes out third of 96 LEAs in England in number of youngsters in Part-Time Education.

• Therefore, we have a Demand for HE but a Brain Drain of Young Talent.

• One set of financial circumstances to illustrate economic impact: - in 1993 Cumbria LEA made 5893 mandatory awards for HE/HND places;
  • 97% or 5687 went to students who went out of the County;
    
  • in Maintenance Grants alone, \9,054,822 went out of the County - only \46,555 remained in Cumbria;
    
  • with a standard multiplier of 3 for University Expenditure, plus ancillary costs, this has a significant affect on Cumbria Economy.

Figures for Mandatory Awards (HE) made by Cumbria County Council in subsequent years show no significant change to those for 1993/94.

The solutions to change and improve Cumbria's circumstances are detailed in our Genesis Project.

Genesis will:

1. Link local schools together across Cumbria improving the quality of education and the ability to teach in new and innovative ways.

2. Network all existing colleges of Further and Higher Education and go on to link these with Cumbria's local schools, thus providing access to educational opportunities at every level, irrespective of the location of the academic institution or school.

3. Enable all Public Sector Agencies to share and disseminate information so that a service can be provided effectively to all communities in a way that is not possible at present. A direct result will be that Cumbrians will have greatly improved information about services available to them. They will have the ability to have their questions answered and their problems dealt with, without leaving their local area.

4. Network existing Services to Business and Commerce to provide better and more readily accessible information and advice. This will assist these businesses to develop and thus provide enhanced job opportunities. This process would allow businesses to access advice and support not only from Public Agencies such as the Training and Enterprise Council and Business Link, but from the resources of Further and Higher Education throughout Cumbria.

5. Provide the means to develop new opportunities for Higher Education delivered on a Distance Learning basis from existing University outlets within Cumbria, new outlets developed as a result of the Project, and from academic institutions outwith Cumbria, whether in other parts of the United Kingdom or elsewhere in the world.

6. Create an opportunity for Cumbria's Tourist Industry to provide a network of information throughout Cumbria, and which can then be accessed world-wide via the Internet. This information would relate to accommodation, attractions, amenities, other places to visit and their accessibility. It would thus allow immediate electronic booking facilities in a way equivalent to that currently used by the international travel industry.

7. Deliver a Digital Library facility which would, initially, provide access to all books and publications in all the institutions forming part of the Network. Eventually, technological advance would also create a `paperless' library with access to information being gained through electronic means.

8. Offer commercial opportunities to sell capacity on the Network to businesses wishing to promote their products within and beyond Cumbria. This would provide on-going finance to ensure the long-term viability of the Network. It would also establish an international Electronic Commerce facility for Small and Medium Sized Cumbrian Enterprises to compete in international markets.

9. Utilise schools, colleges, libraries and village halls as community facilities for continuous learning in a way that, at present, is simply not available. Future developments would also provide complementary access to people's homes.

This vision is shared by others nationally and internationally. At a National Level, the Higher Education Funding Council, in April 1995, issued, Exploiting Information Systems in Higher Education. An Issues Paper. The Joint Information Systems Committee of the H.E.F.C. stated in this paper that the opportunities where Information Systems have much to offer are:

• Teaching and learning experience with a particular emphasis on distance learning in the home and workplace to meet the demands for continuous and off campus education.
  

• The role of higher education institutions (HEIs) in the local, regional and global environment.

• Research techniques, especially collaborative distance research and the virtual laboratory.

• Exploiting IT in running "the business" and campus.

In summary, the Committee concluded that `the next decade will be subject to greater competition for funds and students. HEIs will be efficiently run with a clear academic and business focus. There may be fewer institutions, with some aimed at specialist and niche markets. Students will be more demanding and will require flexible training designed to enhance career potential. The HEI of the future will seek a foundation in challenging learning and research programmes and will be closely integrated into the local and regional community and often with an international dimension. This will mean that the next ten years will be a period of great change both organisationally and in terms of external links. Change demands flexibility and a clear focus. There are many opportunities to be explored and this paper will now concentrate on areas where information and information systems can be exploited by institutions to ensure they thrive in this new climate.'

Genesis will place Cumbria in the vanguard of the dramatic economic, social and cultural changes which the new Millennium heralds, and which will impact on all of developed society: in Britain, in Europe, and throughout the world. This Life-Long Learning Project will address the challenges of the next Century. World Society will have the pressures of population growth and its impact on the environment; the social and economic processes resulting in a widening gap between rich and poor; and the need to develop a highly educated, skilled and adaptable workforce.
Cumbria will do so by developing its strategy for Life-Long Learning, by means of Distance Open and Continuous Learning and through the development of Information Technology. This will be a partnership between Business and Industry, Local Communities, Local Government, and Cumbria's Education systems of Colleges, Schools and Libraries.

