Edinburgh Central Library

I have been in Edinburgh for a month now - this is the longest I've ever lived anywhere without joining the library. Edinburgh Central Library is about 15minutes walk from where I am living so I went along to join. The library is a big old building and quite impressive.






I went to the main area on the ground floor and asked to join. They don't have a big enquiry desk but have roaming staff and a pod of staff computers and a small desk. The staff are very helpful and the assistant said it would be quickest if I went downstairs to the bottom floor. This seems to be the Scottish floor with Scottish related books and stuff. Anyhow there was an interesting conversation going on between the assistants and a man who had lost his book 'in the drink'. I asked for a card to join and was given one - the assistant was a bit suspicious of me at first but thawed out gradually and explained everything I could do with my library card and how to get ebooks or access computers or the Internet.
I went back upstairs and resisted the temptation to get lots of books. I chose two and used the self issue machine which worked well.



I'll explore the building more next time. There was a display of some tiles on the staircase. I liked the look of them but can't remember what they were.

Working in a library

I have been in my new job for a month now and although the Student Information Points are based in the libraries, my role is not a library management role. It is more of a general management post based around enhancing student support.
I miss working in a library but I'm not sure whether I miss library management or whether I miss being able to do my work in a library. I think it is a bit of both and luckily the latter is easy to address at times. I can go and work in the Main University Library for a couple of hours. So that's what I did one afternoon last week. I like academic libraries, I like the peace and quiet associated with people getting on with their work purposefully and reading, I like the books and I like working in a place where other people are working but no need to interact. I'm lucky that I can get my library 'fix' as part of my working life.



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