Members' Day 2025

We gathered this year on 25 June at Exeter Community Centre, and it was wonderful to welcome members from across the region spanning Wiltshire to Cornwall and more… After last year’s event at Plymouth when most of us were either late or absent due to mass train cancellations, it was a delight to find so many people arrived early this year so there was plenty of time for tea/coffee and chat.

Donna Gundry as SWRLS Chair then opened the day with a welcome and update on SWRLS activities, with Nell O’Hora updating us also on ACE opportunities – slides can be accessed here..

We then had a panel discussion on library advocacy, with guest speakers Luke Burton (Director of Libraries at Arts Council England), Rebecca Bolton (Head of Libraries, Wiltshire Council, and Regional Chair of Libraries Connected SW), and Tabitha Witherick (CEO of ASCEL), chaired by Donna Gundry (Head of Library Services at Arts University Plymouth).

Some key takeaways:

• Positive messages can radiate from one to many: Just one well-supported student or member of the public can become a library advocate, passing on their positive library experiences – or ‘singing the praises’ of libraries – to friends and colleagues…

• Importance of focused messages: libraries do many important things and it’s often best to focus on one at a time. Currently an area to focus on is making a case for the role of libraries with new and emerging technologies.

• Also continuity in the value of libraries in this 175th year since the UK’s public library act, in their mission to provide equity of access to knowledge and information and to reading for pleasure. Despite changes from gramophone records and periodicals to CD-ROMs, generative AI and VR content, this mission remains the same.

• Consider the audience, and target strong consistent messages considering what they need and how you can provide that, with data and images, making the value of libraries clear, e.g. through local relationships with MPs and councilors.

• Advocacy as a team sport, from data and case study gatherers to partners and different voices, telling positive stories that lift the great work being done (an ASCEL example here). Think carefully how to collect and use these regionally and nationally, to gain an armoury of tools.

• For young people especially, think further ahead beyond the struggles of today, and involve them in advocacy.

• Be careful not to assume knowledge: many people still don’t realise how brilliant libraries are, e.g. that you can borrow and order books and magazines and things all for free!

• Cross-sector collaboration can create opportunities, for example drawing on expertise in HE & FE libraries in misinformation for public libraries, helping to equip frontline staff in supporting the public in information literacy, thereby demonstrating ongoing relevance of libraries in our times (SWRLS training is currently under development in this area).

  

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Following lunch from Mulberry Tree Cafe, we then had Anna Orchard and her team to talk about their bibliotherapy skills course at Exeter College (slides here), and two sets of mini-bibliotherapy sessions followed by Q&A. This gave us much to reflect on around the benefits of reading for wellbeing, with necessary caution regarding its therapeutic limits. While the course is not enough in itself to qualify anyone as a therapist, we are exploring the potential for library staff training to further guide purposeful relationships with books.

Thank you to everyone who came and contributed to the lively and generous atmosphere. Please feel free to email Shelley at coordinator1@swrls.org.uk with any feedback on the day and thoughts on how you’d like future SWRLS events to be.

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