Libraries

What does the future hold for libraries? And, perhaps more importantly, what does the present hold for them. Libraries have hit a 'tipping point' and there is much discussion on what libraries should look like in 2013, what services they should be offering, how do they fight council cuts forcing the closure of libraries and do we even need them in this digital age? The Last Writes Exhibition at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont, Cumbria (UK) will be looking at many of these questions - and holding one Cumbrian library up as an example of a direction libraries should be going in.

In particular, we'll be looking at whether libraries should be in libraries. That may sound double-dutch but in Finland their schools don't have any libraries - instead they are an integral part of the classrooms. They believe that sectioning off 'libraries' and putting them in separate rooms suggests they are something apart from learning and life. Perhaps they have a point. Why don't we have more libraries or collections of books where people most obviously need them: in waiting rooms, at bus-stops in (quieter!) pubs or in restaurants? Why not have libraries as part of the 'corner shop' or within supermarkets?

Hopefully the exhibition will spark a debate and provide some interesting answers.