BDS: Data and innovation opening new possibilites

Libraries on the Edge of the World

The Shetland Isles may seem remote to anyone south of John o’ Groats - the Romans called the group of 100 islands Ultima Thule, the land beyond the boundaries of the known world - but twenty two thousand people inhabit an archipelago famed for its awe-inspiring coastal scenery, its magical light and its rich cultural life. At the heart of that cultural life is Shetland Library.

“We have a strong literary tradition in Shetland, much of it allied to music and story-telling,” says Silvija Crook, Library & Information Manager in Shetland. “Our collection reflects this, as well as our website. However, we also carry mainstream material, a significant foreign language collection, and take part in national initiatives such as BookStart, and originate many of our own initiatives such as our Bards in the Bog project.”

Shetland Library’s headquarters is in Lerwick, the capital town, home to some six thousand of the islands’ inhabitants. A conversion of the former St Ringan’s church into the new library brought in state of the art technology and built a mezzanine floor. Rolling shelving means the space can be easily converted for events, such as readings and book launches which are frequent.

There are also two mobile libraries, six community libraries and a virtual library on the Web. The eight school libraries on the islands also come under the auspices of Shetland Library and are used by members of the public as well as students. The two mobile vans, known as Elizabeth’s library and Annettes’s library, travel the mainland and the islands of Yell, Unst, Fetlar, Whalsay and Skerries. The schedules are announced daily on BBC Radio Shetland between 5.30 pm and 6 pm or can be found on the library’s website.

Baltasound Community Library, on the isle of Unst, the third largest of the Shetland group, is virtually as far north as you can travel and remain in Britain. It is also the most northerly part of Europe where English in its Shetlandic variation - enriched by the Scots language and by its Norse heritage - is spoken. Meanwhile on Papa Stour, an island off the west coast of the mainland and with a population of barely twenty people, the library is the ferry waiting room. The books are left there by the library service. I asked Silvija Crook how they keep track of such remote and openly accessed stock.

“We don’t. In fact the stock on Papa Stour has grown rather than declined. Locals and visitors add new stock and take and return books when they want. We describe the stock as being free of tracking. Of course the library service has a catalogue – a very good one that ultimately derives from BDS - but island life demands varying solutions.”

Quaint as that story may seem, it is indicative of the belief and enthusiasm that both the Shetlanders and their library service display. Shetland Library has never been out of the top three in Scotland’s table of visits per capita of population and all services are free and there are no fines.

“We believe in being engaged with our customers. We are high profile and enjoy being media-savvy,” comments Silvija. “We actively go out to events and promote library services and are always on the lookout for new ways of bringing the library to the people.”

The “Housebound” and “Talking Newspaper” services are examples of this engagement. If you can’t get to a library then Shetland Library will deliver books to customers’ doors. For those with visual problems, , local newspapers are recorded onto tapes and these can also be delivered to homes across the islands. To encourage learning and community initiatives, teachers or leaders of bodies such as readers’ groups, can borrow up to one hundred items at a time.

“We see it as our job to enable our culture to flourish. We run a Young Writers’ Competition, organise evening and lunchtime readers’ groups, arrange author visits, run open mike events and publish material, often in close association with established writers from the islands. Recently, for Black History Month, we invited Senegalese performer Seckou Keita who was a sensation and this also gave us the opportunity to develop an extensive black history book list which people can download from our website.”

Despite its remoteness, Shetland has always seen immigration – it even predates the Vikings – and today is no exception. The oil industry attracted many people, which lead to a significant rise in English residents in the last quarter of last century. Eastern Europeans, notably Hungarians and Poles, have more recently come to work on the islands.

“We have a large foreign language collection,” says Silvija, “and we are regularly adding to it. This, combined with our Learning Centre, which provides internet access across sixteen computers and other IT equipment, are essential for social inclusion.”

A recent visit from Scotland’s First Minister, Alex Salmond, heard him sing the praises of such vision. In a speech delivered during his tour he said, “I am glad to see projects offering library support to groups such as young people and migrant workers – this is where great results will be achieved.”

Shetland Library works in close association with other bodies such as NHS Shetland. “Help Yourself to Health: Books to help you get well and stay well,” is a Shetland-based initiative to raise awareness of health issues within the community. Experts within NHS Shetland provide the Library Service with titles and websites which are then featured in the library, on its website and in the community libraries.

So what of the future? Silvija Crook is not short of ideas.

“There’s plenty to do. We are about to begin a focus on recycling. After all, library stock is the prime example of a resource that is recycled hundreds of times, so we see the library as a model for many other forms of sharing and being eco-friendly. From a technical point of view we are about to upgrade our online catalogue to include images. Of course, the e-book is an arrival set to change the book world and we are determined to address this head-on and embrace such technology. We are even planning yet another expansion of our main library premises!”

Shetland may be remote but talking to Silvija these islands feel not far off from the centre of the world!