The document, published this week by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), details plans for libraries to create and host local community group websites and provide access to interactive services developed under the DCMS' Culture Online initiative.
They could also become a physical point of contact for home-based e-learning services provided by broadcasters and through the public programme learndirect.
Under the plans, Resource (The Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries), will also act a central agent to broker deals with industry content players to bring services such as classical music downloads to libraries across the UK.
The plans would build on investment made by the government in establishing web-enabled PCs and learning centres in libraries and making staff computer literate, under the UK Online programme.
But the report says the move would see libraries' positioned not just as a centre for providing access to the web and national government services through infrastructure, but as a centre for "collaboration, sharing and peer-to-peer services".
Of the plans, Arts Minister Tessa Blackstone said: "The Government is committed to public libraries and all that they stand for. Our strategy for their future makes promoting reading their key priority. Libraries also have - and will continue to have - a central role in helping people from all walks of life to be part of the communications revolution sweeping the world."
Quelle: Netimperative
