Exeter Library Redevelopment

Only 2½ weeks to go before Exeter Central Temporary Library closes on 17th April.  Then it is all hands on deck for the big move back to the redeveloped main Exeter Library ready for its opening on 22nd May.  Work is already in progress to ensure all is on track.  The cleaners are in the redeveloped library and the covers are coming off the carpets.  The shelving is going in and the enquiry pods are being assembled.  The contractors officially hand over the building this Friday 4th April.  The outside area leading to the front entrance and the patio area leading to the rear entrance will be completed by 17th April. 

In the temporary library a lot of stock work is being done.  We are moving from Dewey to Zones and categories running alongside Dewey classification.  The new stock is now supplied with an additional spine label consisting of the 3 letter code for the UK Standard Library Category.  There is however a large quantity of good quality stock in the temporary library which we want to take with us.  We are removing the items from the shelves, adding the additional spine label, updating the database record and boxing them ready to go.  At first the stock work seemed to make little impression but now the shelves are looking emptier and there are piles of cardboard boxes in every work area.  After 1½ years in the temporary library the end is in sight!  

February Visit to the Library of Birmingham

Exeter Central Library has been under £4.5 million redevelopment for 1 1/2 years and reopens on 22nd May. The new Exeter Library will have a Business and Intellectual Property Centre for the first time. Therefore a visit to the new Library of Birmingham was arranged to see what had been achieved (with a slightly larger budget of more than £180 million), what difficulties they had and to find out about their Business and IP Centre.

The Business & Learning Manager gave a very informative 2 1/2 hour tour of the 11 floors of the Library and a good insight into the thinking behind each area. Having seen many images of the library I had this picture in my mind of a cube covered in metal rings and hadn't realised this iconic building was actually in 3 tiers. This had been planned to allow for 2 gardens, the Secret garden on floor 7 and the Discovery Terrace on floor 3. I thought that the outdoor space to read, relax with friends and enjoy the views was very relevant to the new Exeter Library where a new entrance to the rear of the building has been made to allow access to the park with outdoor seating planned. The Shakespeare Memorial Room, Skyline Viewpoint and Book Rotunda were amazing. I can’t wait to see the new book sculpture designed for the main foyer of the new Exeter Library.

The popularity of the new library was a very good expression of interest in the library but also caused some difficulties. The first month after opening on 3rd September staff spent all their time on crowd control and it wasn't until November they really started to get business and IP activities going. This demonstrated to me the need to have everything not only in place for the opening of the new Exeter Library but also to have organised the next few months after opening. An example of this is the free tickets for Library Camp SW 2014 in July being released for sale in February https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/library-camp-sw-2014-tickets-10431961277 .

The Business Co-ordinator then gave an instructive session about the Business & Learning databases the library subscribes to, the uses of the different databases and their popularity. 

I took lots of photographs of the interesting and the amazing and the more mundane notices, signs, leaflets etc.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/soolibabc/sets/72157640653172654 . 

Business and IP Centre in the new Exeter Library

Exeter Library is to become a flagship ‘Devon Centre’ and as such will provide a broader range of services.

One of the new services it is going to offer is a new business information and IP (Intellectual Property) service to support small businesses, entrepreneurs and inventors to develop their businesses.  The delivery of this service will be supported by the British Library Business & IP Service

Business support offered by Business & Intellectual Property Centre at the Library of Birmingham

Staff trained by the British Library and the Library of Birmingham will provide small business support and access to a comprehensive collection of databases and publications to help users with trademarks, patents, registered designs, copyright and other IP queries.

This enterprise support service is funded through the Enterprising Libraries Programme.  The programme, funded and supported by The British Library, Arts Council England and Department for Communities and Local Government, helps libraries develop new, innovative ways to support economic growth within communities.

For more information including comments by Dr Stephen Fear, Entrepreneur in Residence and Ambassador at The British Library, see Libraries help the Devon Economy