Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Inspiring learning


Vale Libraries have been chosen to take part in the Inspiring Learning For All (ILFA) development programme sponsored by CyMAL. The programme will help us look at all aspects of learning in libraries and help us examine ways in which we can place learning at the centre of what we do.

Catherine Herman, the lead consultant on the programme, joined a group of library staff for our inaugural meeting at the county library today. We will meet with Catherine several times over the coming months and also meet with the other three organisations selected to take part in the programme. They are Denbighshire Heritage Service, Flintshire Museums Service / Greenfield Valley Trust and the Museum and Culture Service, Isle of Anglesey.

Monday, October 30, 2006

Red seat

The architects designed a low wall to shape the children's area. Red seating has been provided along this curved wall.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Stamping dates

The library at the leisure centre will be closed 3 weeks from today and remain closed until the new county library opens on the 4th January. Any books stamped out from today will have a return date in January 2007. People will of course be able to return or borrow books from any other library in Vale of Glamorgan during this time.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Signage


A lot of thought has been given to directional signage for the library. We started with a list that included signs for most areas of the building but by a process of discussion and elimination we’ve managed to reduce this down to the most appropriate signs. Some areas of the library call out for signage and others are just too obvious to sign. As well as the signs themselves, the naming of areas has caused some debate. Should we use computer room or computer suite? What do we call an area that contains large print and talking books but also some crime books? Do we stick with Youth Area or wait for young people to name the area themselves?

We met two signage companies this morning and looked at their products and costs. We will use several different types of signs, some of them tactile. There will be welcome signs above the library counters, metal plates for door numbers and names, a graphic for toilet doors, a banner to pinpoint the Lolfa, a freestanding directional sign at the foot of the stairs, a list of main library areas beside the lift, and a few signs hanging from the ceilings.

There are large areas of clear glass in the library and as well as ordering signage in the next week or two we will need to order manifestations. These are the round white circles you see on glass to stop people walking into them. We’ll have manifestations around the entrance, on the computer room wall, on the clear glass doors to the library courtyard and on the wall of glass that divides us from the exhibition space.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Children's Library




The children’s library has been designed with a wall to house a TV and PlayStation. The wall will also house a wash-up area and shelves to store craft supplies and cushions. Children and staff will be able to wash their hands after activities and shut the wash-up area away behind a sliding door when not it use. The bespoke units were delivered last Friday and the fitting is going well.

Monday, October 23, 2006

Samples

Various chair samples

Attic2 visited today with an example of their plan chair and flight chair. They were extremely comfortable and will look good in the Lolfa. We plan to order these and will also order furniture from the allermuir range from BOF.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

Round window

The children's library has a den area which looks out towards the Lolfa.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Art Work

Wall panel

We've met and consulted with over 100 teenagers in local schools to ask what they would like to see in the youth area. Many of them came up with the idea of a graffiti style art work. We’ve reserved a wall in the youth area for this, and have asked Bryce Davies to work with a group of teenagers in Barry to design and paint the wall. We met Bryce today and showed him the youth area. He talked about the type of work he could produce and the space and materials he'll need to paint it. We'll now find some teenagers keen to develop ideas with Bryce and have a go with an aerosol can. Bryce is confident that he could paint the wall in situ, without damaging the carpet and surrounding walls, but we don't want to risk it! We'd like the kids to meet at the library to draw and discuss designs but we'll arrange for the painting to be done on panels elsewhere and be brought into the library only once fully dry.

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Closing date


It’s official. Barry Library will close at 6pm on Friday 17th November. It will reopen on King Square, with a new name, during the first week in January 2007. The library will henceforth be known as the County Library. The opening date has been decided but the arrangements for the day and exact opening time has not yet been agreed. Watch this space for further information.

Monday, October 16, 2006

Interviews


After a great response to our adverts, interviewing has now started for new and vacant posts in the library. We have four days of interviewing arranged over the next two weeks and there will be more to follow. The pressure is on to get new people in post and fully trained by Christmas. We’ve already made a couple of key appointments over the last few months. We have a customer services manager in place to manage the main reception desk and the services on the ground floor. We also have a learning support officer in post to plan and arrange learning activities at Barry and the other libraries in the Vale.

