In June, Lisa and I went to the Pride event at George Eliot Hospital to promote the Knowledge and Library Service.
The foyer was a wealth of rainbows, with stands from Wellbeing, Unison, and Unite (amongst others). In comparison I think our stall (pictured) was almost monochrome! While other stands had freebies of badges, coffee mugs, and flags, we had sweets – although it was so hot that the chocolates were melting – bookmarks, and origami stars to give out.
Our stand was full of information about how to join the library, what we can do to help, how to find books and online resources. We also promoted the KnowledgeShare current awareness alerting service.
We had the latest resource newsletters on display for #SayMyName, #Pride, as well as a special edition of the #Menopause newsletter with useful links for LGBT+ colleagues and allies.
We took along some books, both clinical and non clinical, as we’ve come across people who didn’t realise the library existed, or that we had Wellbeing resources and fiction areas. In fact we had so much stuff that we ended up using two tables!
Possibly because it was such a hot day, or because the hospital was extremely busy, it was quite a quiet day. We managed to attend the LGBT+ talks going on in Raveloe Conference room, which were very interesting and gave me some ideas for books to add to the library stock. We heard colleagues within the healthcare community talk about their experiences as members of the LGBT+ community, which made me realise that you need to be an ally rather than just calling yourself one.
The people who stopped at our stall for a chat (or a sweet!) varied in their knowledge of our services – some used the clinical librarian service regularly, others didn’t know the range of resources we offered. We sent several people away with a more in depth knowledge of how KnowledgeShare could help with their assignments as well as their career.
We’re looking forward to next year’s rainbow coloured event!
