A recent building change and increased workload hasn’t daunted the staff at Grafton library in Clarence Valley Council – the team has gone from strength to strength.
Situated on the banks of the Clarence River, the New South Wales council is a regional centre, with a proud history supporting libraries.
Clarence Valley Councillor Margaret McKenna has nominated the team at the council’s largest library, Grafton, as ‘High Achievers’ for their work transitioning to a new location.
Head librarian at Grafton, Katrina Shillam, said the Council recognises the importance of its library service.
“It has a long history and was an early adopter of the Library Act and one of the first public libraries in NSW. We are now part of the Clarence Regional Library service and the biggest library in our group of eight.”
About two years ago the team relocated and the transition has been testing, but rewarding, said Ms Shillam.
“It has been an enormous change for us! We have moved from the corner of a council building built in the 1970s to a purpose built library with some of the latest technology.
“Although we loved the old timber shelves, the old building was cramped and dull. The light and airy feel of the new library makes it a pleasure to work in. We can now see outside, from the workroom and from the library itself.
“This has probably been the biggest factor for us in coping with the challenges of a new building and new technology – it really is delightful to be here.”
As well as adjusting to a new building, the team has had to adopt a much higher workload, but has handled it well.
“We have had an enormous increase in our workload, our training needs and our popularity as a destination for our population,” said Ms Shillam.
“We feel good about being here and that carries across into our customer service delivery, and in our ability to manage the increased workloads.
“Knowing that increased use would occur, the building was designed to maximize technology use to enable us to cope with increased demands, it assists us to respond to changing needs.
“Borrowers are able to issue items to themselves, we have improved stock control mechanisms, and we can be more responsive to our borrowers.”
The building transition was made easier by early input from staff and the community.
“Staff were involved in the process to design and build a new library from the very beginning. The architects held sessions with us to capture valued design elements and incorporate workflows.
“We also held a cultural day event when we asked the community to imagine their perfect library – this led to some amazing suggestions including castles and trampolines!
“We followed this up with community consultations and a survey to try and ensure that we were incorporating the needs of our population into a modern library facility.”
The strength of the team is clearly demonstrated in the high usage of the library, said Ms Shillam.
“Our visitations have been enormous for a town the size of Grafton. From an average of 350 people a day in the old library building, these rose to the dizzying heights of 1500 and 800 a day [at the time of opening the new building] to around 600 a day two years after opening. “The library is a very dynamic, busy place for all the community to participate in.”
A future goal for the Clarence Valley library team includes bolstering the mobile service.
“We were successful in gaining a State Library of NSW grant to fund a redesign of our Mobile Library service so that will be one focus over the next financial year.
“Our Friends of the Grafton Library group is also looking to launch in August and we are keen to support their endeavours.”
A key tyystrength of the library team is the knowledge that the community always come first: “We try to be very community focused and respond to the needs voiced by our population through formal surveys, suggestions
and discussions.”
