This page looks at solutions for users with MOBILITY problems, Library DESIGN & BUILDINGS, and MOBILE Services for the housebound

Main Related Pages on this Wiki:

• IT Access
• SINTO Visits Library & Learning Centre Buildings

NB To see the guide to the abbreviations used to indicate original sources see the Social Inclusion Information main page

New Stuff

Mobility

• Disability Awareness Training for Libraries The Open Rose Group comprises Library staff involved in supporting users with disabilities at eight Yorkshire universities. The participating institutions are: Bradford, Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds, Leeds Metropolitan, Sheffield, Sheffield Hallam and York. The group won the SCONUL Award for Staff Development in 2003 and has produced a film plus supporting materials for use in Libraries to assist staff training on disability issues.This film is arranged into four main sections, each dedicated to a specific disability and focussing on a particular theme. The contents are as follows:
  • Introduction by Patrick Stewart
  • Dyslexia - using the Library
  • Hearing - communication
  • Mobility - access
  • Vision - assistive technology
  See: http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk:8082/lco/php/support.php/
  disabled/awareness_training (This link appears to be working again, but if you can't open it either Email Gilly, and I'll send you an order form or Email the Open Rose Group.)
• Library Design & Buildings (including signage)

• Gallery of accessibility features in library buildings: www.designinglibraries.org.uk/search/ or www.designinglibraries.org.uk/gallery/
• Designing Libraries website has a new gallery showing solutions to accessibility issues: www.designinglibraries.org.uk/news/librarianschoicejan06.php (UM March)
• Derbyshire's Long Eaton Library (Grade II listed building), won the award for Best Access/ Disability Innovation in the Local Authority Building Control's National Built-in Quality Awards (p8 UM Jan-Feb 07)
• Big Lottery Fund has an £80 million Community Libraries programme to provide capital funding to improve library buildings so that they can offer a broader range of activities to their visitors. To find out more visit: www.biglotteryfund.org.uk (MLAY 24th Nov 2006)
Recognition Express are an RNIB approved supplier of signage, and have produced a joint publication with them entitled 'Signage: an inclusive approach' See http://www.recognition-express.com/home/
• Article about the access difficulties faced by people with a disability: It's only at the Bodleian that I am a cripple in Times HE Supplement 15 December 2006 p14

Library Design & Buildings

• Read about Ealing Libraries work on rebuilding and rebranding their library service in Sarah Godowski's article in Update Magazine 'Ealing reinvents itself... from passive to active'. The word 'Dynamic' was chosen as the key characteristic of the rebranding, although 'inclusive and community-based' characteristics were highlighted by the team as important during the process of finally selecting the key characteristic. (UM 7 (1-2) Jan/Feb 2008 pp48-49)
• Tate Modern's 'Global Cities' exhibition (June - Aug 2007) had a strand on 'Diversity': http://www.tate.org.uk/modern/exhibitions/globalcities/diversity.shtm (from a posting on Cornell University's digital image site on 25/01/08: http://imageinstruct.library.cornell.edu/?p=239 )
• Anyone charged with decorating a children's library might want to note that a Sheffield University study cites that children find clowns 'scary', 'frightening and unknowable'. (BBC News 24 15/01/08 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7189401.stm )
• A NEW year programme for the KIC Start - Kids Inclusive Cinema - begins in Sheffield on 12/01/08 with a screening of Finding Nemo. The films are played in a low sensory environment, with no subtitles, the volume reduced and the lights low - in order that they are suitable for children with autism and other disabilities along with their families. They are part of the 'Showroom Saturdays' programme, when old films are revisited on Saturdays at the Paternoster Row cinema. Screenings begin at 11am and booking is recommended. Contact on 0114 276 3534: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/Film-shows-for-kids.3661143.jp (The Star Online 11th January 2008)
• There is an article 'Winning the lottery: the successful Community Libraries' by James Nichol and Sarah Wilkie in Update Magazine, looking at the successful bidders' ideas 'to increase and enhance spaces for a broader range of activities agreed with more input from communities'. (UM Dec 2007 Vol 6 (12) pp34-37)
• Six Yorkshire libraries are set for a large-scale modernising make-over, financed by grants totalling over £8 million from the Big Lottery Fund's Community Libraries programme. Bradford, Rotherham, North Yorkshire, Sheffield, Calderdale and Leeds are to be given grants so they can offer a broader range of activities to their communities. The Community Libraries programme is an essential part of our work on sustainable communities and local government improvement agendas, and we will be supporting these successful services to deliver and publicise their projects - watch out for further updates. (MLAY 22/11/07)
• Libraries at the heart of learning in communities across England are set for a multi-million modernising makeover funded with £80 million by the Big Lottery Fund. Some 58 library authorities are being given grants of between £250,000 and £2 million each from BIG’s Community Libraries funding to renovate, extend or build new libraries so that they can offer a broader range of activities to their communities. Building on the strong community link that libraries already have, the £80 million investment from BIG will help attract groups and individuals who may not have utilised their libraries. See: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_301007_eng_cl_modernising
  _makeover?regioncode=-uk for more information. A full list of the 58 library projects to receive funding can be found at: http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/pr_301007_eng_libraries_awards (WTYL 30/10/07)

Mobile Services & Housebound Users

• Halton mobile libraries' membership was up 155% last year, and issues up by 45%. Increased publicity and new stops at nurseries, sheltered housing, outside schools at closing time, and in Parks on Saturdays have all been popular. (UM 7 [7-8] July/ August 2008 p16)
• Warwickshire mobile library service has begun a new collaboration with the British Museum's Portable Antiquities Scheme ( http://www.finds.org.uk/ and http://www.pastexplorers.org.uk/ [kids' version]) using a Finds Liaison Officer to talk about artefacts and local arachaeology during the mobile service rounds. (UM 6 (10) Oct 2007 pg 11)
• Housebound Services are mentioned twice in the June Update magazine: Merton Council's comprehensive survey of its Home Visits Library Service reported 'phenomenal satisfaction' from users (pg 15); Sue Cornish of Kensington & Chelsea reported on the London Housebound Services Group (now under CILIP) at the Umbrella conference at the end of June (pg 16) [no contact details given in either case). (UM 6 & [6] June2007)