Nice People Thread No. 15, a Cyber Summer

vivatifosi

Sorry Pastures, the other thing you mentioned was being able to get texts at appropriate levels, not just up to 14 year old.

Different library types have different roles, so we aren't all buying the same stock.
A school library is responsible for buying books to support children learning to read, they will use something like the Oxford Learning Tree, as well as buying books to match the needs of the national curriculum.

A university library is much bigger and more specialised, with books that cover their huge body of knowledge that people are studying.

A public library is there to fill in the remainder. So we won't have the specialist books of an academic or institutional library. We also don't stock the same books as schools. What we do have, however, are the resources so that if a school sets a project for homework, then they can get the books to read around that. We don't stock textbooks so much, but we do stock revision guides. We also have other books to encourage children with their reading, but that are different to those they read at school.

In my authority, our aim is to have books that go up to the first year of degree level, beyond that, it is too specialised. Also, these won't be in small libraries, they will be in big town libraries where there is space for a bigger collection.

Sorry if I'm going on. I love libraries and really could talk about them all day everyday. We have little or no advertising budget, so I try to get the message out as to what we can do at every opportunity.

Pyxis

Thanks for that, Vivatifosi!

GDB2222

silvercar wrote: »

Already happened in my town. The library has relocated to a building in the centre of town and shares with a coffee bar and council offices and has rooms to hire. Downside is that the library is across three floors, which is less than desirable for the able bodied and a pain for those with mobility issues.

I was over in St Barts hospital yesterday, in a brand new wing. I needed to go up a couple of floors, so hunted for the stairs. No way, Jose! The stairs are for staff use only, and I had to use the lift. But hospitals urge people to be less sedentary and to walk up. It seems completely daft.

Pyxis

GDB2222 wrote: »

I was over in St Barts hospital yesterday, in a brand new wing. I needed to go up a couple of floors, so hunted for the stairs. No way, Jos!! The stairs are for staff use only, and I had to use the lift. But hospitals urge people to be less sedentary and to walk up. It seems completely daft.

I've noticed that, in different places, too.

In some shops, it's really hard to find the stairs. They want you to trail past their goods in a certain pattern.
It's also annoying when, for that reason, the up escalators aren't positioned next to each other.......you have to walk round past goods to get to the next one........ when all you want is to get to the cafè at the top and have a cuppa! :mad:

vivatifosi

silvercar wrote: »

Already happened in my town. The library has relocated to a building in the centre of town and shares with a coffee bar and council offices and has rooms to hire. Downside is that the library is across three floors, which is less than desirable for the able bodied and a pain for those with mobility issues.

It's a real problem... finding an appropriate space. You want to be in the centre of town where the footfall is greatest but sometimes the need is to cram so much into a building that you can't get the optimal library layout, particularly if there are conflicting needs as to who needs to be downstairs.

I recently visited the new Hemel Hempstead library as a customer and that has the space to have the library and customer services on the ground floor. It also has a registry office upstairs, so the people visiting that may think it's a pain to go up to.

It's a tough one. You can't have everything downstairs as the land will be too expensive, but then who goes upstairs? Glad I don't have to make those decisions.

Pyxis

vivatifosi wrote: »

It's a real problem... finding an appropriate space. You want to be in the centre of town where the footfall is greatest but sometimes the need is to cram so much into a building that you can't get the optimal library layout, particularly if there are conflicting needs as to who needs to be downstairs.

I recently visited the new Hemel Hempstead library as a customer and that has the space to have the library and customer services on the ground floor. It also has a registry office upstairs, so the people visiting that may think it's a pain to go up to.

It's a tough one. You can't have everything downstairs as the land will be too expensive, but then who goes upstairs? Glad I don't have to make those decisions.

Aren't there lifts?

silvercar

Pyxis wrote: »

Aren't there lifts?

Our library has lifts, but having to go upstairs via a lift mid browse takes away from the experience.

vivatifosi

Yes, but a surprising number of people don't like lifts. Or waiting for lifts. To the best of my knowledge they haven't banned the stairs though. Hopefully there won't be any incidents of lift phobic brides falling on the stairs in a big dress, or random people tripping on a ten foot train. The more I think about it, the more interesting the mental images (I have a very active imagination).

Pyxis

vivatifosi wrote: »

Yes, but a surprising number of people don't like lifts. Or waiting for lifts. To the best of my knowledge they haven't banned the stairs though. Hopefully there won't be any incidents of lift phobic brides falling on the stairs in a big dress, or random people tripping on a ten foot train. The more I think about it, the more interesting the mental images (I have a very active imagination).

She could come down again by sliding on the banisters!

ukmaggie45

Pyxis wrote: »

You might be able to do that online.

Went and searched, and you're right! So I've joined our libraries again. Took forever to download the software, as had to at least scan the t&c. Not had time to try to borrow anything yet, but there's a family history magazine, Your Family History, I might take a look at when have more leisure time.

Zag, our niece works at HoC library. Daughter of librarians. OH was a library assistant at the Taylorian in Oxford when I first met him, but after a year there he decided librarianship wasn't for him and went in for programming instead.

Never worked in a library but seem to have spent a fair amount of time associated with bookshops! My first ever job was in a bookshop - I'd gone in to browse, and manageress was short staffed due to sickness, so I offered to help - thinking it would be fun thing to do. Before I knew it I'd been sent off to local job place (think they would have been called Labour Exchanges back then) to get a National Insurance Card and I started that afternoon! School hols only, so prob only about 3 or 4 weeks. It *was* fun, but they did OK out of it as I spent all my wages on books and stationary! :rotfl:

Then when DD1 started at infants school I offered to help out with the school bookshop. A once a week after school on Wednesdays in term time. Plus on Parents' Evenings. Next thing I'm running it, as if I didn't do it the bookshop would have to close. So I did that for about 5 years I think, had a real job finding someone to take it over... But 2 Christian Ladies eventually volunteered. Not such a good thing in some ways as I heard later they banned Meg and Mog as it was about witchcraft! :eek: I imagine The Worst Witch was probably banned too. Never found out if The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe got nixed too - prob considered safe due to CS Lewis being the author.