The President's Progress

This has been a busy but incredibly enjoyable and rewarding week for the President. On Tuesday evening, I was down in Bridge of Allan doing a "Meet the President" event with members of Central Branch who have been so wonderful in their themed costumes at Branch and Group Day over recent years. Sheila Miller, the Chair of our CILIPS Council, very kindly took me for a bite to eat first and it was a real pleasure to be in Bridge of Allan as my father lived there in the 1950s and was very active at the golf club so I always have felt a real connection with the town.

The Meet the President was in the newly-refurbished Bridge of Allan library and stunning it looks too with great decor and furnishings, turning the library into light, bright space with huge flexibility. I was delighted to see friends old and new at the event and Yvonne Manning welcomed me on behalf of the branch. It was also really great to be welcomed to Bridge of Allan library by Victoria McAra, one of our super talented former distance learning students. I spoke for a while about what it is like to be a library school academic and how important it is for us in the teaching side of the profession to keep abreast of what's happening and to have really strong links with practitioners. I touched on one aspect that I also mentioned at the Irish conference, namely my profound belief that library schools should play a role right throughout a professional's career, not just at the start of it for a professionally-accredited course. I really believe in the importance of the library schools providing all levels and all types of education, training and continuous professional development from bite-sized chunks of learning through to higher degrees and research activities.

What a fabulous group Central Branch are and it was great to be able to speak to them and then have a really good discussion about some current issues and challenges. Thanks to everyone for making me feel so welcome and congratulations to the brilliant team at Stirling Libraries for making Bridge of Allan library such a lovely and inviting venue.

From Bridge of Allan, I drove on down to Irvine in North Ayrshire. Now, I have to declare an interest here folks. I really love North Ayrshire for many reasons: the coastline, the landscape, the friendliness of the people and also, of course, for Dr Audrey Sutton who is someone I admire (read adore) enormously. I've got strong links with the library service there anyway because I've been known to do local history talks in that neck of the woods and I was really keen to see the full range of things that North Ayrshire Libraries do, so I asked to visit.

On Wednesday, I spent a wonderful day seeing some really fascinating, innovative and pretty inspiring things. I must thank Paul Cowan for having organized such a varied and interesting programme for me. I spent time at Library Headquarters and met the team there and saw planned developments for online provision. Then I went out to Irvine Royal Academy where I met the librarian, the head teacher and some pupils including David and Colt who have been involved in taking pictures of the town to help record local buildings and landmarks. What a great feel the library had and these two lads were so engaging about and engaged with their project. Next it was of to Irvine Public Library which, like Bridge of Allan, is a great physical space and the essence of what a modern library should look like. I always think that if you walk into a library and think it could be in one of the Nordic countries (where they really have got a handle on library design) then it is doing its job and Irvine library is one such building. Here I met Tom, a retired electrician, who has been through a number of the library's computer courses and was in for a chat about iPads. What's all that about lifelong learning? Haven't us librarians been doing that stuff for years? Yes, of course we have, and Tom's a brilliant advert for it.

Then I saw round the Harbour Arts Centre or HAC (of which more later) before Paul took me to lunch in Saltcoats. We then visited Saltcoats Public Library and I had one of the most inspirational meetings I've had in a long time. The library has teamed up with Macmillan and there is a Cancer Information and Support Service facility within the library staffed two days a week by Macmillan volunteers. I met Mary and Helen, both survivors, both lovely, both passionate about their work, both inspiring and both now are fantastic ambassadors for libraries, just like Tom. What a terrific partnership between North Ayrshire Libraries and Macmillan. Then my last stop was the Heritage Centre, a place I know well and it was a great delight to end the tour with Norma Cullen, one of my former students and a good friend. I had a brilliant time there as you might imagine.

Norma was showing me some albums that she had acquired only last week at the auction of the contents of Blair Castle (the Ayrshire one that is). We were flicking through one photograph album of the great and the good in the mid-nineteenth century and a face jumped out at me. It was Elizabeth Duchess of Gordon who built my church up in Fochabers, Gordon Chapel. Elizabeth Gordon is an ever-present part of our life as a much poorer copy of the same photograph hangs in the church. So it was a real thrill to see a much better one and, of course, an incredible coincidence.

In the evening, Audrey and Harry Sutton, Audrey's brother John his partner Mel and Marie from HAC took me for a meal at the Harbour Arts Centre. What a cool venue that is and the current photography exhibitions is well worth seeing. Then, we all went to a performance by Woody Pines, a mix of rural stringband meets blues meets ragtime. Four young American guys who are incredibly talented and very, very good.

So, I had a wonderful time this week meeting friends old and new, visiting wonderful libraries, meeting superb, dedicated, innovative members of staff who are doing all the things we should be doing and so much more besides. The adjectives I could use to describe this week could go on and on and they would contain a lot of words like dynamic, creative, inspiring, fantastic etc etc. But, hey folks, that's what libraries and librarians are. So thank you Stirling Libraries, Central Branch and North Ayrshire. You are all enriching society and proving just how damned good our libraries are.