Mini world tour

A while ago I had a few days off work and decided to drag my boyfriend along on what I called a ‘mini world tour’ of libraries. There are several libraries in the near-ish locality (West Mids) which had made headlines and being a library fan I wanted to explore them. I chose the following ones to visit because they each offer something different to the communities they serve.

Choice number one had to be the Hive, in Worcester city centre. It took about an hour to drive there and I fell in love as soon as I saw the place. My boyfriend (a dedicated non-fan of libraries) wasn’t very impressed with the exterior of the building, saying it looked almost silly, but I disagreed. A modern library has years of stereotypical images to fight against and what better way to start than to make the building look different? I thought it looked interesting and exciting and I was curious to see what would be different internally. I was not disappointed – it is amazing inside! I could ramble on about everything inside the building but I won’t, I’ll just say my favourite section was the local history floor. The gigantic tablet-like touchscreen table for viewing maps was fun, and I enjoyed walking under the sound domes to hear oral history recollections. It was also interesting to look at the book stock and see the way university collections and public collections were available to everyone but on different loaning terms. I think we'll see more combined public and academic libraries as times goes by.

The Hive, Worcester, Worcs

Next up on the ‘mini-world tour’ was Oldbury public library in Sandwell. Although this isn’t my local library I do live in Sandwell, so it was only a ten minute drive from home. The new building – Jack Judge House – is huge and very impressive with its purple, blue and whilte exterior, but I was slightly disappointed inside. The library only occupied part of the ground floor, the remainder of the building was dedicated to council offices. I’m not saying this is a bad thing – if libraries have to share buildings to survive in the current economic climate then so be it – but for some reason I presumed (hoped?) the whole building would be the library. But not to worry, inside it was cosy, friendly and attractive. Focussing mainly on fiction books, this library was in complete contrast to the Hive. Every inch of space was utilised, whereas the Hive was spacious with an almost minimalistic style foyer. Oldbury library was full of people, a real hub of activity, and it warmed the cockles of my heart to see it so.

Oldbury Library, Sandwell, West Mids

Our final stop on the ‘mini-world tour’ was in Belbroughton near Stourbridge. The decommissioned phone box library is run by the local history society and was purchased from BT for just £1. It is crammed full of books – biographies, children’s, fiction – all donated by members of the public. The phone box is unsupervised but open 24/7. People simply take away any books they fancy and leave behind any they no longer want. Technically, it’s more of a book exchange than a library, but it’s still a wonderful idea. It works well and is something the locals are quite rightly proud of. This library is positioned in a reasonably affluent area and it may not work so well in other areas where it may be abused, which would be a shame. Also, when I visited it was heavily raining and because the phone box was so full of books I couldn’t actually step inside. I had to browse from the pavement through the open door and, being the good librarian that I am, was concerned the books would get wet. That aside, this library phonebox is a hidden gem.

Book Exchange Library, Belbroughton, Worcs

All in all it was a lovely few days pottering round libraries, exploringtowns and reminding myself that size really doesn't matter - all libraries are beautiful. 

My desk buddies

Welcome to my ever-growing Lego family. I originally started to buy Lego mini-figures for my eldest nephew and they brought out the big kid in me. Wondering which Lego person is inside the sealed packet is exciting, and I found myself thinking some of them were just so cute I had to keep them.  Whenever there's a new Lego mini-figure series I can't wait to see which characters have been released. Series 1 included a clown with red curly hair. It sells for about £10+ on Ebay now - would love to adopt him into the Lego family, but dare I part with so much cash for a teeny tiny Lego man? I'd also really like to buy a customised librarian mini-figure from minifigs.me. We'll see how long I can resist these Lego temptations...

They sit on the window ledge immediately above my desk and keep my company at work. They may not project the 'professional' image of a librarian in the traditional sense of the word, but this is my small step towards breaking down the stereotypical librarian image. My own little rebellion!

