Library and Information Services Annual Review 2011/12 Introduction Library and Information Services provide the operation, management and development of library and information services throughout the City. The section provides access to high quality resources for reading, learning and writing as well as reliable current information. Services provided promote inclusion and deliver outreach activities to adults, children and families through a network of 14 library buildings across the City plus a mobile library and a housebound delivery service for to individuals who are unable to access static buildings. Throughout 2011/12, libraries have continued to be popular, with 1,398,375 visitors across all locations - an increase of 11,106 on the previous year. According to CIPFA Public Library Statistics 2010 - 11 Dundee Libraries are ranked first out of the 32 Scottish authorities for the figure for 'Visits for Library Purposes per 1000 population' 2010/11. Central Library was the busiest in in 2010/11 and is on track to repeat that achievement with over 800,000 visitors. Library staff have worked hard to provide a range of activities for all ages to promote reading and lifelong learning opportunities, which is demonstrated in the number of outreach activities and events which have been held - 2,830 in 2011/12, an increase of over 600 on the previous year. Emphasis is placed on ensuring that vulnerable members of local communities receive supported access to library services through the provision of targeted resources and flexible sessions on IT, local history and computer use. Through close links with nurseries and schools, libraries ensure that children have the opportunity to experience the benefits to be gained from reading. The use of public access computers which are available in all libraries has continued to be high with over 18,000 pc users in 2011/12, an increase of nearly 1,000 on the previous year. Free internet access is available, with support from library staff ensuring that any individual has the opportunity to create their own email accounts and access online services. This is particularly vital to the digital inclusion agenda as more services migrate to online provision as their primary access. Dundee Library and Information Services will continue to build on existing services to ensure that the needs of our communities are met, recognising the current priorities of improving digital participation and widening access.

Facts and Figures

1,398,375 2011/12 people visited our libraries 1,397,269 2010/11 658,156 2011/12 items were issued 655,485 2010/11 77,156 2011/12 library members 65,954 2010/11 151,514 2011/12 enquiries 171,738 2010/11 668,528 2011/12 virtual visits 271,734 2010/11 Author events Books Author events for adults have been held in Broughty Ferry and Central Libraries, as well as within care homes in the city. Some of these have been supported by Scottish Book Trust's Live Literature scheme but the majority have been through a highly successful working partnership with Waterstones Booksellers. Iain Banks at Central Library

We have held ten events and 521 people have enjoyed listening to authors Chris Brookmyre, Iain Banks, Professor Tom Devine and Quintin Jardine as well as our local writers Mae Stewart and Russel D McLean.

“I loved this book and couldn’t wait to hear “Fun as well as “Wonderful Christopher Brookmyre.” advocacy for enlightening.” the joy of reading.”

“More of the same please.”

Meet the authors Libraries have hosted a range of author visits for children over the year, some made possible by Scottish Book Trust Live Literature funding and others through utilising our links with publishers.

Gerry Dignan at Franzeska Ewart at Broughty Ferry Joan Lennon at Broughty Ferry

In September Philip Sherman of Booster Cushion Theatre entertained Primary 1-2 children in the Steps Theatre to “Little Red Riding Hood & Friends” while Charlie Fletcher celebrated the launch of his latest exciting adventure fantasy novel "Far Rockaway" with almost 200 Morgan Academy pupils.

Ardler Community Library played host to a local teacher, Gerry Dignan, who had self-published his first novel, "Xander's Powerful Growing Pains", and was looking to promote the work to a wider audience.

