Dr Barbara Hull is the author of the British Library-commissioned report, Barriers to Libraries as agents of lifelong learning. Hull has published widely in both the information profession literature and to a wider audience, she has delivered numerous international conference papers on overcoming barriers to accessing libraries, a number having come by invitation. As a lifelong practitioner in Adult and Community Education, Hull focussed her PhD. research on the changes in the self-esteem of students from previous educational disadvantages. With 27 years’ experience in management of libraries in Special, College, Further and Higher Education, she has always had a special interest in empowering the end-user. For 13 years Hull was Social Sciences Librarian with special responsibility for library research at Teesside University, where she currently teaches English for Learning to Speakers of Other Languages.