Have learnt so much today!

This is Matt with me today....we were at a demonstration of a system that our library and some other libraries are thinking about subscribing to.  The system is calleds SmartSM and it helps the libraries to make the most of the books that they have on the shelves and ones that they are planning to buy.  Matt is the stock editor type person for libraries - his job is to make sure that we have the right books in each of the libraries at the right time.  He was really happy to see me and just kept laughing - must have found something funny but I am really not sure what!

I didnt know very much about how libraries choose their books - never really thought about it to be honest!  It turns out that it takes an awful lot of work to get these books onto the shelves and someone has to decide which ones to buy, how long to keep them and how to make sure that they are being loaned to people.  This new system promised to make this whole job alot easier - it uses a logical way of looking at all the information that comes from the loans system and it then tells you how many books on which subject you should have on your shelves to keep everyone happy.  It can tell you how well each individual book is performing - just amazing stuff.  I must admit that it got a bit confusing but Josh's Mum and Nicky seemed to be bouncing up and down in their chairs....I thought that they might have needed to go to the "little girls room" but it turned out that they were just really thrilled with what the system could do and how it would help the libraries to have the best possible selection of books on their shelves.  Sounds good to me!

OK - I promised I would find out a little bit more about this "social networking" business.  Most libraries now have websites which means that people can find out about the service and possibly use the catalogue.  These are great as far as they go but sometimes people need to know a bit more or be reminded about what is out there.  So the staff at our libraries have tried to use other ways to "talk" to people:- 

One of these ways of talking to people is through their Havering Reading Group on Facebook - I have heard that this blog is mentioned on there!  This was set up so that people could recommend books to each other and let people know what they were reading.

Lots of people go on Youtube to look at videos and so HaveringLibraries have put some of their videos on there too - I was watching some last night - there was a strange "Goat Lady" and she kept calling "Betty Betty!" - most strange to see in a library - oh and she had a goat in the library too!!!

I have heard that Stephen Fry does an awful lot on Twitter - so one of the library ladies set up a Twitter account - this is used to update people on all sorts of things - most popular books, events and the suchlike - they have called it HaveringLibraries - not original but it definitely works!

And finally - there is this blog - I just love being here and Josh's Mum has checked and 28 people looked at it last week!  Wow!

Need to go and lay down to recover!

Nighty Night
Monkeyx