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Purpose of the PULMAN Guidelines

These guidelines are intended to lead public libraries and - more tentatively - their local cultural partner organisations into this era. They are intended to assist policy makers and practitioners alike in thinking about the policies and strategies which their services are intended to support and how best they can achieve them. They indicate what types of service can be considered and identify key issues which need to be examined in their development and delivery. Finally, they provide a large number of examples of, and links to, initiatives from across the whole of Europe, which may help to illustrate what is already being done and what can be done.

This is the second edition of the PULMAN guidelines. Comments on the first edition were sought by a number of means including national workshops in each country and by e-mail from the public library community and from members of the public.

A policy conference is to be held in Oeiras, Portugal, in March 2003 when the Oeiras Manifesto, setting out the Pulman agenda for e-Europe, will be launched.

The Social and Economic Policy Environment

e-Europe
At the Lisbon Council in 2000, Europe's Heads of State and Government set the objective of becoming "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-driven economy in the world". This was underpinned by a funded commitment to social cohesion among the half billion citizens of the EU and candidate member countries, both in its own right and as a factor of economic competitiveness.
http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/news/2001/oct/i01_1395_en.html

The e-Europe Action Plan which was drawn up as means of achieving this goal proposed a wide range of measures to attain three overarching goals:

• a cheaper, faster, secure Internet;

• investing in people and skills;

• stimulating the use of the Internet.

One of the major actions proposed to enable working in the knowledge-based economy – and of direct relevance to public libraries - was to set up user-friendly Public Internet Access Points (PIAP) in public spaces and establish multimedia tele-centres in all communities providing access to training and e-work. Work on the Action Plan has since identified public libraries as the most used existing form of PIAP. 

Since March 2000, the level of Internet penetration in EU households has more than doubled to 38%; the average price of long-distance phone calls has fallen significantly and over 90% of all EU schools are now online. But much remains to be achieved.

At the Barcelona European Council meeting of 15/16 March 2002, Heads of Government from the 15 EU Member States renewed the European Information Society agenda. A new e-Europe Action Plan 2005 was adopted on 28 May 2002. It promotes services, applications and content that are attractive for users, with a focus on e-Government, e-Learning, e-Health and e-Business, while stimulating the broadband infrastructure and new platforms next to the PC such as digital TV and 3G mobile devices. Its context is thus the need to place the user at the centre of things.

What roles can public libraries play in an e-Europe and in addressing the major social issues facing Europe today and over the coming years?

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