The Way Forward
Being relevant
Bath & North East Somerset Library + Information Service
will provide something for everyone. There will still be plenty of
books and magazines, but customers will also find computers and
other specialist IT facilities to help them gain quick and easy
access to information, knowledge and services.
Libraries will be home to a range of learning opportunities –
enhancing life skills across all age groups. They will be a spur to
creativity, and a vital way into the riches of Bath & North
East Somerset’s cultural scene. This ‘mix’ of traditional and
non-traditional services is designed to make modern libraries truly
responsive to the needs of all customers – and to stimulate the
imagination in unimagined ways.
- fiction & non-fiction books for all ages & abilities in
a variety of formats e.g. large print or spoken word
- videos, DVDs, music CDs & CD-ROMS
- interlibrary loan service through Foursite consortium
- directories, access to the web & ICT facility – including
remote access to pay-as-you-go streamed collection sites e.g.
classical.com
- customer access ‘one stop shops’, call centres & iPlus
Points for Council and community information
- newspapers & magazines
- life long learning, online learning & basic skills
courses
- early years development - bookstart
- after school & holiday clubs with arts & educational
activities for children & young people
- outreach arts, cultural, heritage & literature projects for
a range of ages & abilities local studies & historic
collections
- exhibition services
- personal study space & comfortable reading or listening
areas
- refreshments & public conveniences
- home or local delivery options
We will use online services to improve efficiency and currently
have a cataloguer working on our local studies collections, thanks
to a successful Heritage Lottery bid.
A schedule for refurbishment of library premises is being drawn
up with the aim of improving standards in line with the 21st
century retail environment. Each local library will, over the next
year, be developing individual community plans in response to
identified needs that can be serviced.
Working with the new Local Plan for Bath & North East
Somerset, the Library + Information Service will aim to address the
imbalance of service provision. Areas particularly identified are
Peasedown St John, Chew Valley and Bath City.
We will work with any relevant regeneration schemes to further
the aim to improve access to information & life long
learning.
...improving traditional library services alongside
investment in ICT computer based learning facilities.
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