Day 10: West Library - A meeting place for everybody #30days30libraries

My last part of the triangle of the Islington libraries before we cast off our ropes and point our boat in the direction of East London.I confess to spending most of my time in the West Library in their lobby. It's an airy space that acts as a large foyer in between the adult and children's library rooms.I needed to charge my laptop and a helpful librarian pointed me towards the plug sockets and comfortable chairs in the lobby.Whilst I sat there, a woman and two men sat on the chairs on the opposite side of the foyer and though they talked in low voices, I could not help but overhear some of their conversation.The men were clearly part of some organisation that the woman was supporting. They showed her a couple of videos where I overheard them saying that the man speaking on the video had seen his mother killed. They talked of ISIS. Later I discovered that they were part of the Association of Woman and Youth Against Fundamentalism and were working to help women and young people in Camp Liberty escape to Albania.When they had left, their seats became occupied by two police officers.I asked them what brought them to the library that day, if they were perhaps coming here to take a break."People always think that but we are here to run a surgery, we're here regularly, to talk to anyone who would like to talk to us. It's all about community engagement," one of them told me.The other explained, "Sometimes people find it easier to approach us in here rather than on the street or in the station.It's a quiet, warm, light space.A meeting place for everybody."

Day 4: South Library - We have a lot of fun #30days30libraries

There was a queue for the photocopier at South Library today.One man told me that he only came to this library to use the photocopier or the computers.However, for Sam, it was all about the books. It was his first visit to the South Library today. He was local to the area but had never been here before. He was weighing up whether or not to borrow 'Slaughterhouse Five' when I spoke to him.A woman scrutinised a book with a large magnifying class, sitting in a corner, for a good ten minutes before deciding to take it.Due to the way the South Library is designed with very separate rooms for books, computers and children's books, it has a very different feel to other libraries that I have so far visited.The book room only contains bookshelves and a few seats ...... and the computer room, only tables and computers."It's quiet today," one of librarians told me. "I do think it has got quieter here in the last few years." Admittedly the book room was almost empty when I first arrived but in the space of five minutes, I noted there were several people lined up to use the photocopier, someone else enquiring about how to get a library card and a few borrowers returning and taking out items.When I asked him who he thought used the library the most, he told me,"We have a lot of schools here in the week. My colleague who runs the sessions has built up really good relationships with the classes and so the kids often come here after school too.And we run classes for under fives and babies for parents and carers. Wind the bobbin up, those kinds of songs, and a story. They get a prize if they know what a bobbin is."I asked him what he thought people got out of the classes.He invited me to come along to the one they were hosting next week. "Academically, it's good for motor skills, I suppose, and hand to eye coordination.But really, well, we have a lot of fun."