Members’ Day 2026

It was a pleasure to welcome SWRLS members along to this year’s Members’ Day in the Glass Box at Taunton Library on Tuesday 16^th June.

The day’s slides are available, including:

• SWRLS highlights, e.g. training

• Panel speaker talks:

  • Wellbeing collections at Penryn & Falmouth University Libraries

  • Leisure & wellbeing collections at University of Exeter Library

  • Bristol Libraries health & wellbeing activities & partners

  • Somerset Libraries health & wellbeing offer

• Somerset NHS Foundation Trust Knowledge & Library Services

Members Day 2026 slides .pptx

Download PPTX • 32.46MB

panelists from left to right: John Carter, Alex Cunningham-Scott, Roxanne Lewis, Rebecca Williams, Aster Weyer-Brown, and Donna Gundry

It is impossible to do justice to such a rich day of talks, conversations, and visits, but here’s an attempt to summarise:

• Rebecca Williams talked us through the project in Falmouth to transform the under-used bibliotherapy collection into a wellbeing collection. In collaboration with the university’s wellbeing team, approaches were aligned to ensure its appeal to students as a holistic collection that also promotes reading beyond studies. Surveys helped to show what their (mainly art) students want, leading to a focus on areas such as art therapy and nature. The collection’s circulation data has seen a huge increase, while it’s also a great opportunity to signpost students to wellbeing teams, and vice versa.

• Aster Weyer-Brown talked about the wellbeing and leisure resources at the University of Exeter and how they’re made accessible in a variety of ways, such as through QR codes via social media as well as physical displays. They've also surveyed students, and met in focus groups, challenging preconceptions and resulting in a shift in priority towards leisure. This engagement with users has enabled an expansion of collections in genres such as romance and crime, to promote reading for leisure and wellbeing beyond studies. Differences from Falmouth show the importance of surveying your own users.

• Roxanne Lewis introduced us to health and wellbeing resources and activities in Bristol’s public libraries. In addition to managing and promoting the collections for Bristol’s diverse communities, Roxanne oversees a creative and social activity programme. An example of the many highlights is the Fun Palaces, for which a partnership with AGE UK worked well to create tea and tai-chi events. Another highlight is the Long Covid Roadshow across multiple libraries (commissioned by the NHS). New library members are gained at these various events, and QR codes also help users to engage with wellbeing collections.

• Alex Cunningham-Scott and John Carter talked about the health and wellbeing

  offer at Somerset Libraries, including crucial partnership work with and funding from the Public Health team due to recognition of the mutual benefits that libraries can bring, for example in the promotion of national health campaigns. It was amazing to be in the same room where health activities happen, such as those run by Musgrove Park Hospital as initiated through SWRLS funding for the HEAL project in 2024. Some of the profound benefits of this partnership work are illustrated with this short film.

The Q&A discussion covered various topics, including the value of partnerships and how to initiate and develop them. Tips included going to in-person events, as even if there is no obvious direct benefit it can be just one or two conversations that have the potential to grow into a collaboration. Another tip is the value of promoting the value of libraries not just externally but within our own councils to further awareness and possibilities for further collaboration.

The conversations were so rich and inspiring, and SWRLS would like to thank both the speakers and everyone who engaged in this panel conversation.

Lunch was followed first by a visit to the Independent Living Centre, also situated in the library, again demonstrating the partnership between libraries and public health. Another excellent talk here from our guide helped to further illuminate the benefits that the shared location brings to users.

We then had a virtual tour of Musgrove Park Hospital library with Knowledge & Library Service Manager, Cate Newell, who also talked about partnership working.

Next we took a look around Taunton Library, especially at the health and wellbeing area which as well as being a welcoming space has various resources such as loanable blood pressure monitors along with health checks, audio books and much more. A few of us also took a quick walk over to the spacious and lovely children’s area with its book tree.

Finally we paid a visit to the magnificent Museum of Somerset!

A quick final note, as this was my last event with SWRLS, to acknowledge what a privilege it's been to take on the role of Coordinator since March 2024. I've loved this opportunity also to work across the sectors of public libraries, health & other specialist libraries, and FE & HE libraries, and to work with such a brilliant group of Trustees, who take time from their busy roles to bring their expertise and energies to this unique organisation, and with so many SWRLS members, too - it's wonderful to know that our libraries are in such good hands!

(Shelley Trower)