Prepared by UKOLN (the UK Office for Library and Information Networking)

Version 1.0, 20th December 1995.

Introduction

It is widely recognised that the Internet and other networks will become central channels for the delivery of learning, leisure and business services. It is crucial that public libraries respond to the challenge that these changes introduce so that they can continue to provide services of relevance to their users' needs. These issues were recognised by the Public Library Review commissioned by the Department of National Heritage.

The Library and Information Commission has been considering how it might advise Government in this area and is commissioning several studies. This report has been prepared by UKOLN at the request of the Library and Information Commission. It is based on a survey of UK public library authorities carried out in late November 1995. Every UK authority (167) responded so that it represents a complete picture of the UK situation. We are very pleased to be able to present what is the first in-depth account of public library use of the Internet. It is based on a deliberately quick and simple approach as speed of response was critical.

The project has been managed by the British Library R&D Department. UKOLN is jointly funded by the BLRDD and the Joint Information Systems Committee of the Higher Education Funding Councils.

This report is structured in the following sections:

• Summary and discussion
• Statistical breakdown
• Method
• Acknowledgements

For further information please contact either of:

Sarah Ormes, Research Officer, 01225 826711

Lorcan Dempsey, Director, 01225 826254

This is a first report, prepared quickly to meet the Commission's deadline. A further report drawing more fully on the collected data will be produced pending discussion with the Commission.

Summary and discussion

Introduction

The survey uncovered general low connectedness to the Internet and low use of networked services. However, there was great enthusiasm among respondents about the topic and most very much saw the Internet in some form as an integral part of their future services. Many respondents were keen to talk about their plans for the near future. However, such plans as seemed to exist had limited ambition: typically they were to join the exploratory activity on a low scale which typifies much of current public library Internet use. There did not seem to be a shared view of how networking might contribute to systemic change, or of how the public library movement should collectively define a future service role for itself in a digital future. Of course, Project EARL is significant in this context.

Sample

This report is based on returns from 167 public library authorities in the UK broken down as follows.

Service points are as reported by the public library authorities and exclude mobile libraries: static service points only are considered.

Extent of Internet access in UK public libraries

53% of all public library authorities in the UK have some form of Internet connection. (61% of public library authorities in England, Wales and NI have some form of Internet connection).

However, typically, as shown below, this is a very limited form of connection, both in terms of penetration and type of access.

Only 3% of individual service points in the UK have some form of Internet connection. The figure is slightly higher in EW/NI (where 4% of service points have a connection) than in Scotland (where 2% of service points have some form of connection).

Internet access for the public

28 (17%) UK public library authorities offer Internet access to the public. 19 of these are in EW/NI (this is 15% of the EW/NI total). However, typically access is provided at very few individual service points. Only 0.7% of all public library service points in the UK provide Internet access to the public. 0.5% of individual service points in EW/NI provide access. In Scotland, 1.5% of individual service points provide Internet access to the public.

Approximately half the authorities who provide it charge the public for Internet access. What this means is that public Internet access which is available free at the point of use is provided in only 0.4% of individual service points.

Number of workstations connected

A very small number of workstations are available to access the Internet.

282 workstations are dedicated to Internet use in UK public libraries (260 in EW/NI and 22 in Scotland). 39 workstations only are dedicated to public access in the UK (30 in EW/NI and 9 in Scotland). These figures seem very low and may be an underestimate - nevertheless they are again indicative of the low level of penetration of Internet services.

They suggest that investment in workstations and other local equipment will also be required to make effective use of network services. A typical scenario is for Internet access in an authority to be confined to a small number of workstations (often only one) in library HQ which have dial in facilities.

Type of connection

The dominant form of connection is dial-up access. 77 (85%) of UK library authorities with Internet access have this type of connection. 15 (17%) of UK authorities have a leased line connection.

Again, matters are less good when figures for individual service points are given. 1.6% of all UK service points have dial-up access to the Internet (1.6% in EW/NI and 1.7% in Scotland). 0.4% of all UK service points have leased line access to the Internet (0.3% in Scotland, 0.4% in EW/NI).

This level of access (both in terms of extent and quality of access) clearly limits the type of services that can be provided.

Which providers are used?

Public libraries use a spread of the common commercial Internet providers. There does not seem to be any particular pattern of use. Not unexpectedly, Demon and Pipex are the most heavily subscribed providers.

