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....

Improving Accessibility - The Six Steps

Earlier in the week I along with colleagues from Wiltshire Council met up with other public library staff around the South West at Yate Library to attend the Six Steps Seminar.

This was a day of talks and information prompted by the SCL and Share the Vision’s six steps to library services for blind and partially sighted people. These six steps came from a project conducted in the North East by NEALIS (The North East Access Library and Information Services) who consulted with library users and professionals alike in ways to make the library more accessible for harder to reach user groups. The day was divided into talks from different organisations on a variety of topics from accessible platforms for blind and visually impaired people (VIP), guiding users around the library and things to consider when setting up a readers group for the visually impaired. We were also given time at the end of the day to get together in our local authority groups to start organising an event or promotion for Make a Noise in Libraries Fortnight (11^th – 24^th June).

After being very warmly welcomed by John Vincent and taking a check of where different authorities were in regards to the six steps (Wiltshire are in a very strong position) there was a presentation of different accessible platforms to navigate around the Internet and computer software from Scott Wood from Action for the Blind. He spent time showng us the different platforms available that could be adopted in a library environment from the more expensive Jaws, Zoomtext and Supernova to the relatively cheap and in some cases free NVDA and IVONA. These programmes provide magnification and screen reader properties to your computer which makes navigating and using these tools more accessible. Windows 7 and Apple also have built in magnification and screen reader programs as standard. The platforms varied in different ways from voices to text colours, usability and price. Scott mentioned that in the thirty years since he lost his sight there have been great advances in this technology, in the 1980s it would have been impossible for him to use a computer and yet now he spends most of his day browsing the Internet. As with anything though, the accessibility of a site is only as good as the original design, there is a group called Fix the Web who works with website authors to combat these problems. This is a volunteer led program that relies on donations and grants to keep up this essential work. Scott also mentioned the importance of applications such as Kindle for PC, ibooks and audioGo which make reading and enjoying books more accessible for the blind and VIP.

Next Pat Beech from the RNIB Library Service spoke to us about the current situation in the UK; approximately one eighth of people in the UK have problems with reading print and unfortunately only 7% of titles published in the UK are accessible to this part of the population. For a long time it used to only be 5% but the emergence of ebooks has resulted in a 2% increase. She commented that if her job was successful there would not be a need for an RNIB Library Service as reading material would be freely available in all formats and therefore accessible to all. Pat spent the majority of her talk explaining the role of the Reading Sight website (step 2) and how we as Librarians can use it to help provide support and advice for users with partial or no sight. Pat introduced the site as a working directory of best practice that is split into three areas:

• Reading Choices (including a useful questionnaire that can be used in libraries to help people identify what options and formats of reading are available to them and from where)
• Young Reading Lives (young people share their stories and advice given on how to support them in their reading future)
• Social Media (Blogs of current awareness etc)

The website is an accessible tool for all who have issues with sight or support those that do, by learning more about it we can now go back and filter this information through to library staff giving their more confidence in helping those users that may need extra help in finding accessible reading material.

Paula Hickey and Zoe Austen from Action for the Blind came in to talk to us about working with and supporting blind and visually impaired users in the library, basic tips and information was shared regarding guiding users around the library and communicating information, a lot of common sense advice including not changing your everyday language, trying not to be overly anxious or using overly grand hand gestures which will not help!

After some refreshment Eileen Hyder from the University of Reading shared her dissertation research regarding VIP reading groups. She found that the reading group she used in her research was set up for much the same reason many are; to share a love of reading and expand individual reading ranges. There were also pitfalls unfortunately due to the range of reading material available, (Calibre seemed a popular choice for multiple sets) and a fine balance between the social and discussion needs of the group. One of my colleagues runs a VIP reading group in her library and she commented on the same issues but each of the members is happy with the balance and like any reading group it depends on the individuals who attend. Issues that need to be addressed in these circumstances include:

• How to promote the group?
• Is it more important to integrate in with an existing reading group or have a specialist group?
• Reading materials 
• General housekeeping and guidance in leading group and physically on location and lay out of reading group venue

With the range of information and services we had been talking about during the course of the day it was really good to have a chance to split off from everyone else to start preparing for Make a Noise in Libraries Fortnight in Wiltshire and we have some interesting things in store which will hopefully include some partnership work with the Wiltshire Blind Association and cross sector working within the Council.

I came away from the day with a positive attitude and renewed confidence helping this user group and lots of ideas for implementation... I’ll be honest and say I didn’t really know how much support and what different services were out there to support blind and VIP in continuing their reading experiences but I am happy to be part of a profession that takes this role seriously and will be happy to take what I learnt and share it with colleagues across the county and further. Roll on Make a Noise in Libraries Fortnight!!!!