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Case: 0038

Sector: Public library

No-one else is using that bay so I don’t see why I shouldn’t

What duties does a library employee have to uphold ‘equal access’ in a shared use local authority building?

Summary: A small branch library re-opens as a local authority Community Centre with other services. The librarian, now only working part-time, is unhappy that the Manager of the centre parks his car in the only disabled person’s parking space. She complains that the reputation of the library is being damaged. The librarian’s duties towards the employer and the local community, as well as to the profession, are questioned.

NOTE: This Case Study is fictitious. It is informed by experience in the information world, but it does not claim to represent a scenario of actual events or relate to individual people or organisations.

Case Study: Following extensive refurbishment and EU funding, the former small branch public library in the north of England is renovated to house a multi-purpose local authority Community Centre which now includes a broader range of services: library, housing, arts, and a Citizen’s Advice Bureau. After the re-structure only one librarian remains in post, but her role is reduced to being part–time, working three days per week.

The librarian notices that the Centre Manager is regularly parking in the only disabled person’s parking bay. The Centre Manager (who is not a librarian) is dismissive of vaguely raised comments by more junior staff. The Manager remarks: ‘Well, I’ve never seen anyone in here in a wheelchair and the County Library service runs a housebound and outreach service, so I don’t see what all the fuss is about.’ However, the librarian is concerned about the reputation of the library service.

In this case we find a senior manager (here being synonymous with the role of employer) apparently abusing his responsibility under the Disability Discrimination Act to provide a parking space for disabled visitors to the Community Centre. On this basis alone the librarian feels compelled to report the abuse to the relevant office of the council.

Separately the librarian is concerned that the Centre Manager is not upholding his duties to facilitate access to resources available at the Community Centre. The librarian is particularly concerned that some members of the local community may be significantly disadvantaged by not having use of the disabled parking bay; this, she believes, is merely a logical extension of CILIP’s Ethical Principle 4 (Provision of the best possible service within available resources). The librarian, who is keen to provide the best possible service, feels constrained by the Manager’s apparently selfish decision. She dismisses his argument that he has not seen any wheelchair users in the library as quite ignorant: how does the Manager know that potential users of the disabled parking bay are necessarily wheelchair users? More to the point, she argues, the parking bay is usually occupied by the Centre Manager, so it is hardly surprising that disabled users are dissuaded from visiting.

	Primary	Secondary
Principles	2	1 - 6 - 4
Code	E2	C1 - D1 - D2
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