The Lego family helps with my work-life balance by raising a smile when things at work are a little hectic. A little bit of colour in life is never a bad thing I say. Also, they are a great conversation-starter - I've lost count of the number of people who come into the office and comment on them. Through these little figures, I've chatted to people from other departments I may not have spoken to as much otherwise, such as the college carpenter, chaplain and various lecturers. It seems everyone has a Lego story to share! The Lego family probably isn't to everyone's taste (I'm sure my boss hates them!), but I think the positives outweigh the negatives. I like to think the Lego family helps to break down barriers and make me a little more approachable, especially if I'm working with students at my desk. I'm all for showing your personality in your work, and if the Lego family helps students realise the 'boring' librarians aren't quite so boring after all that's no bad thing!

CILIP WM AGM day

On Thursday 7^th February I attended a day event held by CILIP West Midlands branch. It was entitled ‘Promoting your service and the profession’ and was held at the Mary Seacole Library, Birmingham City University.

 

The event filled up within two days of the booking opening and there were approximately 50 delegates present. The agenda included the various activities:

• Staff from Mary Seacole gave an introduction to the university library service
• Gill Colbourne from Warwickshire library services spoke about how to promote a service which is part of a larger entity.
• Barbara Band gave her first official presentation as CILIP Vice President. It focussed on how she uses her role as a school librarian to promote the profession to a wider audience.  
• There was an overview of the changes being discussed relating to CILIP professional qualifications, given by Simon Edwards (Director of Professional Services at CILIP).
• CILIP West Midlands Chair Roger Fairman gave a brief overview of what’s next for the branch.
• There were also AGMs from CILIP West Midlands branch and two SIGs – CDG West Midlands and ARLG West Midlands.
• A tour of the Mary Seacole library.

There was a lively Twitter conversation surrounding the day’s hashtag #cwmagm13. In the absence of a marketing officer, I tweeted on behalf of the branch and an archive of related tweets can be found here. I found this to be quite fun and hope to soon post about the experience of live tweeting from events.

I found the day really interesting, and - as always – it was nice to hear people speak who are passionate about the profession. In my current role, I find it frustrating that we are bound by ‘one-size-fits-all’ guidelines established by the college’s marketing department. In my previous role in a school I had much more freedom to whatever was best for the library, without having to get it ‘okay-ed’ by a separate department. However, despite this I understand the college must protect it's brand. It was interesting to realise that although we all work in different library sectors, we still face many similar issues regarding promotion of the service.

Revalidation on target

Image by viZZZual.com

Having pondered it long and hard, I finally decided to plump for a mentor to help through my chartership revalidation. Unlike with first-time chartership, it isn’t a necessary part of the process, and I blogged my musings about it here.

Last time, my mentor worked in a secondary school (just as I did then) and this time, my mentor works in a further education college (just as I do now). I know there are things to be learnt from working with a mentor from a different library sector, but personally I prefer them to have a direct feel for the role I am in and the challenges it may/may not include. Also, locality is an issue to consider; in my appraisal at the end of last year, my line manager agreed to allow me one afternoon per half term to meet with my mentor. Luckily, my mentor works in a college less than ten miles from the college in which I work. Although this is not a huge distance, the majority of our communications will be conducted via email, which suits us both. I am keen not to infringe too much upon my mentor’s working week, as I know she is based in a very busy library environment.

HUG WM 2013

HUG venue - Friends Meeting House, London

Earlier this week I attended the Heritage User Group(HUG) winter meeting. It was held at the Quakers’ Friends Meeting House,directly opposite Euston train station. I’ve been here for previous HUG eventsand I’m always struck by the excellence of the venue. It’s in a prime locationand has a beautiful little garden in front of the entrance – a tiny havenamidst the noise that is London.

Heritage is the LMS used by our library, but HUG is completely independent ofIS Oxford (the developers of Heritage). It is run by a committee of Heritageusers from throughout the country, and now that I am on a committee myself, Iappreciate the job they do organising sterling events such as this.