Rural information needs. Final report for Mid Wales Library and Information Partnership

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The scope of this project was to look at rural information needs within Ceredigion and Powys, with relevance to health, economic and ethnic migrant needs. The aim was to inform the Mid Wales Library and Information Partnership as to any possible collaborative collection development actions in those areas and the objectives were to obtain views of key informants, prioritise any needs and map them to existing provision. Key Points: • Powys is the most sparsely populated area in Wales and had the largest percentage population increase between 2001 and 2006. Current population is approximately 131.1 thousand and just over 25% are pensioners. • Ceredigion has an approximate population of 77.2 thousand of which 23% are pensioners. The county also has the smallest percentage of children in Wales at 16%. • Health collections already exist with the national Welsh Assembly schemes for Book Prescription and Child and Family Bibliotherapy. • Ystradgynlais-1 and Cardigan-Teifi are now considered the most deprived areas in both counties, according to 2005 revised Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation. • Main barriers to information access in the rural areas are lack of public transport and low income, as opposed to unemployment. • Citizen information available to wider access in rural Ceredigion and Powys through Welsh Assembly funding for CAB outreach services. • The Local Authorities over the next 3 years will be looking to engage more with the local population, and the ethnic minority migrants, to ensure actions toward their Visions for 2020. • Ethnic minority migrants consistently use informal networks of friends and family to obtain information, jobs etc. • The ethnic migrant students clearly used the college libraries but some did not make the cross-over to the public service. • English graded readers are required by the ethnic migrants. Whether or not county collections could be built up is a matter for the MWLIP, but it might be more beneficial to have availability at the public libraries, as opposed to just at the colleges where their classes are held.