Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

June 2009 Volume 7(3)

CILIPS Conference: Funding

Less is more

New initiatives needn’t cost much, as Gill Swales demonstrates with a number of partnership projects she has been involved in which mostly incurred only staff hours.

Like most library authorities, Scottish Borders Council Library and Information Service (LIS) is always on the look-out for new initiatives and projects to expand and enhance services, particularly if they are low-cost. (No duck islands for us!)

During the last couple of years Children’s and Schools Services of Scottish Borders LIS has been presented with the opportunity to develop several local and community partnerships at minimal cost which work to the benefit of all partners, but particularly to the benefit of children, young people and schools. Three of these ‘shoestring partnerships’ are: The Borders Book Festival, The Heart of Hawick Children’s Book Award, and Animate It 09.

Borders Book Festival
The Borders Book Festival started in 2004, and is based in Melrose. It’s become an increasingly well-established celebration of books and authors. Scottish Borders Council is one of the main sponsors so LIS saw there was an opportunity to work with the Festival to further our mutual aims of promoting books and reading, and to expand the reach of both LIS and the Festival, particularly increasing its appeal to children and breaking down barriers.
LIS is involved with the Festival in two ways. Firstly, in providing a library promotional stand for the Schools Gala Days when hundreds of children from across the Borders visit to hear author events. Library services are promoted, including services to schools and Bookstart Rhymetimes, and storytimes are held in the grounds of Festival venue Harmony House.

Secondly, in 2007 a joint decision was made that a children’s writing competition would be set up, aimed at all Borders primary schools. Write On! is aimed at P5-P7, a 350-word limit was set and this year, in response to feedback, themes were introduced to guide the young writers. The Award Ceremony is held during the Festival and LIS benefits from accessing this prestigious event and venue, as well as from free books supplied by the publishers for winners and their schools. Winners are also given free tickets to a festival event, which last year was Charlie Higson of Young James Bond fame. The Festival benefits from LIS expertise and its links with schools. Costs to LIS are minimal, primarily staff time, as well as sharing costs of author host and winners’ medals.

Heart of Hawick Children’s Book Award
The Heart of Hawick is the key regeneration project in Scottish Borders. Centred around a once-derelict woollen mill, this ambitious town-centre development provides a café, tourist information, display space, business units, auditorium and local history & archive centre.

An approach was made to LIS by two local parents who wanted to contribute to the regeneration by creating a Children’s Book Award involving the local schools, both as a high-profile event to celebrate the town and to create a buzz and enthusiasm around reading. LIS saw this as an ideal opportunity to have direct input into the regeneration, to develop links with local schools and parents, and to support the Award’s aim to promote reading for pleasure. LIS expertise was utilised to support and organise the Award. A small committee, including two library staff, was set up, and the structure of the Award was established, including criteria and timeframe for shortlisting and for reading and voting for the books within schools. Associated initiatives were established such as school author sessions, and a linked Library Quest.

Funding came from local sponsors and businesses, and partners include Youth Café (who filmed the Award Ceremony), the Heart of Hawick Business Manager (free venue for Award), local media and photographers, schools, and parents. Again there is little cost to LIS: mainly staff time, along with funding for a school session by one of the shortlisted authors. The Award ceremony itself is an Oscars-style event, hosted by a celebrity (Ainslie Henderson of Fame Academy last year), in which children participate fully.

Schools report that the Award has increased confidence and a sense of achievement among participating children, and although only two years old, the Award is already receiving good media coverage and raising its profile.

Animate It 09
Animate It is a nationwide competition run by CBBC and the film-making website Filmstreet to create a short animated trailer of a favourite children’s book. LIS was approached by VOMO (Voice of My Own) – a Borders-wide film-making project empowering young people through new media – as a natural partner, and funding for two sessions with a freelance animator were secured through Determined to Succeed. It was decided to hold one session in a school and one in Hawick Library on World Book Day to link in to the Heart of Hawick Award and to bring in children from Hawick schools to the library.

Over the course of an intensive day they had to work together to plan, storyboard and film their trailers which were two minutes long: that’s a lot of animation! As well as expressive arts and literacy outcomes, the groups also learnt about film-making (cine literacy) and ICT as they had to operate the animation software.

The books chosen were Granny by Anthony Horowitz and Dog Lost by Ingrid Lee. They didn’t win but the trailers are clever and entertaining. The only costs to LIS were for staff time.
Successful partnerships don’t need to be complex and costly. Sometimes it’s a question of looking for simple projects which libraries can tie in to, with shared mutual aims, and similar opportunities can be found in most authorities.

Gill Swales is Young People’s Services Co-ordinator, Scottish Borders Council. She spoke on ‘Partnerships on a shoestring’ at the CILIPS Conference Branch & Group Day on 3 June.

View CILIPS Annual Conference 2009 presentations on Slideshare

Information Scotland Vol. 7(3) June 2009

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Last updated: 31-Jul-2009