Introduction

This chapter pulls together all of the lessons that can be learned from the professional debates that have taken place over the last 25 years and asks the question: ‘do public libraries have a sustainable future, come rain or shine?’ The CILIP report Come Rain or Shine (2024)is intended to prepare public libraries for the future in an age of uncertainty. It concludes that

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed many things, not least of which is the inherent fragility of the capitalist economic system, which is predicated on everincreasing growth. In Library Land, the pandemic has also exposed a number of inherent fragilities, including discriminatory class- and race-based practices. In turn, these practices reveal that, rather than being agents of social inclusion, public libraries have a history of being agents of social control and exclusion.