The Genesis Project will therefore be realised by the development of this process of Life-Long Learning, under-pinned by the incremental development of an advanced, broadband electronic communication and IT infrastructure which will support those Economic, Educational, Public and Social goals in a combined, seamless manner. Such an infrastructure will not only secure the effective re-generation of Cumbria's economy, dramatically improve its educational opportunities, and provide co-ordination and access to public services, it will encourage partnership and collaboration, enhance external communication, and allow the rural and urban economies and community life to flourish, by permitting Cumbria to communicate simply and effectively in itself, and with the rest of the world.

We are acutely aware too, that while the Information Revolution has the potential to bring remarkable benefits, it also has the capacity to widen dramatically the gap between the Information Rich and the Information Poor: in local communities, within nations, and between the Developed and the Developing World. In Cumbria at least, we are determined that this will not happen.

The Market

The market research had four specific aims:

• to establish current access to Information Technology and information services, including sources and technologies they used now (e.g. access to the Internet) and current IT skill levels:

• to establish attitudes to informal learning and the potential for using IT in this way;

• to identify barriers which currently exist to utilise information and prevent take up of learning opportunities; and

• to establish users needs and preferences for accessing information technology (for example how far individuals would travel to use IT resources, how much individuals would pay for specialist services).

Key findings

Since we were concerned to take into account the views of individuals living in all parts of Cumbria, the sample included a cross section including those living in towns, villages, and those in more remote locations. 1500 individuals were surveyed by MORI.

• Support for the project
  There was overwhelming support for the GENESIS project with more than half of those surveyed 'strongly supporting' and a further third tending to support. Of those with an opinion, only 2% 'tended to oppose' the aims of GENESIS, and no one opposed the project strongly. This shows something of the latent potential and enthusiasm waiting to be tapped.

• Potential Users?
  Nine out of every ten people interviewed felt that they would be likely to use the services offered.

• What makes Cumbria different:
  There was a clear appreciation of:
  
  • more limited job opportunities and the problems in finding out about these opportunities;
  • the remoteness, poorer transport links and consequent difficulty in travelling to services;
  • there being less for young people to do; and
  • the high quality of the environment.

    In each of these areas the GENESIS project will deliver significant benefits to Cumbrians.

  • How Well informed
    In terms of how well informed people felt about local services and facilities, altogether about a third of the population felt ill informed. However those who felt well informed were more likely to use GENESIS to improve existing knowledge.

  • Awareness of technology
    Although nearly everyone had heard of most technologies, usage was much more limited. A quarter of people would like to use the Internet, CD-ROMs and the World Wide Web but can't because of issues associated with cost and access to equipment.

  • Use of Technology
    At present two thirds or more of the population don't wish to use e-mail, Internet, mobile phone, World Wide Web, FAX or telephone banking. These tend to be people who are currently information dis-empowered. Genesis will empower this section of the Community by making current information resources accessible to many who would otherwise be excluded from the emerging Information Society.

Opportunities for Young People

The MORI research showed that four in five families thought it was likely that their children would benefit from GENESIS facilities. There was considerable enthusiasm from children and young adults for the GENESIS project aims.

Reaction of Specific Groups

a. Enthusiasts and acceptors

Nationally 25% of the population are adept and comfortable with both the idea and the reality of technology. Generally this group think that computers are a good idea and want to learn more. This group tends to be younger people, often men, and in higher socio-economic groups.

In Cumbria about 40% felt confident about computers. Nearly half of these had experienced e-mail and computers at work. However access to technology and skills was a problem for this group. They were very enthusiastic about GENESIS and the power it would offer them and their communities.

b. Concerned and unconvinced

Generally, this group has mixed feelings about the effects of computerisation on society, but is keen to learn more. The group makes up around 1 in 5 of the population and comprises many older people, typically men who are over 45 and C2DE women of all ages. These groups are also concerned that they won't be able to learn. This a key group for the GENESIS project.

In Cumbria this group comprises about 25% of the population. They are positive about the benefits of GENESIS and would like to use the Internet and CD-ROM. Price, availability and training were the key limiters of use outside the work environment.

c. The alienated

This group is likely to be the most resistant to the onset of the Information Society. They are typically C2DE women aged 55+. When asked about 'computer technology' the group said 'don't use and don't want to use'. This group was the least confident about computers but significantly fewer were resistant to using computers to get community information particularly if access was local and free of charge. The MORI survey reinforced the results of the demonstrations: when shown a relevant application this group changed their opinion.