Friday, October 13, 2006

Seating


Much of the office furniture for the library will be brought over from the current library, as will most of the chairs and tables we use in public spaces. Additional furniture has also been ordered for these areas and the first deliveries are expected soon.

We have several distinct areas of the library that we want to furnish differently to the rest. Four companies were asked to submit their proposals for these areas and we spent some time discussing the designs today. We like two of the proposals in particular but will need some further information before we decide between them. The brief we gave to the companies was to suggest funky seating in the youth area, some eye-catching seating in the window area above the entrance, occassional seats to place around the library and some comfortable tub style armchairs and café tables with chairs in on the ground floor. We've dubbed the small atrium area on the ground floor as the Lolfa as it will be a comfortable place to read a newspaper or sit and chat. We will avoid calling it Y Lolfa so as not to confuse it with the well known Welsh publisher of the same name.

One of our most important tools in recent months has been a collection of various printed RAL colour charts which we guard jealously. Everything in the library has a RAL colour and the charts and colour swatches are helping us decide on colour schemes for various parts of the building.

Thursday, October 12, 2006

Audio-visual


Sandra and Sian

We will have a television, DVD player and PlayStation in both the children and youth areas. We want to be able to control all this equipment from the library counter, along with a couple of listening posts and an LCD information screen. We’ve installed ample power and data points and also provided TV connections to an aerial on the roof. To operate all the equipment from a central point we will need very little extra cabling, some software and a bit of expert assistance. We've talked to Blackbox-av to provide this for us. They have experience of setting up interactive museum and library displays so they should have no problem supplying what we want. We met them for the second time at the library today and look forward to the work starting.




Wednesday, October 11, 2006

End of First Removals


Most of the stock we want to move into the basement has now been moved. The last materials to be transported were the maps, old newspapers and photographs brought over from the squash court store. Though all of this material is in the basement, it is mostly in boxes and it will take several weeks to organise and shelve.

Removals have now ended for the time being until the temporary library closes. It has taken 8 days to remove and mostly shleve about 7000 books and other items of stock. The rest of the building is still empty. In the weeks ahead we'll have to move much of the present furniture, dismantle and erect shelving, setup 80 PCs and move over 70,000 books.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Staff Tours

Discarded computer packaging


IT staff were in the building much of the day testing the network, setting up phones and preparing to set-up the first PC.

Most Barry Library staff have been in the library at least once during the building period or in the weeks before completion. Very few branch library staff have had this opportunity so the doors were flung open to staff who wanted to visit this evening. First impressions were unanimously good.

We'll be calling on lots of library staff to help out in the coming weeks and some have already started.

Monday, October 09, 2006

Central Park

Library courtyard and Central Park

The gates of Central Park were opened for the first time this morning and some children tried out the swings on their way to school. The park was full of children after school and at 7pm there were still about 50 children of all ages in the park, some using the equipment, some playing on the basketball court and others rolling down the terraces.

Work continued on moving stock into the library today. A workroom has been setup in the basement for staff to start processing new stock and making it shelf ready.

A few samples of furniture have arrived for the public areas of the library. We will need several styles of chairs and tables and will have to choose colours and finishes in the next few weeks.

The press had a tour of the library last Friday and there was some coverage in the Echo and Barry & District News.

Friday, October 06, 2006

End of First Week


Basement


At the end of our first week of removals the library basement is starting to fill up. Much of the reserve stock of books has been shelved. Most of the new stock has been moved into the library and a good proportion of it has also been shelved. Work has also begun on clearing the store we keep at a squash court at Barry Leisure Centre. This store is next to the temporary library and contains mostly books, marketing materials, stationery and local studies materials.

Monday, October 02, 2006

King Square Opens


The barricades came down around King Square at the front of the library today. The square has been off limits for the last 18 months and it took some time today before shoppers on Holton Road could quite believe they could walk over the square again.

Work continued on transporting books from the reserve stock to the basement. Work also began on moving new stock from the store in Sully. New books, CDs, DVDs and talking books have been bought over the past year and stored ready for the new library. They will be shelved in the basement until shelving is erected in the library in November.