Last week (27th October – 2nd November) was Green Libraries Week. This is a time when libraries – public, health, and academic – focus on how they can be more sustainable, and how they can support green initiatives happening in their local area
At SWFT we decided that this would be a great time for us to join forces with the Sustainability Team, and the Improvement Team. Each of the Teams had a stand in the corridor by the League of Friends Bookshop, so that we could promote not only what SWFT was doing at present, but also our plans for the future.
For our stall, the Education Centre Library team had been busy collecting vegetable and flower seeds, as well as doing a spot of upcycling (making bookmarks from damaged books). As usual, we had lots of information – from QR codes showing how to join the library and borrow print/ebooks, to accessing OpenAthens for online journals and articles, to using KnowledgeShare – our current awareness alerting service. We even had a QR code so people could see which books had made it on to our Environment and Sustainability Reading list.
In addition to this, we had details about building a bat box, creating seed bombs for a wildflower meadow in your garden, making a bee hotel, and constructing your own bird feeder.
While it wasn’t the busiest event we’d held – probably due to the new entrance (and food outlets!) having diverted our usual footfall, we did have people stopping to chat and find out more about us. Some took seeds for their gardens (and some for their grandchildren), others didn’t have gardens but took a bookmark or two, or looked at the books we had on display such as How Bad Are Bananas, There is No Planet B, and Not the End of the World.
We also chatted to people who didn’t realise there was a staff library, and others who were surprised that the library wasn’t just for clinical staff or for the medical students. While we are here for them, we are also here for every member of staff, and our facilities, including Wellbeing resources, Leisure Collection, and Wellbeing area are available 24/7.
Look out for us later in the month, when we hope to be nearer the new main entrance, promoting our Knowvember event! Don’t know what Knowvember is about? Come along and find out!