European Union information: an investigation of need amongst public library users in three Scottish authorities

Abstract

Reports results of a British Library funded study, undertaken by the School of Information and Media, Robert Gordon University with the help of three public libraries services (Aberdeen, Glasgow and Moray), to investigate the provision of European Union (EU) information in UK public libraries, and in particular the implementation of the Public Information Relay (PIR), a European Commission sponsored initiative designed to bring EU information closer to the UK public through the existing public library network. Focuses on one particular element of the project: a questionnaire survey of the user needs of public library users on their past use of public libraries and other sources of European information. Results indicated a growing actual and predicted level of need for European information and an awareness of the potential significance of EU information: which bodes well for the future of PIR. However, results also demonstrated the significance to public library users of European information for educational, business related and employment reasons, none of which are seen to lie within the remit of PIR, which is seen as focusing on the ‘general citizen’. (The full results of the study are published as a British Library Research and Innovation Report (no. 19) and in an abridged form in Library Management, 18, (1) 1997, 7-41).