When asked about GENESIS very few of the group opposed the project and most said they would like to use information about local news, events and services.

Access to opportunity

• Services people most wished to access included local news and events (three quarters supported); community advice (two thirds supported) and public transport information (a half supported). Training, jobs, childcare and disability information had niche audiences. A great diversity in community information requirements is beginning to emerge. The GENESIS approach offers an opportunity to serve all of these 'niche markets'

• Most favoured local sites for GENESIS were libraries and schools (half each). Village halls/community centres were also popular potential locations.

Training, awareness and confidence raising

• For example amongst children, the group with greatest exposure to IT, only around a third have experience of the Internet.

• Amongst the whole population, nationally 13% have experienced this media: in Cumbria only 7%. However four times this number would like to use the Internet. This emphasises Cumbria's relatively weak current position but a strong demand for access and training.

• The single issue which people felt would encourage more use of these technologies was local training and advice, free of charge.

Getting the Services Right

Led us to draw up a schedule of our planned Phase I Implementation Strategy. This will consist of 140 Access Points on 20 sites throughout Cumbria. It will include eight Public Access Touch Screen Terminals in partnership with BT (British Telecom) and will be launched in January 1998.

Genesis has the potential to become the Flagship for Cumbria's Educational and Cultural Industries, and to establish knowledge-based industries as a major employer and wealth creator in the next century.

In summary, this is what Genesis aims to achieve:

• It will establish a dispersed, collegiate University throughout Cumbria.

• It will educate, train and re-skill our people.

• Establish new, knowledge based industries.

• Attract high technology inward investment.

• Maintain the social quality of our local communities while linking them together, and with the outside world.

• Provide a vastly improved telecommunications infrastructure to enable existing industry and commerce to compete effectively with the rest of the world.

• Support the existing internationally recognised Cumbrian Research Establishments.

• Encourage the formation and development of further Research facilities and their links with Industry.

The most recent development in our thinking, which again is part of the holistic approach which we have tried to adopt consistently in the Genesis Project, is to establish a Tourist Information Strategy, which will run on Cumbria's Broadband Network to direct many of the tourists who come to Cumbria and who are attracted by the central Lakes area which is termed the Lake District National Park, to other more peripheral parts of North and West Cumbria and the Furness Peninsular. The use of the Broadband Network has several major advantages:

• it will relieve the worsening tourist congestion in the Central Lakes area, which is damaging the ecology and environment of a very Special Place.

• it will provide financial resources and jobs in the growing Cumbrian Tourist industry by spreading the tourist visitor experience throughout Cumbria, and highlighting the diverse and distinctive areas of national beauty which are very different from the Central Lakes area.

• this 'traffic' on the Broadband Network will provide a financial subsidy for the Network's use in providing Educational opportunities, thus keeping the costs to the students accessing knowledge and information electronically, to a minimum. This is particularly important for mature students and others whose financial and social circumstances do not allow these potential students to attend traditional University facilities in other locations beyond Cumbria.

• it is also hoped that all of this activity and increased financial resources will lead to a greater investment in establishing Small and Medium Sized (S.M.Es) in these peripheral and remote parts of Cumbria, specialising in Information Communication Technology, Telecottaging and Rural Call Centres.

And, in part at least, this next quotation, is the Reason why Genesis and schemes like it, are so important. It's a poem, originally written in the old language of Scotland, the Gaelic. It describes a rural community, a village on the small Hebridean Island of Raasay. Which died. As a result of a combination of the effects of the Highland Clearances, poverty and lack of opportunity, and a failure to adapt to changing economic circumstances. The poem was written by Scotland's finest Gaelic poet, Sorley MacLean. I hope its message is relevant to all the isolated, and peripheral regions of Europe. It is called, HALLAIG.

"Time, the deer, is in the woods of Raasay"

The window is nailed and boarded
through which I saw the West
and my love is at the Burn of Hallaig,
a birch tree, and she has always been

between Inver and Milk Hollow,
here and there about Baile-chuirn:
she is a birch, a hazel,
a straight, slender young rowan.

In Screapadal of my people
where Norman and Big Hector were,
their daughters and their sons are a wood
going up beside the stream.

Proud tonight the pine cocks
crowing on the top of Cnoc an Ra,
straight their backs in the moonlight -
they are not the wood I love.

I will wait for the birch wood
until it comes up by the cairn,
until the whole ridge from Beinn na Lice
will be under its shade.

If it does not, I will go down to Hallaig,
to the Sabbath of the dead,
where the people are frequenting,
every single generation gone.