January saw 2 visits to Broughty Ferry Library from writers shortlisted for Scottish Book Trust Children's Book Awards, Joan Lennon and Franzeska Ewart. They spoke to children from the 3 children's reading groups who got together for the enjoyable early evening events. Keith Charters had the biggest Books audience of them all in 3 sessions in the Steps Theatre in March as part of Dundee the highly successful book gifting programme - almost 500 pupils from Picture Book 9 Primary Schools, representing 21 Award classes! National Young Readers' Where Giants Hide Programme Mij Kelly By the end of June 2012 over 480 Ross Collins pupils in Dundee had received 3 brand new free books to keep. This initiative is funded by the National Literacy Trust, and sponsored by Starbucks and aims to promote a Zebedee’s Zoo Giles Milton love of reading by gifting books to Katharine McEwen children to read for pleasure. 21 classes throughout Dundee were The Loon on the Moon involved this year and the book gifting Chae Strathie Emily Golden sessions took place in libraries across the city.

It was a great success with very positive feedback from the children involved. The Night Iceberg Helen Stephens Katy aged 10...

Bringing children, writing “I loved the fact that and illustration together. books are usually expensive but we got 3 for free. Thank you.” Paige aged 10... Jay aged 9... “You were so kind ”Thank you. I have loved because you let us choose the books I have a book we wanted and been given.” they were FREE!”

Dundee Picture Book Award The Dundee Picture Book Award is an annual competition to promote reading and illustration. The competition, which has been running for 6 years spans an 8 week period at the beginning of the year and involves P6 and P1 pupils from 14 schools across the city. Last year's winner was Bella and Monty: A Hairy Scary Night written and illustrated by Alex T. Smith

Feedback from teachers and pupils is always overwhelmingly positive. Older children love working with picture books and the P1 classes. They gain a tremendous amount from both. Teachers are always surprised at the enthusiasm older children have for the picture books and how responsibly they deal with the younger children. All the schools involved created book displays and reviews which were exhibited in local libraries. Bookbug Books Bookbug is the mascot of the Scottish Book Trust's Early Years Book Gifting Programme and the symbol of the rhyme, song and movement Bookbug Sessions that take place in libraries across Dundee.

The aim of the programme is to foster a love of books and reading and to involve families in sharing this enjoyment together. 228 Bookbug Library Challenge certificates were awarded.

Facts and Figures

In 2011 - 2012 there were over 600 Bookbug sessions. On average each month 740 babies and toddlers enjoy these sessions in the company of 660 adults.

2184 2011/12 Number of under 4s who are library members. 2158 2010/11

1371 2011/12 Baby, Toddler and pre-school packs were 1501 2010/11 distributed to families in addition to the packs already gifted via health visitors and nurseries.

Reading Groups The popularity of coming together to talk about books continues to grow. We now have an adult reading group in every one of our libraries. This year new groups have been formed in Ardler, Douglas, Fintry and Libraries. Central Library hosts two groups and Broughty Ferry Library four. All library based groups are led by a member of library staff and meet approximately once a month to chat about their chosen books. Next year we hope to increase the reading group offer to groups who don't meet in the library.

Book Monsters at Broughty Ferry Children's Reading Groups There are currently 3 reading groups for children with plans to develop more later in the year. "Hubbabubba" has been meeting at the Hub Library and Book Monsters at Broughty Ferry since January 2007. Both groups produce their own newsletters full of book reviews and enjoy following the Scottish Book Trust Children's Awards, voting for their favourite authors. A new group, Book Club, was established in the Children's Centre at Central Library this year and is growing steadily in membership. Summer Reading Challenge Books Tesco Bank Summer Reading Challenge Scotland is run in partnership with The Reading Agency and focuses on reading for pleasure.

Its aim is to prevent the "summer reading dip" and develop a lifelong love of reading for all the family. Children who take part are more enthusiastic about reading and experience a boost to their confidence and self esteem.

Last year over 800 children took part in Dundee libraries in the Circus Stars themed challenge.

Andrew aged 10...

“It was awesome!"

Parent of Emma aged 7...

“Excellent initiative: I have enjoyed spending time choosing books and listening to my daughter read."

