About This Project

Shared intelligence was commissioned by Libraries Connected to develop and accreditation scheme for public libraries. The accreditation is intended to help maintain the standard of library services as an authoritative, sector-led scheme to help libraries meet the needs of their local communities.

The two-year project looked to understand and define ‘What is a good public library, and how can this be reflected in a self-improvement framework?’ As part of the brief to ensure that accreditation paved the way for sector-led improvement, the scheme was designed in co-production through a number of workshops with heads of library services from across England.

Using inspiration from a number of existing cultural standards and heavy input from the library sector itself, we produced a draft accreditation scheme which has buy-in and ownership of the sector. Structured around the themes of People, Place, Purpose and Policy, it has been designed to measure how well library services engage with their communities, respond to local need, work in partnership with others and demonstrate inspiring leadership.

The scheme is intended to be taken on by Arts Council England in 2024.