New Opportunities....

I know silence for a month and then 2 posts in a matter of days but I’ve had quite a busy and exciting week so I thought I’d share...

• Monday – Buying Visit to Peters Children’s Stock Suppliers
• Tuesday – Normal day in Chippenham
• Wednesday - Day off, SWRLS visit to BBC Bristol Library
• Thursday – Morning catching up in Calne, afternoon visit to Erlestoke Prison Library
• Friday – Six Steps prep meeting and afternoon in Corsham
• Saturday – Day in Calne as senior cover and tying up loose ends before off for a week

This week was a lot of firsts for me and there was a lot of preparation that went into making this week a success. I had been looking forward to Monday’s visit to Peters as I had a heard a lot about stock selection days and this is the first time I had been to a supplier showroom in a professional capacity. During the days before budgets had to be finalised and I had to break these down with a percentage for different sections (non-fiction, fiction, teen, board books, picture books etc) which sounds quite easy but is a lot harder at half past 4 on a Friday afternoon! Anyway with my rough idea of budgets for 4 different libraries a group of 4 Wiltshire Librarians we went off to Birmingham and I entered Heaven!

From the outside Peters is just a normal office building on a back street in Birmingham, but wind your way up a flight of stairs and a set of double doors and you enter a room that is full of ceiling to floor book cases with every kind of children’s book you could ever want or imagine. Peters are also a large supplier for school libraries and it was interesting to look at resource packs and other items they supply which work within a school environment. The staff there are efficient and helpful supplying refreshments and running totals throughout the day which helped the process be as smooth as possible. Although unheard of I actually came back with money... the day flew by and if I’m totally honest I didn’t really want to leave! I was glad I’d had the opportunity to go and would definitely want to go again (hint, hint)!

During my days in branches I was organising promotional assemblies for the upcoming Summer reading Challenge (SRC), Storylab 2012, this involved liaising with contacts in schools and colleagues in different branch libraries. We have also embarked on the annual search for volunteers and so begins my third Summer reading Challenge preparations. I look forward to this time of year.. Summer in libraries is like Christmas in retail and it is always a joy to see the library being used and enjoyed by children over the Summer holidays.

Thursday afternoon I had the opportunity to visit another of Wiltshire’s libraries; HMP Erlestoke Library. This was a chance to see the challenges of providing a public service in a regulated and restricted prison environment. After spending some time there it is easy to forget that this is not just another public library, there is very little noted difference when you walk into Erlestoke from walking into any small town or village library but what you do realise is the lack of technology, it is like walking into a library ten years ago. The management system used is an older version of Galaxy that we have in our public branches, there are no RFID machines but that is not to say there are no computers because there are but the prisoners have no access to the internet. Therefore the staff spend a lot of their time on general inquiries, finding information for users. 

Whilst speaking to the staff it was interesting to note that although for the most part the service is run as it would be in any public library there are very subtle differences, it is more important to keep an eye on users, to keep an eye on times as movements around the facility are strictly regulated. After each movement there is a roll call and if this is out by just one the prison shuts down completely until it has been resolved. The staff liaise as much as possible with the education department where they are based and their stock reflects this to a point and in some cases the only book Wiltshire holds on a subject can frequently be found in Erlestoke. 

What did surprise me is that prisoners are only allowed thirty minutes of library time a week, this can increase with different classes and employment but like a school library users come in when they should be elsewhere and other activities can be affected by one prisoner out of place. The library staff work closely with users and prisoners are employed in the library as orderlies as well as having library representatives on each of the wings. This visit opened my eyes to modern prison libraries and I was surprised by how little difference there was... I didn’t know what to expect before I went in but would be happy to go back and work there for a day or half day to learn more about the different routine the prison library staff follow.

Friday brought another preparation meeting for our Make a Noise in Libraries Fortnight event which I have blogged about previously. I don’t want to give too much away but our Sight Support Day on 13^th June in Devizes Library is coming together very well and I am enjoying being part of this project working closely with colleagues who I have not worked with before. Watch this space for more updates....