“Dundee was one of the locations selected to hold a special extra event called “Juggling Words” which took place in the Marryat Hall on 25th July. It was great fun with author Chae Strathie and circus performers Oli and Gus entertaining a family audience of nearly 200 adults and children of all ages.” aries Universal Class LibrOnline Our Virtual Reference Services have recently been expanded to include "Universal Class" an online learning tool which is free to use through the Library Website. There is a huge range of courses available - from life skills to academic subjects. Online tutors are on hand to mark course work and offer feedback. Universal Class is an ideal way for individuals to learn new skills, increase their confidence and try out courses of study before committing to a formal class. This free service is available 24/7 from the library website and therefore offers a flexible approach to learning which can fit in around work or family commitments.

Our library website remains popular with 636,345 visits last year. The website is the portal to our online reference resources, e-books and library catalogue. Our presence on Twitter and Facebook help us to engage with our customers who are interested in social networking and offer an easy and free way to promote our events and activities.

Digital Inclusion 747 I.T. taster sessions were delivered in libraries by staff and volunteers. 200 people enrolled for the BBC First Click campaign to get more people online.

“Your patient instruction was “Your method of “Thank you very much for greatly appreciated and I all your help and tuition... look forward to putting what teaching makes learning enjoyable” I feel very confident with I've learned into practice!” my laptop now”

Facts and Figures

23,709 2012 online renewals 16,439 2011 3,527 2012 online reservations 2,989 2011 4,947 2012 e-book and e-audio downloads 2,458 2011 636,345 2012 249,848 2011 visits to the library website 18,676 2012 Library PC users 17,954 2011 188,572 2012 Library PC number of log-ins 192,681 2011 Fab Dad Days Dads in Dundee are getting the chance to meet, play, read and sing together with their children as part of a new partnership Outreach project. Leisure and Culture Dundee and the Education Department have started to run regular fun free play sessions. Dads are encouraged to come along to Central Library on a Tuesday to meet other dads, learn new ways to play and spend quality time interacting with their children. The sessions have been featured on Scottish Book Trust's website in their new section celebrating success stories across Scotland - in fact, we were the first story to be shared!

Sean, fulltime dad to 14th month old and 3 year old....

“I enjoy the group as it offers fun activities in a relaxed atmosphere. There is plenty of choice and as the group is small all the children interact well… (it) gives you a chance to talk to and meet other Dads and share ideas. This is good as it gives you a male perspective on childcare rather than a purely female one like the majority of groups.”

Mobile Library and Housebound Service The Housebound Library Service continues to work at capacity delivering books and talking books to infirm readers in their own homes. This personalised service visits just over 300 readers every three weeks and makes more than twenty visits every month to care homes to deliver new collections of books to residents there.

This year some of our housebound readers were involved in the pilot scheme to try out e-book readers, iPods and iPads as an alternative way to receive their library material.

The Mobile Library provides a service across the City serving people who find it difficult to travel to a static library. The service follows a fortnightly timetable incorporating 122 stops across the City operating at full capacity with 14,733 issues in 2011/12.

Mrs Lennie - housebound customer

“I would be hard pressed without this service, having been known to read sauce bottle labels in absence of anything else. But more than just delivering books, your staff take an interest in the individual, getting to know the type of reading material they prefer and attempting to provide it.” Digital Devices Success Last year a new initiative was pioneered by Dundee Library Service, which introduced digital devices, such as iPads, e-Book Outreach Readers, iPods and Mp3 players into the community, for use with individuals, organisations and groups of previously digitally excluded people.

This project offered an alternative way to deliver Library Services and information, to users who had problems accessing mainstream libraries.

Such was the success of this venture, that earlier this year an additional bid for funding was submitted to SLIC (Scottish Libraries and Information Council) to assist with the future development of this scheme. This application was successful, and has now enabled the digital devices programme to be extended and enhanced by offering free internet services in areas, and to individuals, who previously did not have online internet access.

