When summer smiled on sweet Bowhill,
And July’s eve, with balmy breath,
Waved the blue-bells on Newark heath;
When throstles sung in Harehead-shaw,
And grain waved green on Carterhaugh,
And flourished, broad, Blackandro’s oak,
The aged Harper’s soul awoke!
Then would he sing achievements high
And circumstance of Chivalry,
Till the rapt traveller would stay,
Forgetful of the closing day;
And noble youths, the strain to hear,
Forsook the hunting of the deer;
I did, dear readers, warn you that I would lapse into the world of Sir Walter Scott and those are my favourite lines from the output of the great man. Well, I have just had the most splendid time visiting the Scottish Borders Library Service. This was part of the country I really wanted to come to visit during my year as president. I spent many happy childhood holidays in Kelso and know this part of the country very well indeed and, rather like Orkney, is a part of the country I'd quite like to live in.
I am eternally grateful to Margaret Menzies and all her team for organising the visit and for the amount of time they gave up. I am always very aware of this when I make any of presidential progresses around the country. It is always lovely to be made to feel so welcome wherever I have visited.
After meeting some of the team at Library Headquarters in Selkirk, Margaret and I went to the Heritage Hub in Hawick. This is part of the Heart of Hawick Project which has seen the regeneration of this part of the town. The Heritage Hub is the home to Borders Archives, next door is the Tower Mill which has been transformed into theatre-cum-cinema with coffee shop, exhibition space, and tourist information and the third part is the Borders Textile Towerhouse. The three buildings are beautiful and the modern additions of glass atria look stunning. At the Archive I was taken on a tour by Ian Brown, Cultural Services Manager for Scottish Borders Council and Julie Baird the Assistant Archivist. I saw the Hawick Missal, a recently discovered piece of thirteenth century monastic chant which had incidentally been performed the night before. The Heritage Hub is wonderful and must surely be the envy of many of other towns and authorities. It reflects very well on Scottish Borders Council’s foresight in recognising the value of archives in pulling in heritage tourists. Hawick is very lucky indeed to have three such a wonderful facilities at the end of its main street.
Then it was on to Hawick Public Library where Julia met us and showed us round. This is a Carnegie library but has remarkably flexible, open spaces for a building of that vintage. The Bookbug session was just coming to and end as we arrived and a long stream of young mums with babies in prams were leaving the library. How fantastic it was to see so many participating in this. This has been a real success story for Borders Libraries with sessions regularly over-subscribed.
We then called at Selkirk Library which has the distinction of being in the old jail. Surely this must be unique in Scotland. Inevitably, such a building poses challenges for the delivery of a twenty-first century library service in terms of access and layout. Morag, who is currently looking after the library Selkirk, is about to start our Masters course in January.
Then it was back to headquarters for lunch with Ian, Keith, Gill, Norman and Cameron. In the afternoon, we visited the library and Peebles High School. Now this was one place that I had mentioned to Margaret as being somewhere that I particularly wanted to go. My reason for this was straightforward: Ruth Fry, the librarian at Peebles High, is quite simply one of the best ambassadors for our profession; her enthusiasm for the role of the library in the life of the school is infectious and you only have to spend a few minutes in her company to realise how central a part of the learning community the school library is.
I have previously blogged about the role, value and impact of school libraries and the school librarians on students and their attainment but there is something more that is also apparent at Peebles and that is the impact that it has on the lives of those who use them. Ruth was telling me about a student who has Asperger's Syndrome and how she asked him to do a Friday talks in the library about what is like to have the condition. it was hugely successful and it allowed him to explain to others the reality of the condition. That takes bravery but it also takes trust and demonstrates more clearly than any performance indicator the impact that Ruth has on the students in her school. Sean, the student in question, has been asked to do the talk again in other venues. She also told me of someone else, brought to reading because of a trip to the Edinburgh Book Festival she organised and how that student felt his life had been changed because of it. Decision-makers please take note: school libraries are all about young peoples' lives and life chances.
Ruth, thank you for your time this week and please, please, just keep doing what you do and, Peebles High, you have a fabulous school librarian. You said something else that has really stayed with me and that was your comment about your own daily protest against apartheid when you worked in Cape Town: that you dealt with people in the order that they queued and didn’t give preferential treatment to the whites. There is metaphor for our profession there – it is all the little things that we each do in library services that make such a difference to so many people’s lives.
It was then back to see the library in Melrose and it is lovely. It was a former draper’s shop but has been refitted into a really nice space with a great area for children and, as with every other library in the Borders, super art work from the kids themselves. Margaret and I ended the day in with a meal at Marmion's (is commercial advertising permitted on this blog?) which is just round the corner from Melrose Library. This is place I haven't been at for about fifteen years but had very good memories of it and the meal didn't disappoint in any way.
So, what did I see in the Borders? Well, I saw a fantastic library team and I emphasise the word team. There has been a restructuring recently and some significant changes to the delivery of provision including co-location with other Council functions but this team is giving it their all and are demonstrating their commitment to and enthusiasm for library services across the region. The Heritage Hub is a gem; yet another ‘must see’ for our profession. Bookbug is a real winner with the community and it, like the other school and public libraries I visited, are changing lives. Thank you Scottish Borders and keep up the good work.
On Friday I went, under my own steam, to Kelso – a place I know so well – and then went on to Yetholm. That was a wee bit emotional as I’d always been there with my father and, by coincidence, today is the fifteenth anniversary of his death so there was something a bit poignant about that. Afterwards, I went to the new Sir Walter Scott Visitor Centre at Abbotsford which I loved, all glass and wood and not at all incongruous next to the House itself. Finally, I went back to Hawick to have lunch with my good friend James Sugden at Johnston’s new visitor centre, shop and restaurant and very good it was too. So, I returned home a happy president absolutely delighted with my visit and, to paraphrase Sir Walter, pleased to sing of achievements high in Borders libraries.
* A well-known Hawick proverb
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