Has community librarianship finally entered the mainstream of public library thinking, even philosophy? Does this publication mark this entry into respectability? I think not, for two reasons. First, it must be a matter of great regret that mainstream public librarianship, as reflected in the policies of many library authorities in the late 1960s through to the mid 1990s was based on maximising the number of books issued, to the detriment, even the exclusion, of anything else. Second, this broad mass of public librarianship has been continually downgraded, undervalued and starved of resources. It was politically irrelevant to the radical political Left, and an embarrassing anachronism to the new Right and the Adam Smith Institute, who espoused the view that user pays′′ in a market‐driven economy, despite the historical fact that the laissez‐faire capitalism which they espouse was the godfather of the UK public library movement in the Victorian era.
Community librarianship in the UK owed much to the practices and philosophies of public library outreach schemes in the USA in the late 1960s and 1970s. This was the time which followed the inner city riots and the burning ghettos, the reaction to the Vietnam War and, perhaps, the loss of innocence in American society. This loss was replaced by a determination to achieve civil rights, civil liberties and freedom of opportunity, especially education, for the poor and the marginalised in American society.
Many imaginative outreach schemes, backed by ample financial and political resources, were an inspiration to an emerging generation of young librarians in the UK. The efforts of these young radicals, and the political chords which they sounded in the political processes of the time formed, in my subjective view, the loose coalition of radical and thus community librarianship of the 1970s. A further factor, however, and not one recognised by Black and Muddiman, is the tacit support and encouragement which these young turks′′ received from an older generation of senior public librarians, who were cautious and careful, but whose commitment to public service, and especially the public library service, was held deeply. As that generation bowed out ‐‐ either by achieving a natural retiral age, or as was too frequently the case, restructured or marginalised into premature retirement, mainstream librarianship went into real decline. Cuts in public expenditure affected local government particularly badly. They marginalised public library services, and their only performance indicator which had previously promised success ‐‐ book issues ‐‐ had gone into steep decline. Nor was it politically correct to demonstrate a commitment to educating and informing the poor and disadvantaged in British society. Between 1979 and 1992 there was an enormous widening of the gap between rich and poor in that society. Community librarianship and its radical attitudes faded and seemed to become marginalised in many ways, its adherents scattered, retired, frustrated and many therefore moved onto other things. The nation′s library schools, which might have been the intellectual driving force and research base for community librarianship, now produce young graduates skilled in information management, with their sights set firmly on a career in the private sector, where information is a marketable commodity.
These are not Black and Muddiman views, but rather those of this reviewer. My justification for saying so relies not on empirical research but merely on human observation. For I was there. What we argued for then, and argue for now, is social inclusion, opportunities for life‐long learning for the many, not the few. For empowerment and a sense of identity. Black and Muddiman have laboured long and effectively and produced a record of the ebbs and flows of public librarianship and the influence of its radical wing, over a generation. But I wonder if they, like some of the rest of us, have failed to articulate the Big idea′′ in this 30‐year journey. Dare I suggest that we now call it communitarian librarianship?