This project will now enable people such as Housebound users or groups in the community who do not have internet access, the opportunity to get online. Elderly residents in care homes, and sheltered housing complexes will now be able to access local reminiscence material online, including the "Live Archive" and "Bygone Dundee" sites on the library web pages. In addition they can now interact by using these devices to add their own stories.

Mr Steel

“Just been on Skype. Spoke to my brother. Great stuff. Thanks to all. Quite emotional.”

Case Study for Outreach

Kirkton Library was a popular destination for pupils from Kingspark School who would come to choose books and chat to staff. Due to the success of these regular visits, teachers approached the library and asked if they would consider taking on pupils for work experience. These young adults aged 17 and 18 required support to prepare them for college and projects in the wider world as they left the sheltered school environment behind. Finding employers willing to help was proving challenging but the library proved ideal as a location for developing their social skills. Pupils helped out in the library each summer term for one morning each week. School Library Service The School Library Service, situated in the Central Library supports schools and teachers by providing a great range of Outreach resources, advice, resource lists, fast access to public library lending and reference resources, browsing facilities and much more.

The resources cover all topics and are selected to suit individual teacher's needs. These can include books, DVDs, maps, charts, artefacts, models, audio, photopacks, puppets, games, jigsaws, CD-ROMs, science kits and packs, story sacks, ideas and support. For Nursery/Infant classes we have a large selection of picture books, including Big Books and puppet packs.

We also aim to provide quality reading material to motivate children to read and learn for pleasure. This service is well used by teachers in Dundee.

Facts and Figures

574 class visits

854 playgroup/nursery visits

448 children's activities

954 group sessions with adults Local & Local and Family History Our Local History Centre has continued to attract a worldwide audience for its enquiry service. In 2011/12, staff answered 22580 Family History enquiries. Family History is continuing to grow as a popular hobby and as well as offering training sessions on the Scotland's People online database, we also took a subscription to Ancestry.com for the first time last year. The service has been a runaway success with 44,000 searches in libraries across Dundee.

The “Live Archive”, a Scottish Government funded reminiscence and oral history project was launched in November 2011 and this work is ongoing. Library staff and volunteers have recorded and filmed older members of the community who would like to share their memories of growing up in Dundee. The Bygone Dundee, Live Archive website is a portal for information about Dundee's past. Collections of old images of Dundee can be found on the “Photopolis” pages on the library website.

The Family History service and local interest collections have recently enjoyed welcome exposure at a national level through the BBC. Ricky Ross presented an hour long programme on BBC Scotland called “Find My Past” which highlighted the family history services available through libraries and archives in the city. The Enquiry and Valentine images of old Dundee were also in filming for “Restoration Homes” which is due to be shown on BBC2 in July. What’s What Next? We have a number of exciting projects coming up in the near future. As part of the Capital Projects programme, a community Happening Next facility is to be developed on the upper floor of Blackness Library and investigations into the creation of community facilities at Arthurstone Library are underway. Broughty Ferry Library users are to be invited to form a Friends of Broughty Ferry Library Group, to support library events and activities.

Throughout September 2012, a library festival will promote all our services and include a fines amnesty to encourage the return of overdue books. Customers will be able to take part in competitions and attend events across the City, including creative writing workshops and local history sessions. Renowned author Martina Cole will be giving a talk in Central Library on 20th September.

We will take the opportunity to obtain feedback on all our services with a major survey, helping us to shape future provision and find out how people feel about what we provide. Your Library

Dundee Festival of Libraries 2012

In November, we will be taking part in the very first Book Week Scotland. This nationwide festival of Scottish Books and Reading will take place in libraries all over Scotland. Our libraries will host author events for adults and children.

We are looking forward to the launch of “Discoverin' Bairns” which is a partnership project to create a drop in hub in Central Library delivering a combination of community and agency led activities, accessible to parents and families across the city to support childcare issues.

As part of a refreshment programme, the public access pcs in libraries across the City will be upgraded, which will be welcomed by our 18,676 pc users.