Biddy Fisher: Libraries must remain at the heart of society

Three years ago, a mother took this situation to a librarian in Leeds. Together they added in a lot of initiative, a small amount of money and the will to make contact with relevant other professions.

The result is a communicating 11-year-old with a range of interests.

Now multiply that one child by all the others in similar circumstances and you can see the power of libraries to change lives.

This "Across the Board" initiative of Leeds Libraries has won an international prize as well as the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP) national award.

Throughout the UK, public libraries ensure everyone can have access to books for pleasure, for their career development and for health and well- being. Earlier this year, CILIP issued a manifesto outlining six critical areas where interventions by libraries and librarians enhance and improve our society. One of them, inspiring a love of reading, seems all too obvious for a profession traditionally immersed in books.

The National Year of Reading in 2008 led to initiatives in Calderdale that are still providing community groups with access to books in interesting places such as the lending library at Todmorden Station. Librarians work with local residents to cater for specific groups and across Calderdale there are more than 40 reading groups including a Spanish readers' group and a Polish community group.

Significant schemes, such as Rotherham's reader development policy, ensure that libraries are at the heart of strategic developments to encourage reading and improve literacy levels.

Libraries are instrumental in facilitating the national Bookstart Scheme. Parents can take their children, register them as readers and collect the free Bookstart package from their local library. This starts a child's engagement with reading and provides an opportunity for a lifetime of exploring, imagining and creating stories.

In the promotion of health and well-being, 111 public libraries in England currently run health-related activities with more than 75 per cent being run in partnerships with health providers.

Manchester Libraries have initiated a partnership with Macmillan Cancer Support to supply information about cancer (Macmillan Information and Support Service). Three community libraries, four library-based information points and a drop in service now provide support and advice for "survivorship" and cancer awareness.

Unlike hospitals where the focus must be on those receiving treatment, libraries in communities can offer this service to carers and the families of patients, and the information provided can also be targeted towards specific, local health issues.

Libraries these days are not just about books. Martha Lane Fox is the UK's Digital Champion and has outlined many of the barriers to even more of us being connected to the ubiquitous web. Libraries break down some of these barriers, allowing a unique and safe environment to open up the internet to those who may not trust it yet.

The People's Network has made computers an essential part of the public library service, providing people with access, skills and the confidence that will help to make the digital society a reality.

Public libraries are a frontline statutory service. A reduction in this service leaves the entitlement of each member of that society in real jeopardy. Local authorities that have allowed library decline by stealth are culpable of denying their residents opportunities to engage with community based initiatives for improved health, higher literacy levels, greater educational aspiration, creative minds and greater community cohesion.

We are in danger of allowing the library service to be gradually (or not so gradually) eroded and dismantled around us.

With an avalanche of news stories about cuts in public libraries we must defend a core professionally managed library service and at the same time find new and creative ways of delivering that service often in partnership with others, responding to community needs in areas such as education, employability and health and well-being.

Recent library innovations include outreach schemes for the home-restricted in the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham using the borough's transport services and Primary Care Trust; pioneering partnerships with prisons in Edinburgh that support the rehabilitation of offenders; a focus on young people, especially NEETs, in active youth involvement by presenting pop culture in libraries in Lancaster's libraries and the preservation of our cultural history through access to developments like the Unnetie Digital Archive in North Yorkshire.

These illustrations offer insight into the way contemporary libraries can remain at the heart of a truly engaged and democratic society.

Never have we needed our public library services more.

Biddy Fisher is the president of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP). She lives in Denby Dale, West Yorkshire, where the village library is open Monday, Tuesday,

Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.