Press Release: 24/09/96

PLA Conference Flyer

The Public Library Network Millennium Bid

Information for All has been established by the Library and Information Commission and the Library Association to make a bid to the Millennium Commission for up to £50 million (to be matched by a further £70 million) to fund a national programme for the networking of 4,000 public libraries. Our bid has to be delivered by 11 November. If accepted consultation continues through 1997, work starts in 1998 and the programme must be completed by the end of 2000.

This broadband communications network will connect the smallest and most remote libraries to other libraries in their area and through the Internet to all other libraries and online information sources. Through this network citizens will have access to a wide range of public and commercial information delivered electronically and through their public library will have an opportunity to acquire IT skills. This bid will ensure that we do not end the Millennium with a nation of information haves and have-nots.

Current library networking programmes will continue to be isolated and uncoordinated unless a central fund of this magnitude becomes available. For everyone who cares about the future of our public libraries it is essential that this bid succeeds because it will be the last round of funding by the Millennium Commission, the only route through which public libraries can get access to lottery money.

We ask for your help in two ways.

• First, and most important, write to politicians, councillors and to us expressing your support (see below).
• Second, we need financial contributions towards the substantial expenditure entailed in making a successful bid. Whatever your organisation can give us will go towards ensuring the success of the bid. Please see overleaf for details of the campaign or ask Charles Chadwyck-Healey or Martin Dudley for more information at the above address.

Information for All

Raising public awareness

Public relations consultants Charles Barker plc have been commissioned to work with Information for All to implement a wide-ranging PR and public affairs campaign over the next few months to support the bid until an initial decision is made; and to include it in a further appraisal, and give strategic advice for the next phases.

The objective of the campaign is to secure universal support for the concept of wired up libraries and Internet access for all and to use this support to convince key decision makers that the bid should be accepted.

Through a variety of activities, the campaign will raise public awareness of the concept and explain the benefits of a knowledge democracy on an individual level as well as to the country as a whole.

Central to the PR programme is a letter writing campaign aimed at encouraging library users and others to write to their local MPs and Councillors expressing support for the concept of Internet access for all.

Other key elements of the campaign are:

• a call to action which will underpin all communications
• "Make sure YOU have a local highway to the world"
• posters and leaflets for display in all libraries around the country
• a pro-active media relations programme across national, regional and specialist print and broadcast media
• a contact programme aimed at securing political and opinion-former advocacy for the bid.

We need your support

You are our ambassadors and our front-line link with the public and we will be asking for your help to encourage public support for the bid. In the coming weeks you will receive an action pack with further information about the campaign and your role in it. Meanwhile if you, or anyone you talk to, would like to express support for this campaign please write to your local MP or Councillor, or to:

Charles Chadwyck-Healey, Chairman Information for All

Martin P Dudley, Project Manager

News & Background Information

© Information for All
For questions or comments, please contact informall@la-hq.org.uk
URL:http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/informall/bid/press-releases/pla.html
Last revised 24th September 1996

Website by Sarah Ormes and Isobel Stark of UKOLN