Library use of the Internet

93% of all authorities using the Internet use the common internet information access tools WWW and Gopher. 91% use e-mail.

Reference staff are the heaviest users of Internet services, followed by IT staff and senior management.

The actual network behaviour most heavily reported was exploration and experimentation, followed by reference work and professional awareness.

Some libraries are beginning to become information providers. However, half the libraries with an Internet connection are not making any information about themselves or their services available. The most common category of information made available is information about library services themselves (some libraries are doing this in association with Project EARL), followed by local authority and community information. Only 2 public libraries in the UK report that they have catalogues online.

What emerges from this section is the preliminary, tentative and exploratory use of the Internet by libraries.

Partnerships

23% of all UK authorities are working together to explore Internet services. The major part of this activity is being channelled through Project EARL.

A small number of authorities are working with private partners to provide Internet access (16 in the UK).

Typically library authorities have a relationship with their local authority. 118 libraries in the UK have access to a local authority network. However, the majority of libraries manage their own Internet access facilities. The level of cooperation with Local Authorities in the provision of networked information services seems low, but this is not surprising given the early stage of developments.

Statistical breakdown

Extent of Internet access in UK public libraries

1) How many library authorities have an Internet connection?

*as % of total number of library authorities in each region

• 61% of all library authorities in EW/NI have some kind of Internet connection.
• 33% of all Scottish library authorities have some kind of Internet connection.
• 53% of all United Kingdom library authorities have some kind of Internet connection.

These figures should be qualified by responses to later questions. Although over half of the public library authorities in the UK have an Internet connection, it is most often a very limited form of connection with restricted use.

These figures have also been briefly considered in terms of the size of the authority (indicated by population served). They reveal that the larger the authority the more likely it is to have an Internet connection - all 8 UK library authorities that serve a population of over a million have Internet access whereas only 19% of those serving a population of under 100,000 have access to the Internet.

2) How many individual public library service points have at least one Internet connection?

Note: Hampshire reports an unusually large number of individual service points with Internet access (see question 3). This is through its Hantsnet network. The actual status of these connections needs to be clarified. For this reason figures are given in the next few tables with and without the Hampshire contribution.

* as % of total access points in region

• 4% of individual public library service points in EW/NI have at least one Internet connection.
• 2% of individual public library service points in Scotland have at least one Internet connection.
• 3% of all United Kingdom public library service points have at least one Internet connection.

3) How many individual service points within each authority have Internet access?

(Note in this context individual service points does not include the headquarters of the library authorities).

*as % of total no. of library authorities with Internet access in each region

• 38% of library authorities in EW/NI who have an Internet connection have only one public service point with an Internet connection.
• 13% of library authorities in EW/NI who have an Internet connection have two public service points with an Internet connection.
• 36% of the Scottish Library authorities with an Internet connection have only one service point with an Internet connection.
• Of all the library authorities in the United Kingdom that have an Internet connection 38% of them have it available in only one service point.
• 45 individual service points with Internet access are reported by Hampshire.

Internet access for the public

4) How many service points provide Internet access to the public?

*as % of Internet service providers with Internet access

• 22% of the service points that have Internet access (excluding Hampshire) in EW/NI offer access to the public. (If Hampshire service points are taken into account this figure drops to 15%.)
• 75% of all the service points in Scotland that have Internet access offer it to the public.
• Therefore 29% of all service points in the UK (excluding Hampshire) which have Internet access offer it to the public.
• Hampshire does not offer Internet access to the public.
• If these figures are considered in terms of total UK service points then this means that only 0.5% of all public library service points in EW/NI provide Internet access to the public.
• 1.5% of all public library service points in Scotland provide Internet access to the public.
• 0.7% of all UK public library service points provide Internet access to the public.
• Respondents were asked whether they charge the public for Internet access. Of those EW/NI libraries which provide access in this way 9 charge and 8 don't (2 didn't answer). Of Scottish libraries which provide access 2 charge and 4 don't (3 didn't answer). (What this means is that public Internet access which is available free at the point of use is provided in only 0.4% of individual service points.)

Number of workstations connected

5) How many workstations are available for Internet access

• Internet services are currently available through a very small number of workstations.

Type of connection

6) What type of connection methods are used - by Authority.

*as % of library authorities with Internet access in each region

• 84% of all library authorities in EW/NI with an Internet connection use a Dial-Up provider in order to get Internet access.
• 18% of all library authorities in EW/NI with an Internet connection use a leased line in order to get Internet access.
• 4% of all library authorities in EW/NI with an Internet connection use an ISDN line in order to get Internet access.
• 5% use some other means.

