Glasgow City Council: library, information and learning services for disabled people in Glasgow

Headnote

Abstract

Purpose - An outline of the public library service offered to disabled people in Glasgow, Scotland.

Design/methodology/approach - A descriptive account.

Findings - It is a great challenge for a public library service to be able to offer services to its large and diverse body of disabled users, who may need to use any part of the public library system at any time, and whose needs must be anticipated. This paper sketches how one particular public library service attempts to meet that challenge.

Research limitations/implications - A specific account of one particular example of good practice.

Practical implications - Offers clearly described models for service delivery to disabled users which will be of great interest to those in public library management, and library practice generally.

Originality/value - The finding that, despite the range and number of disabled users catered for by a large public library service such as Glasgow, it is possible to offer services that comply with legislation and anticipate the needs of disabled users.

Keywords Public libraries, Disabled people, Library users

Paper type General review

Introduction

Glasgow is an energetic, multi-cultural city with a population of some 600,000 people, rightly hailed as "transformed beyond recognition over the past decade or so' (Glasgow City Council, 2003). Complementing this vast metropolis, the public library authority, Glasgow City Council: Cultural and Leisure Services: Libraries, Information and Learning, is one of the largest in Scotland and aims to ensure that the citizens of Glasgow, including those facing social exclusion, have the very best cultural and leisure facilities, services and learning opportunities. Libraries, Information and Learning is thus committed to developing socially inclusive services and this paper outlines the assistance available and the initiatives currently being undertaken to ensure that people with disabilities have equality of access to our library and educational services.

It is not easy either to quantify or qualify the information relative to disability in Glasgow as both the nature and number of disabled people in Glasgow can vary from survey to survey. However, in Glasgow, it is estimated that there are approximately 6,000 disabled young people under the age of 19 and 43,000 aged between 19 and 60 years (Scottish Executive Health Department, 1999). It is a great challenge to be able...