T h e publ i c l ibrar y is one o f very few centrally funded service s w h i ch i s avail -

able to al l , free a t the poin t o f service . T he righ t of the ordinar y person i n th e

street to hav e fre e acces s t o informat io n and learnin g is enshr ined i n legisla -

t ion the w o r ld over . As can be seen f ro m S u m s i o n et al (1996 ) pub l ic libraries

are a heavily use d resource , w i t h ove r fou r hundre d an d fift y m i l l i o n i tem s

issued i n Eng land i n 1994-95 and w i th 33 0 m i l l i o n visit s by the publ i c i n th e

same year . A d d to thes e figure s th e fac t tha t researc h a t th e U n i v e r s i t y o f

B r i g h t o n show s tha t ove r 8 7 pe r cen t o f library authoritie s i n Eng lan d an d

Wales provid e open learnin g centres fo r thei r users and th e potentia l for th e

publ ic l ibrar y as a l i fe long learnin g resource i s staggering. Y et the rol e o f th e

publ ic l ibrar y in this fiel d i s in some doubt . T he Br i t i s h governmen t accepts ,

i n it s W h i te Pape r People, Jobs and Opportunity (Departmen t o f E m p l o y m e n t

1992), that the si t in g o f learning centres i n publ ic librarie s was to be encour -

aged. Despite this, its o wn agencies, notably the E m p l o y m e n t Service1 , see m

to be reluctan t to agree . T h i s pape r i s based, in part, o n Depar tment fo r E d u -

cation and E m p l o y m e nt sponsored researc h w h i ch i s be ing carried out a t th e

U n i v e r s i t y o f Br igh ton . T h i s researc h i s entitled Redefining the role of the public

library in information service provision tojobseekers in England and Wales an d i s a n

257 T H E R O L E O F T HE P U B L I C L I B R A R Y IN L I F E L O NG L E A R N I N G

attempt to identify howjobseekers us e pub l i c libraries, h ow the librarie s v i ew

their jobseek ing clients and h o w other agencies , mos t notabl y governmental ,

see th e l ibrary' s role.