7) What type of connection methods are used - by service point?

Excluding Hampshire

*as % of Internet service providers with Internet access in each region

• The most commonly used method of accessing the Internet is using Dial-Up access with 69% of all England, Wales and NI libraries, 83% of all Scottish libraries and 71% of all UK libraries using this method of connecting to the Internet.
• Again, if we calculate these as percentages of total individual service points, it is clear that penetration is very low. 1.6% of all UK service points have dial-up access to the Internet (1.6% in EW/NI and 1.7% in Scotland). 0.4% of all UK service points have leased line access to the Internet (0.3% in Scotland, 0.4% in EW/NI).

Which providers are used?

8) Which Dial-Up Providers are used?

*as % of library authorities with Internet connections in each region.

** JVP refers to the Janet Viscount Project which allows public libraries access to the Joint Academic Network (JANET) though the Viscount server based at LASER - this figure may be under-reported

• The most heavily used dial up service provider is Demon which accounts for 30% of England, Wales and NI dial-up connections, 7% of Scottish and 23% of total UK dial-up connections.
• The seven dial up providers listed above were the most heavily used although as the high percentage for 'other' shows there is a lot of usage of small and usually local dial up providers.

9) Which leased line carriers are being used?

*as % of library authorities using leased lines for Internet connection in each region

• Of all UK libraries who use a leased line in order to have Internet access 82% of them use British Telecom, 12% use Mercury and 6% use a cable company.

Library use of the Internet

10) Which Internet facilities does each authority use?

*as % of library authorities with Internet access in each region

• The two most popular facilities are Gopher and WWW which are used by 93% of all the library authorities - E-mail was only marginally less popular.
• The least popular facility is telnet which is used by only 47% of all UK library authorities. Telnet and FTP are the least intuitive and easy to use of the range of Internet facilities.

11) Which Staff Use the Internet?

*as % of library authorities with Internet access in each region

• Interestingly, reference use by staff is the single heaviest use of the Internet in libraries.

12) How is the Internet used by staff?

*as % of library authorities with Internet access in each region

13) What Information have libraries been putting up on the Internet?

*as % of library authorities with Internet access in each region

• Libraries are not yet significant information providers on the Internet. For example, only two library catalogues are available on the Internet.
• This is not surprising as library use is at early stages - and very few services have the equipment or connections to support the provision of networked information services.

Partnerships

14) Are libraries working in partnership with each other to provide Internet services?

* as % of all library authorities in each region

• 23% of all UK library authorities (irrespective of whether they already have an Internet connection) are working together to provide some kind of Internet service. The majority of this co-operation is talking place through EARL - 87% of the libraries that indicated that they are involved in some kind of co-operation are members of EARL.

15) Are libraries working with private organisations in order to provide Internet services?

*as % of all library authorities in each region

• Some libraries have been working with private organisations to provide Internet services - at present 10% of library authorities are working with a private organisation in this way. 4 (25%) of these collaborations are with Input/Output, an organisation that rents space from public libraries in order to offer charged computer services (including Internet access) to the public.

16) Do libraries have access to a local authority network?

* as % of all library authorities in each region

These figures should be understood in the context of the access to the Local Authority network being reported was at a very low level. In most library services connection to the LA network was restricted to a few senior managers who then had access to the local authority's financial and administrative computer packages. This connection in the majority of cases was achieved either through dial-up, LAN or private exchange.

17) Who manages the Library's Internet connection?

*as % of all library authorities with an Internet connection in each region

18) How library services have been working with their local authority in the provision of Internet services?

* as % of all library authorities with an Internet connection in each region

• The area where there has been the greatest co-operation between library services and their local authorities has been the provision of technical support. 43% of all UK libraries with an Internet connection received technical support from their local authority's IT department.
• So far, it appears that there has been a low level of partnership between the library services and the authorities in providing information services with only 22% of all UK library authorities with an Internet connection working with their authority as a whole to provide information services.

Method

UKOLN were asked to carry out this survey on the 16th November and to have a first report prepared by 4 December. In order to ensure rapid and high response it was decided to base the survey on a telephone solicitation of responses to a postal questionnaire. Because of the nature of the exercise the questionnaire was kept simple. A copy of the Questionnaire is included overleaf.

