February 2025: Public Libraries: Not Just About Books

In February we were joined for an online talk by Stephanie Hogan, Area Manager at Manchester Public Libraries. Stephanie shared insights into her career, and showed that public libraries are about so much more than books!

Manchester Central Library

Stephanie began her career at the public library in Bury, a town in the North West of England, as a Saturday Library Assistant. She enjoyed it so much that she decided to undertake a BA (Hons) Information and Library Studies at Northumbria University, returning to work in Bury after completing the course.

Her first professional post, after graduating in 1993, was with Salford Libraries as a community librarian at Broughton Library. Stephanie found this experience eye-opening as she saw those who are marginalised in society and most in need, and how they relied on the service. Stephanie also set up a Jewish collection in response to enquiries about specific authors, subject areas and publications. It was great to hear that this collection is still there.

Stephanie’s career has also involved work in other sectors. While raising her family she worked at a school and then as a Learning Resource Assistant at Bury College. She credits this post with teaching her skills such as managing periodicals and conducting inductions. She also found she really enjoyed working with teenagers! She went on to work as Senior Assistant Librarian at Manchester Met University, providing continuity of service at weekends as well as having managerial responsibility. Here she learned about databases, search strategies, accessing journals, and evaluating sources. There were a lot of changes during her time at MMU; multiple sites merged, and the Library saw the introduction of ‘Library Search’, self-service borrowing and an integrated help desk. Stephanie was involved in a project to create a ‘virtual help desk’ providing a central point of contact for users, and improving the service they received. She also worked on training sessions, introducing automatic renewals and abolishing fines, as well as really enjoying work as a Sconul rep.

Stephanie decided to return to public libraries, where the events and community work really appealed to her. Her next position was as Neighbourhood Librarian with Tameside Libraries. She highlighted her involvement in a programme of events for community groups, reading groups, and class visits. She also coordinated two festivals, and a successful virtual children’s book festival in 2021. She was also involved in moving a library to a warm, bright, accessible space which served the needs of the community much better than the old building had.

Stephanie moved on to be the Head of the Library at a college, Holy Cross, in 2022. Although the space was lovely, Stephanie identified ways to make it more welcoming to students. She also improved the stock by carrying out weeding and making new purchases.

In October 2023 Stephanie began her role as Area Manager with Manchester Libraries. She is responsible for the buildings and around 32 staff. The busiest library is Longsight, a joint venue with adult education. A music charity also uses the community rooms to deliver free music lessons to children and Barclays Bank provides services from there after closing their nearby branch.

Longsight Library

The week after our talk, Stephanie was about to take on another new challenge as the Interim Manager at Manchester Central Library, the busiest UK public library with around 1.7 million visitors per year!

It was inspiring to hear about Stephanie’s career progression, and all the skills she has learned along the way. Her passion for helping the community really came across, and it was inspiring to hear about the difference that libraries can make to an area and a community.

Stephanie shared some thoughts on the bigger picture for public libraries. More than a decade ago it looked like budget cuts might spell the end for public libraries. However, public libraries are surviving and they are still absolutely essential. Books are at the heart of the service, but libraries have changed and evolved to incorporate other services and events. Although funding cuts remain a threat, and there will be more hard times for libraries ahead, Stephanie’s closing words were optimistic. As long as they are still serving their communities, she has hope for the future of public libraries.

Coming Soon! Cycling for libraries: a talk by Phil Segall

We're very excited to be joined on 6th May by Phil Segall (@LibraryBod), who will give a talk about the Cycling for libraries project - library unconferences on the move, which visit academic, public and special libraries,  discussing library issues and advocating libraries. 

This year the theme is New Nordic and the tour will go from the fjords of Oslo in Norway, along the west coast of Sweden before arriving in Aarhus, Denmark.  Intrigued? Join us to find out more.  The talk will take place at the  MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, 
15 Chaucer Road - a stone's throw from the Botantic Gardens. Stay tuned for more information!

http://www.cyclingforlibraries.org/

Roots, Branches and Llama Biscuits

I joined the Cambridge Library Group too late for last month’s visit the University Library Maps department tour and then noted, with trepidation, that the first meeting I could attend was the AGM with an accompanying talk on restructuring the Cambridgeshire Libraries and Archives service. Good grief, what had I let myself in for. Thoughts of previous interminable AGMs crossed my mind, but within minutes, and as I settled into a cup of wine and a llama biscuit, I realised this group knows how to do things.

In actuality the AGM was breezy and brief (just how they should be) with lovely refreshments and being new to both Cambridge and libraries it was largely an opportunity for me to chat with some interesting people. Within ten minutes of arriving I had already been signed up to cover the events of the evening for this blog. The AGM completed, we swapped rooms for Sue Williamson’s talk: “Cambridgeshire Libraries, Archives and Information Service 2010-11: an examination of a root and branch library restructure”. Sue is the Libraries Operation Manager for Cambridgeshire and was well placed to guide us through their approach to the very important, sometimes painful, process of dealing with the financial reality that many of us find ourselves in these days.

Photograph by Annie Johnson

  In Austerity Land it is inevitable that to some degree or another cut backs will be asked for, economies will need to be made. Often small trimmings can be made here or there, maybe a few people might retire, perhaps a few posts might not be filled, but when the cut in budget that you are asked to make nears 50% small measures cease to make any sense. It is then that two dreaded terms appear; restructure and streamlining. So often these can lead to loss of services, loss of expertise and a bad deal for the library user.

Sue’s talk covered in fascinating detail the progress that was made in Cambridgeshire in a relatively short span of a year and a half. The changes here show that with proper project management, clear aims and a commitment to two-way communication with users, restructure can actually result in a more joined up service for library users and a more efficient administration behind the scenes. In a telling note at the end of her talk Sue said that at one point there was a very real chance of thirteen of the counties libraries closing, in the end none did. As the title implied, the restructure really did seem to touch every level of staffing, from senior management to one hour a week, small contracts. However, the key seems to have been that they took a phased approach to this and had a rationalised structure to move into. In some areas new frontline permanent posts were actually created by cutting down on temporary contracts.

Services were maintained, but obviously affected by the restructuring, but again it seems that they were able to review and rationalise aspects of the delivery. Using management information and consultations with local communities, the library opening hours were reviewed and a standardised approach was created, enabling libraries to stay open when their users need them. Mobile libraries were cut from 7 to 4, with a reduced frequency of stops, but all the stops were maintained. New approaches to library stock rotation and its distribution amongst Library Access Points were also implemented.

There was more detail in the talk than I could possibly cover in this article. Hopefully some of these examples illustrate the points that Sue was making. Sue ended the talk looking to the future and what was yet to be achieved and this was encouraging in what it revealed about their approach:

“We have provided a base core offer that we can afford… and opportunity for communities to take this and build it with us”. 

Let’s hope that there are better financial times around the corner for libraries and if that is the case then it seems that Cambridgeshire have a rational, stable core around which can be built the services and delivery that users need and want there to be. I look forward to seeing them grow.

By Tom Sykes, Graduate Trainee at the Classics Faculty Library