The Challenges for Librarians in 2026

There’s no doubt that libraries - and librarians - are facing significant challenges.

collectionHQ was invited as a key sector stakeholder to respond to research undertaken by The University of Sheffield. This research has recently been published in a paper titled ‘The Challenges and Changing Landscape of Public Library Collections’, which shows that, due to shrinking budgets, services across England are being hollowed out.

In 2026, librarians are expected to do more with less. You want to provide more services that help your communities, while maintaining an up-to-date, diverse, and relevant collection that fits your needs.

In this blog, we will cover some of the most pressing challenges librarians are currently experiencing - and, most importantly, how to tackle them.

Financial Pressures

Perhaps the most significant pressure librarians are facing is financial.

In England, physical stock budgets for libraries were cut by an average of £18,761 in 2024-25. An additional pressure is the cost of digital collection items, which need to be purchased using the same budget as physical materials.

Digital materials can cost libraries three to five times more than they cost consumers, and licenses need to be renewed every 12-24 months. With that in mind, it is little wonder that average library spend per person on eResources increased from 16p in 2023-23 to 74p in 2024-25.

We all know that with collections spanning thousands of items, those pennies add up very quickly. Combine with smaller budgets, and it’s clear that every purchase counts.

Poorly Circulating Collections

Another key challenge is a long-standing one: items in the collection sitting idle on the shelves, taking up space and reducing the budget available for more popular titles.

Often, inter-library loaning has been a solution to this issue. However, according to the study by The University of Sheffield, around 47% of library services no longer offer this service, or don’t have the budget for it.

Data is essential for improving collection circulation. For example, South Gloucestershire Libraries saw over 9,000 additional item circulations after implementing collectionHQ and taking an evidence-based approach to collection management.

Funding Shortages

The second challenge that the study focuses on is the shortage of funding available to public libraries.

Library services are becoming more and more reliant on short-term grant funding, which is resource-intensive and complex to apply for.

This style of funding doesn’t always support long-term investment into core library services, such as collection management and staffing.

It’s never been more important for librarians to maximise existing collections, so that funding and budgets can be used on materials that really matter.

Collection management software will give you the data analysis tools you need to start working around smaller budgets and reduced funding.

For example: we recently launched a new tool called cHQselect, which has been designed specifically to help librarians make better buying decisions.

cHQselect analyses trends within your library system and individual branches to provide data-based recommendations that help librarians make better purchasing decisions.

Reduced Staff Knowledge

Another day-to-day concern for librarians is that smaller budgets = less staff.

The number of specialist collection development roles has declined, resulting in less experienced librarians being tasked to make critical collection decisions without the same in-depth knowledge of the materials and how they perform.

Collection management software helps to - at least in part - overcome the experience gap. collectionHQ’s enhanced workflows function, for example, gives specific recommendations on what to do with collections and why, reducing the level of expertise required by your staff.

Larger Workloads with Less Resources

In 2026, libraries are used for so much more than finding a new read or accessing information.

Libraries are free to use, open to all, and an essential support system for the communities they serve.

With so many more demands on librarians’ time on a day-to-day basis, librarians have a never-ending to-do list that makes regular collection management more challenging than ever.

CollectionHQ supports librarians to make quicker and more productive management decisions.

Previously, you may have spent hours pulling reports manually from your ILS. With collectionHQ, you can run reports and drill down to specific items or actions in a few minutes.

You can also schedule and assign regular collection management tasks to members of your team, to fit around the other services you offer your patrons.

—

Although this blog focuses on the challenges that librarians are experiencing in 2026, we believe it should also provide some hope that, despite budget cuts, it is still possible to serve patrons with high-quality collections.

Ultimately, librarians have two key objectives:

• Maximising your existing collection
• Using your budget to buy materials that your patrons will really respond to.

The key to achieving both is data you can actually use to make proactive collection decisions. That’s exactly what collectionHQ provides.

You can find out more about collectionHQ on our website, or book a demo with our team to see the difference it could make in your library system.