Elgin Library: Highlights from a Successful Public Library Service

By Team B 2017-2018

 

Welcome to Elgin Library

Elgin Library is the main branch of Moray Council’s library service and hosts a diverse range of facilities in its premises. It provides local learning centres, free internet access in a relaxed environment, rooms for gallery and conference use, and a café. The main lending area, incorporating children’s, adult and young adult, can be found on the ground floor, while the first floor hosts the learning centre, archival material including old photographs and newspapers, and a reference and information service.

Information Desk

We in RGU’s MSc Information and Library Studies course visited Elgin Library as part of our Managing Library Services module under Professor Peter Reid. We had the opportunity to meet with Principal Librarian Sheila Campbell, as well as librarians who head several different library service areas. Moray Libraries provided us with a great example of various library service areas working together in a collaborative environment, something which Professor Reid placed a great deal of emphasis on in his classes, and gave us excellent insight into the work that goes into the provision of public library services.

The following are some representative highlights of the programming at Elgin Library: Children’s Services operate a no barriers policy which improves accessibility to books and creates an inviting environment for families with children to use the library lending service. Late fees and fines are waived for children’s books since the cost of potential fines can be a barrier for some families.  Registration with the library occurs from birth under the “Tell Us Once” policy (Every Child a Library Member), which ensures that all children born in Moray are registered library users from the very beginning of their lives. Barriers to library membership were also removed by dispensing with the requirement for an application form to be filled in and signed by a guarantor.  Elgin Library is a warm, welcoming place for families, which is demonstrated through their no barriers policy and is encouraged through their engagement with Every Child a Library Member. 

 

Emma and Rosaleen make some friends

The Children’s Services Librarian organises various programmes and events such as Bookbug and school library visits. Reading challenges run throughout the year with special themes.  “Made in Scotland” reading challenge was created to raise awareness of Scottish authors and to expand the number of Scottish books being read by children. The creation of reader’s advisory guides which provides guidance on what to recommend next to young readers has been highly useful for library staff. Training is provided for staff members in the development of skills such as storytelling, which ensures that staff is confident in their delivery of library services for children.

They have all their ducks in a row

The Spirit of Moray Book Festival, held at Elgin Library each September, is “a celebration of writing, illustration, and publishing in Scotland”. It’s a well-regarded festival that has developed an excellent reputation for being great hosts to their visiting authors. They plan their programming well in advance and make sure to provide excellent support to their visiting author speakers, which in turn means that authors are very happy to come to them. The festival also kicks off with a whisky event, adding an extra bit of local colour in this whisky-making region.

Local Art Display Case

Elgin Library offers a great example of how a library can utilise its spaces to provide a wide variety of services, displaying great forethought and understanding of the library’s role in the community. Immediately noticeable upon entering the library is a café, which brings in both additional revenue and footfall for the library.

Rent Art Corner

Beyond the café, several display cases of local handicrafts provide exposure for local artisans. The attached art gallery is an extension of this area, with rotating themes and displays to draw attention to a variety of local talent. The library also provides space for local meetings and even partnerships with small bookshops that may not have their own space to host events. Elgin Library also serves as a passport interview facility, which saves locals a drive to Inverness or Aberdeen for passport interviews. Elgin Library is one of 29 such locations throughout the UK, providing an invaluable service to the local community through a clever and inventive use of space and employee training, and is another example of the library finding additional services they can offer that benefit both the library and community. Elgin Library's Learning Centre also includes a small, separate classroom, for classes and groups who are more comfortable in a private setting, rather than in the more exposed open area of the Learning Centre. By providing this safe, comfortable space for learning and practice, Elgin Library shows an attentive focus to their users' specific needs.

Local Heritage Center

The upper level of the library houses not only the main Learning Centre, but also the Local Heritage Centre. This hosts a range of unique materials about Moray’s past, including local newspapers, pictures and local government archives. This area provides an opportunity for community members to conduct their own research and offers a growing archive of unique materials. The Local Heritage service has moved from strength to strength in recent years, building on a tradition of innovation and development, for example, LIBINDX, an online access point for local studies resources, through which remote users can find out about the collection's holdings. As with many heritage services, digitisation is at the forefront of service development. Through PLIF funding, the service has acquired a state-of-the-art scanner, which is used to digitise material from the collections for the benefit of the community. In particular, “Read all About It - Online! Moray’s War through the local press” involved the digitisation of local newspapers, giving greater insight into local perspectives about World War I. 

James showing us the library's new digitiser

Digitiser hard at work

A brief glimpse at the Local Heritage Collection courtesy of Sheila Campbell

One thing that particularly impressed us at Elgin Library was how responsive the staff are to feedback. Feedback and self-evaluation (for example through the How Good Is Our Public Library Service? framework) have been a major component of our learning in our Managing Public Libraries module, and Elgin Library clearly and passionately put this into practice. They have created a culture that is highly responsive to users’ input, asking for feedback in every aspect of what they do. Self-evaluation is important as well, and the staff maintains customer service checklists against which they can continually check themselves to ensure they’re providing their desired level of service. Moray Libraries follow a corporate plan aligned with national priorities and directives. Although this is a ten-year plan, they re-evaluate and adjust it yearly, staying flexible in response to the needs of the community as well as shifts in government priorities. The libraries also conduct their own survey of library satisfaction, which returns very positive results. We were impressed to see how actively the library solicits feedback, displaying results and the library's responses to user comments publicly in the entrance hallway of the library and on the Moray Council website. Overall, we found that Elgin Library shows remarkable responsiveness to user needs, and has a culture of uniting many valuable community services under one roof. The staff clearly work extremely hard, but it was equally clear how deeply they enjoy and care about the work they do. The dedication and collaboration between members of staff served as an example for us of a successful, impactful library service, which later informed our own final coursework in our Managing Library Services module, in which we designed a vision and programmes for an imagined library service.

 

2017-2018 RGU MSc ILS students with Professor Peter Reid and Prinicpal Librarian Sheila Campbell