Information Scotland The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland ISSN 1743-5471 Issue contents | Journal contents | About the online edition of the journal August 2007 Volume 5(4)

Public libraries: PLQIM

Quality partnerships

Highland Libraries took part in piloting the new Public Libraries Quality Improvement Matrix. Norman S. Newton describes how the process was of great benefit to libraries – staff and services alike.

No pain, no gain. Last year Highland Libraries welcomed Elaine Fulton and Rhona Arthur of SLIC (Scottish Library and Information Council). We were getting to grips with something they described as the Public Libraries Quality Improvement Matrix, and presumably now very familiar to Scottish librarians. Our Lifelong Learning Manager, the current CILIPS President Christopher Phillips, had happily volunteered Highland Libraries to pilot the ‘Organisation and Use of Resources and Space’ section of PLQIM, and so our management team, the Libraries Network Team, found itself undergoing a crash course on acronymic management and performance evaluation techniques.

We successfully completed that exercise, producing an impressive piece of collaborative effort, which, although sometimes tedious and often brain-stretching, gave us the collective confidence and expertise to respond positively, imaginatively and enthusiastically when invited by SLIC to bid to the Scottish Executive Public Libraries Improvement Fund to improve library services in Scotland. Our successful bid involved placing self-issue machines in six libraries and covered the period from December 2006 to March 2007.

Over the last two to three years Highland Libraries have been keenly aware of the need to identify a number of key development issues essential to the continuing evolution of library and information provision in the Highlands. These were:

>>A need to involve communities across the Highlands – including the new communities of migrant workers – in planning and delivering library services;
>>A need to minimise exclusion (particularly, but not exclusively in a rural context);
>>A need to embrace partnership working with other agencies with which the library service shares a common cause;
>>A need to facilitate the development of the skills of both library staff and the community (IT skills and otherwise) and to provide learning support across the Highland area.

Highland Libraries is a network of 40 branch libraries, some of them very small, and eight mobile libraries, covering an enormous geographical area, from Wick and Thurso in the north to Fort William and Kinlochleven in the south, and from Portree and Mallaig in the west to Nairn, Grantown and Kingussie in the east. There is a large central library in Inverness, with a network reference and local history collection, a scattering of medium-sized libraries in the main towns, and a plethora of small libraries serving remote villages and settlements. The Inner Moray Firth area, encompassing libraries in Inverness, Culloden, Ardersier, Nairn, Dingwall, Alness, Invergordon, Tain, Muir of Ord, Beauly, Fortrose and Cromarty, is one of the fastest growing areas in Scotland. Many of our smaller libraries are single-staffed. Our libraries are grouped together into Areas and managed by Area Libraries Officers who are part of our Libraries Network Team.

Highland Libraries have invested a frightening amount of intense effort in the PLQIM process but are now reaping the rewards. We always knew that our staff was our greatest asset, and that they were an immensely committed group of people who carried out their duties intelligently and good-naturedly. We were all too well aware of the demands we placed upon them arising out of the People’s Network and from our own commitment to extending our library management system (Talis) to all aspects of our work. So, it is especially gratifying that staff can see for themselves how another new technology, the self-issue machine, can liberate staff time to allow staff to engage with the public in new ways.

For our PLQIM project we selected six libraries at which staff were enthusiastic about developing partnerships with a range of different communities, but were constrained by lack of time and resources. At single-staffed branches they were trapped by routine counter processes and unable to find the time to explore other opportunities for extending the reach of the library service. With the support of staff and local librarians we settled on these six libraries, with a wide range of possible partnerships in mind:

>>Achiltibuie Library: in this very remote Wester Ross community the library is housed in the local community centre, but open only for five hours a week, on Wednesdays. A partnership with the management committee at the Coigach Community Centre allows members to access the library, including the People’s Network, at any time, and to borrow books using the self-issue machine installed in the library. The public there love it. Issues increased by 15%.

l>>Dornoch Library: located in the former county town of Sutherland, Dornoch is an outpost of North Highland College, part of the UHI network. Our partnership here is with staff and students at the new UHI Centre for History, headed by Highland historian Dr Jim Hunter. This is a busy library open for 21.5 hours a week. The self-issue machine handled 1085 transactions up to the end of March and staff were able to find time to explain the benefits of using the library service to UHI staff and students and to plan a Readers’ Day.

