Half year(ish) review

As you can probably tell I had planned to do this a bit earlier in the year but just hadn’t got round to it! It’s been a busy year so far and it doesn’t show any chance of stopping... but having recently had a personal appraisal I thought I’d take the chance to reflect on everything that’s happened over the last year and build on this.

Obviously the routine work continues, weeding, post natal talks, rhyme times, maintaining our home library service but with a year of celebration in Wiltshire there has been lots of opportunities to take part in organising and running events... my personal achievements this year include:

• A dramatic reading afternoon to promote Dicken’s Day in partnership with the local am dram society in Corsham
• A well attended quiz night to celebrate World Book Night 2012 in Chippenham
• Drop in sessions in Calne for the Olympic torch relay
• Creative writing “Story Lab” workshops as part of the Summer Reading Challenge celebrations
• The installation and training of a new stock management program in libraries in my area, handing responsibility to library assistants

It has also been another successful year promoting and running the Summer Reading Challenge in Wiltshire. This year for the first time I managed to visit every school in the Calne area to promote this wonderful scheme to keep children’s literacy levels and love of reading high over the Summer holidays. This has resulted in nearly 2000 registered Story Lab participants in the Chippenham Area alone. This time of year is probably my favourite as the libraries buzz with children and laughter and there is a real sense of community within the library including the coming together of volunteers to help in the effort. The atmosphere is electric and it is wonderful seeing the library at the heart of these communities.

Obviously these achievements would not have been possible without the support of my line manager, senior staff and the amazing teams I work with in each library and at a time when libraries are still very much in the media spotlight I feel it is important to once again advocate for the unique services library staff provide.

The year is far from over and there are plans afoot to build on the success of the year, these include:

• running an Autumnal dramatic reading session
• organising a young writers club
• Beginning an adult reading book group

We are also looking forward to the opening of a new library in Wiltshire and with the opening of New Trowbridge I am sure all hands will be on deck. There’s some lay out issues to overcome in Chippenham and a chance to get more involved with volunteer libraries in my area. Autumn and Winter may be a traditionally quieter time of year in public libraries but I don’t see the fun ending any time soon!