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authority of examples of successful community engagement. The congratulatory mood was highlighted by the fact that three of the authorities had recently been successful in gaining lottery money for library projects.
Helen Danks (Walsall), Karon Reynolds (Wolverhampton) and Sandra Francis (Dudley) with their Mystery Shopper Awards
Paddy Quick Community Services Manager Wolverhampton Libraries
Singularly Personal: Janet Brisland although in the past I had always had a complete mental blockage when it came to history, I thrived there, developing knowledge and confidence and a peculiar passion for indexing the Hereford Times! I represented Hereford & Worcester on the West Midlands Branch of the Association of Assistant Librarians (now the Career Development Group) as I began my more ‘formal’ path of professional development.
I can’t quite believe that I’ve been working in Libraries for 24 years – in many ways I feel like a new graduate, still learning and developing. I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing many different library environments during that time and now feel that I have at last found my true ‘home’ in Centre for the Child. I am one of these people who always wanted to be a librarian from when I was in High School. I had an inspirational school librarian who encouraged and supported me and, as soon as I had the opportunity, I became a ‘voluntary’ Saturday Assistant in Mansfield Library in Nottinghamshire. This led to a proper Saturday job and work on the ‘supply pool’ during university holidays whilst I studied at Loughborough College and University until 1984.
We moved to Birmingham in 1989 and I had my first taste of academic librarianship as an Assistant Librarian in the Poly Library where I first encountered CD ROMs and ‘online searching’ – technology which bowled me over as it was still so new and ground breaking! However, having moved from the all-inclusive, wide-ranging public library service to a service focussing on a defined group of customers, I also realised that this wasn’t for me! Spotting an opportunity to return to Hereford & Worcester, I applied for the position of Librarian in a ‘dual-use library’ in Frankley, on the Worcestershire/Birmingham border.
I really struggled to get that elusive first professional post, attending interview after interview, so I know how frustrating it can be for colleagues new to our profession. Because I was willing to work anywhere to secure a position, I was finally lucky enough to be employed by Hereford & Worcester Library Service as an Assistant Librarian covering a maternity leave in Stourporton-Severn. I moved on from Stourport to Hereford Schools Library Service for a short placement and finally succeeded into my first permanent post as Assistant Librarian in the Reference & Local Studies Department in the main library in Hereford. It was fascinating work and,
I always look back at the 12 years I was at Frankley as the time I fully embraced community librarianship. Working in a library which served the local community and a high school population enabled the team to develop services in new and exciting ways, which included the joint publication of a young writers magazine and raising funding, programming and delivering an annual community arts week. So much of the library’s success at Frankley was, and continues to be, through effective partnership working, where a number of council services are located together under one roof. My professional development continued as I joined the committee of the very newly formed Hereford & Worcester Sub-branch of the Library Continued on page 5
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