Questionnaires were sent to all UK library authorities using the Library Association mailing list. This includes library authorities in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. These were sent out on 21st November. For this report responses from the 167 UK public library authorities only have been considered.

All public library authorities were rung between Monday 27th November and Wednesday 29th November 1995 and a response sheet was prepared for each authority. These were sent to a data preparation agency and resulting data was analysed by Stephen Prowse using SPSS.

We are very pleased to be able to report a 100% response rate, a remarkable result. This report is accordingly based on the responses of every public library authority in the UK.

Acknowledgements

We are pleased to acknowledge the contribution of the following people and organisations to the preparation of this report:

• the British Library R&D department and the Library and Information Commission for asking us to carry it out and for their confidence and support during its execution;
• UKOLN staff and associates who responded quickly and worked under pressure to meet the tight deadline; Stephen Prowse for his assistance with data analysis;
• consultant Peter Stone who worked with Sarah Ormes on the telephone followup of the questionnaire;
• Philippa Dobson, John Dolan, Frances Hendrix, Guenever Pachent, Peter Smith and Ray Templeton who commented helpfully on questionnaire design and other issues.
• Most of all we would like to thank the many staff in public library authorities who answered our questions with courtesy and forbearance in unusual circumstances.

Sarah Ormes

Lorcan Dempsey

3 December 1995

Library and Information Commission Public Library Internet Survey

Name of Authority _____________________________

Number of Static Public Service Points _____________________________

Total Population _____________________________

SECTION ONE:- EXTENT AND TYPE OF INTERNET CONNECTION

1) Does your library authority have any Internet connections? YES/NO

if NO please go to section four.

2) How are these connections managed/acquired? By the Local Authority

By the Library Service

Other_______________

___________________________________________________________________________________________

3) Please complete the following table giving details of the number of workstations and service points that are using each type of connection.

4) If you use dial up which provider do you use?(please circle all relevant answers)

Pipex

EUNet

BBC

CompuServe

Demon

JVP

Delphi

Other __________

5) If you use a leased line what carrier do you use?

British Telecom

Mercury

Cable Company

If you use a cable company which one is it? _____________

6) Which of the following facilities are used (please circle all relevant answers)

Internet E-mail

Telnet/remote login

FTP

Gopher/WWW

SECTION TWO:- ACCESS

7) Which members of staff use these Internet connections? (Please circle all relevant answers)

All

IT Staff

Reference

Bibliographical Services

Senior Management

Other __________

8) How is the Internet used by staff? (Please circle all relevant answers)

on-line databases systems support

reference work

professional awareness

cataloguing and acquisition

exploration/experimentation

Other __________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

9) How many terminals are dedicated to staff use?
______________

10) Has your library made any of the following information available on the Internet?

(Please circle all relevant answers)

Community Information

Information about library services

Catalogues

Local Authority Information

Other _________________________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

11) Do you provide an Internet access point to the public?
YES/NO

If yes how many such terminals are available? ________

How many service points can provide such access? ________

Are the public charged for this service? YES/NO

SECTION THREE:- PARTNERSHIPS

12) What type of partnership exists between the library service and within the local authority in the provision of Internet services?

Delivering Information Services with individual departments

Delivering Information Services with the Authority as a whole

Technical Support/IT Department

None

Other_______________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________

13) Are you working in partnership with other public libraries in providing Internet services e.g. EARL, LINC etc.
YES/NO

If YES please give details __________________________________________________________________

14) Have you worked in partnership with any private sector organisations (excluding your Internet Provider) in the provision of your Internet services e.g. sponsorship, renting out space to a commercial provider etc.?

YES/NO

If YES please give further details_________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

SECTION FOUR:- LIBRARY NETWORKS

15) Do you have a library system that links multi service points over a network?
YES/NO

16) How many of these links are connected by leased lines? _______

17) Which Standard is used for these communications?

X.25

IP

Proprietary

Other ______

___________________________________________________________________________________

18) Do you have access to a Local Authority network? YES/NO

If YES please give details of how it is used ________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________________________

19) Are there any immediate plans to link any of these networks to the Internet? YES/NO

If YES please give details_______________________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

When we speak to you on the telephone we would also welcome any comments about your long term plans and expectations of Internet use in public libraries.

Please complete this questionnaire NOW and keep it to hand - you will be telephoned on either the 27th/28th/29th of November for your responses. Thank you for your help.