Thirty years ago, so the myth goes, you could don a corduroy jacket, adopt a plausibly academic air, and talk your way into becoming a borrower at any university library in the country. If it was ever true, it certainly isn't now. Borrowing rights for members of the public are up for sale, and, as the league table shows, they can sometimes be very expensive indeed.
The justification for these high charges varies according to the institution imposing them. Of the three most expensive, Bristol University argues that its focus should be its main users; the University of Westminster argues, in part, that its central London location necessitates a high charge to avoid being swamped by the public; while the University of West of England points to the additional services it offers.
"The library's first duty is towards students and staff of the university," says a spokesperson for Bristol University, which charges more for a year's borrowing rights than any other institution of the 80 I surveyed. "It also performs a valuable function for members of the community who need its services: particular groups, such as NHS personnel, can use the library for free."
These arguments may be tenable but members of the public, or students from other universities who wish to become borrowers, could find themselves wondering why they have to pay a few pounds in some cities and hundreds in another.
My curiosity was piqued when I rang a local institution, the University of Central Lancashire, and asked to join the library. It charges £100 a year for borrowing rights and an additional £200 for computing facilities. Lancaster, on the other hand, said it would cost me £60 a year. Ringing round universities, I uncovered big differences in price across the country as well as institutions where members of the public are not allowed to borrow at all.
This disparity could work against promoting lifelong learning, believes the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (Cilip). "Of course we appreciate that university libraries must have sensible access policies to meet the needs of the communities they serve," says Tim Owen, head of external relations at Cilip. "Library staff are under a great deal of pressure from students and lecturers and they need to be sure that they use their available resources as cost-effectively as possible. But it's far from ideal when the situation varies so widely from one place to the next.
"If we're serious about encouraging self-directed lifelong learning, then we need systems in place to ensure that people who could benefit from access to local university libraries aren't deterred by an accident of geography."
The University of the West of England says it has approximately 23,000 registered students and a total of 36,901 registered library users, only 13 of whom pay the full amount. "It is simplistic just to look at charges alone. We offer much more than other libraries who charge less, by way of the number of items a user can borrow, full access to reference and enquiry services and photocopying facilities," says a spokesperson.
UWE does not charge external users higher fines than members of the university, as happens at other institutions. "Our reference service is free - many universities charge for this. Nor do we impose VAT on our charges, which is again common elsewhere. Research shows that subscribing or external borrower fees do not influence whether or not members of the public seek to use a higher education library; more important is the relevance of the material held in the libraries to the user's information needs."
The reason for the wide disparity of charges lies in the relative autonomy of the libraries and their host institutions. "Individual institutions are free to set these charges according to local conditions," explains Gail Downe, assistant secretary of the Society of College, National and University Libraries (Sconul).
Despite the idiosyncratic approach to borrowing charges, the libraries surveyed did show a degree of unanimity on other issues. Many libraries exclude external members from having access to the short-term loan collection, and almost all deny internet services to their external members (because of licence restrictions). Many also continue the tradition of asking potential members to provide written evidence of their need, the applications being vetted by the librarian.
"This might appear laborious," argues Downe, "but until a librarian has an application in front of him, it is very difficult to judge whether an individual will benefit from membership of the library. The librarian could be aware of other information sources which might better suit the applicant's needs.
"Second, there are so many access schemes in operation that it may take a written application rather than a brief telephone call to identify the schemes that would be applicable to the request and allow the applicant discounted or free access. The simplest thing to do at the outset is state the full fee over the telephone and wait for a written application."
Sconul draws a firm distinction between borrowing and reference-only facilities, and indeed many of the institutions surveyed did allow free or very cheap access to members of the public for reference purposes (with notable exceptions: Bristol, for example, charges £116 for a year's reference rights). Encouraging access rather than borrowing rights is Sconul's focus at present.
"Sconul is currently working in collaboration with public, national and university libraries to provide a seamless referral between libraries in order to launch a national scheme called Inspire (information sharing partners in resources for education)," says Downe. "We are currently seeking resources to implement the scheme successfully since Inspire will optimise the resources available to learners in the UK so they can access the collections of public, academic and national libraries to support their learning needs.
"We support the movement towards lifelong learning, and to this end we are also building on the myriad network of reciprocal access and borrowing rights schemes which already exist throughout the country and in which Sconul members collaborate at local level. This however, is a phased, incremental approach from the bottom up, rather than any top-down process."
How charges to the public add up (£ pa)
Bristol 216.00
Westminster 200.00
West of England 190.00
Leeds 188.00 *
Edinburgh 160.00
Plymouth 129.24
Kent 117.50
Kingston 117.50
Exeter 105.00
East Anglia 100.00
University of Central Lancs 100.00
*Includes VAT