>>Inverness Library: our busiest library, open for 55 hours a week. Over 5000 Polish immigrants now live in the Inverness area and our PLQIM partnership is with the Polish community. Staff found time to liaise with the Inverness Polish Association and to help individuals use the library service effectively, including internet facilities. In the three months up to the end of March the self-issue system handled 8189 transactions representing 994 adult and junior borrowers, of which 50 were migrant workers.

>>Lochcarron Library: at this West Ross branch the partnership is with the Howard Doris Centre, a residential and day-care centre for elderly people. The library is located within the centre, in a separate wing, and is open for 10 hours a week. The self-issue machine was placed in the Centre foyer, with a collection of relevant stock purchased as part of the project, selected in partnership with the care staff. In the study period the system handled 436 transactions, of which 373 (85%) took place out with normal library opening hours. Issues overall increased by 18%. The project gives greater access to the whole community and to users from outlying rural areas.

>>Mallaig Library: situated at the end of the ‘Road to the Isles’, Mallaig Library is open for 17 hours a week and is located in a new Community Centre, sharing the facilities with a Lochaber College Learning Centre, so our partnership was with them. A collection of books was chosen with the assistance of the Learning Centre Manager and student feedback was very positive. However, usage was not as great as expected, as it opened late in the academic year. It is hoped that in the next academic year it will be more successful.

>>Tain Library: this particularly busy single-staffed library in Easter Ross is open for 20 hours a week. Here our partnership was initially with an existing reading group, with staff time freed up to promote reader development. A second reading group has now been established. In addition, an adult literacy group meets in the library and has gained much confidence through the opportunity to use the self-issue system. Our happiest beneficiary was a housebound reader who hired a taxi regularly to change over her library books. With access to a self-issue machine the taxi driver no longer had to wait in a queue at the counter, so he was happy, and of course that also saved our housebound reader money!

Two elements in our project were crucial to its success. We developed and delivered training to staff at the libraries involved, emphasising ways in which, for example, we could impress members of the public with our use of the internet. These training sessions lasted for a whole day and also allowed library staff to understand the PLQIM context better and to see how their library fitted into the overall aims of the project. Initially there was considerable suspicion, and inevitably talk of machines replacing people, but all staff went away from these training sessions reassured and at least willing to give it a try. Most staff could see the positive possibilities and were positively enthused.

This initial training and briefing day was then supplemented by training on the use of the self-issue machines. We were able to purchase six machines from the supplier 2CQR. The machines are about the size of a PC and come with a keyboard and printer. They can issue and discharge books and allow readers to view some details from their borrower record. Project funding met the cost of appropriate furniture and the machines were placed on wheeled trolleys.

This PLQIM project produced many other positive benefits. It provided us all with an insight into some of the multiplicity of partnerships which can be involved in delivering a library service in a challenging geographical environment, where a library visit by staff from the Library Support Unit might involve 5-6 hours travelling time and where of course many of our readers routinely travel many miles to their nearest library.

It wasn’t planned this way, but a Royal Visit to Lochcarron Library on 11 April by Princess Anne, marking the 10th anniversary of the Howard Doris Centre, felt like it somehow gave the royal seal of approval to our efforts. And yes, we did manage to get a photo of HRH interacting with the self-issue machine (above)!

Looking to the future, Highland Libraries are now making plans for PLQIM2, having successfully applied again to the Public Libraries Improvement Fund. Our next project will explore the idea of targeting different kinds of single-staffed libraries (including mobiles) with the aim of taking on extra staff thus allowing existing staff to develop children’s programmes and possibly target other groups, such as lapsed users, migrant workers, Gaelic readers, and tourists. We like the basic concept of self-issue systems freeing up staff time, and can see many applications throughout our network. In the Highlands we positively welcome challenge and innovation, and have an excellent record of developing and delivering library services to our towns, villages and widely dispersed populations.

The PLQIM project produced many other positive benefits – a full report is available from the Project Manager, John Dempster, at Highland Libraries (e:john.dempster@ highland.gov.uk ) or from SLIC.

Norman S. Newton is Senior Librarian, Information Co-ordinator, Highland Libraries.

Information Scotland Vol. 5(4) August 2007

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