Interview with Russell Allen, head of libraries & heritage at West Sussex County Council.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers. Now, a big
00:06pleasure to speak to Russell Allen, Head of Libraries and Heritage for West Sussex County
00:12Council. Now, this is 2025, a major, major event, it's the West Sussex Library Centenary.
00:19And you are starting celebrating that centenary with the libraries in a great position, 36
00:24of them. And in an era when so many libraries have closed, you're saying something like
00:29600 in the last decade or so. How have West Sussex managed to do so well with their libraries
00:35then? Bucking a trend.
00:38Thanks Phil, yeah, we are really excited to be celebrating our centenary year in 2025.
00:44I think the key to our success has been being willing to embrace technology, which is something
00:50that we can see in our history books that we've done throughout our history of 100 years.
00:54But we have more recently been adapting and changing our use of technology and our ways
00:59of working. So it's allowed us to achieve efficiencies that have meant we've kept our
01:03libraries open.
01:04Well, that's a huge achievement, isn't it? Because I think I'm still governed by sort
01:09of old fashioned images of libraries as being silent and no one talking, no one moving.
01:15But they've changed, haven't they? They've moved with the times they've had to.
01:18They've changed remarkably, yeah. I think a big change was the advent of self-service
01:23technology, which has let us be even more efficient in libraries so that customers can
01:27do that transactional part of borrowing and returning their books. Lots of things they
01:32can do online to join online and manage their library account. And that's really freed up
01:36library staff time so that we've evolved into many more of the social activities that we're
01:41providing to our communities. And that's really changed the way that we work.
01:45And much more community hubs, aren't they?
01:48Absolutely, yeah.
01:49And you were saying so intriguingly that the library service, to an extent, has got to
01:52change its character to enjoy this celebration. It's an introvert service in some ways, but
01:58you are going to go extrovert 2025 to mark this great anniversary.
02:05I think that's right. I think we joke at being maybe introverts because public libraries,
02:10for the scale of the work they do, so we see 7,000 people every day in our libraries in
02:14West Sussex. And I don't know another bit of the local public state that does that.
02:21But we don't shout loud about it. We get on with our work and we serve the communities
02:25that come into our libraries. But we are looking at 2025 being the year where we do shout quite
02:30a bit louder, probably share a lot more cake and have lots of bunting up and around as well.
02:35And so you should, because the point is that for those users, the library is so important, isn't it?
02:41What is it that you're giving people, do you think?
02:44Obviously, all of our work starts and finishes with reading. So lots of our work is about
02:50promoting books and reading and talking to customers about the books they're reading,
02:54encouraging children to start reading, helping people to find the right book for the information
02:58and skills that they're trying to gain. But I think around all of that is the social contact
03:04and the sense of community that libraries can provide by being there every day, Monday
03:08to Saturday, familiar staff and volunteers that give their time to their local community,
03:13talking to people. It establishes a sense of community and connection.
03:17And that's the really the heart of library work.
03:20And that's presumably why you've worked so hard to protect the smaller rural village libraries to ensure that they survive.
03:27Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Lots of our smallest communities, the library isn't just the hub of the community.
03:34It may be the only bit that's there routinely for everyone to use aside from a village shop.
03:41So they are really important and we're really proud that we have a universal offer across the county.
03:47So, of course, there are lots of activities and lots of footfall in our big libraries,
03:51but our small libraries also serve their communities really well too.
03:55So as you celebrate, then there's plenty of reasons to celebrate.
03:59The national picture is maybe a bit worrying for libraries, isn't it?
04:02But the picture in West Sussex is good.
04:06Yeah, we're really pleased, but there's always our motivation is to reach even more people.
04:12So last year, a study was produced to show that the value of a public library to its community is around a million pounds of social value in terms of the work that we deliver and the benefit that has to people.
04:26So we've worked out that if we can reach even more people, we'll blow that million pound target and deliver even more social value.
04:33So part of 2025 and celebrating is also wanting to reach even more people that maybe haven't found us yet.
04:41You will lose that introvert tag, won't you, one way or another?
04:44We'll try. Congratulations on the anniversary and lovely to speak to you.
04:48Thank you. Thank you. You too.