May 01 2007
No limits
I was driving to work this morning enjoying the view from Whitekirk across Binning Woods to the Lammermuirs and musing about yesterday’s 4ureaders local editorial group meeting. Our group has an abundance of ideas for content for the site and BIll Plain at Knox Academy has a student editorial group which contributes regularly. There is a mix of staff from both the public library service and school libraries and we share the work amongst the group, with Bill as the keystone. He attends the national editorial group meetings and co-ordinates our ideas and contributions. It came as a surprise to realise that not all other authorities work in this way but that sometimes one person has to collect ideas from a group of staff and try to do all the work on his/her own. This collaborative approach is typical of our Library Service. As a result our students and staff now have access to a whole range of resources, in print and electronic/digital format, over and above those held in our individual schools. Our students gradually learn to appreciate that all of the libraries in East Lothian are linked and that they can borrow items from and return them to any library. We can also teach them how to search large databases of information effectively, simply by showing them how to use the online catalogue to check their borrowing record and reserve books. This is always a popular part of my course introducing the library to first year students. The catalogue is sometimes known as Elvis. Have a look and see why.
