IN DEPTH ‘‘
Lindsay Prestage is a Chartered Librarian, Kent Library Service.
As library staff we may take it for granted that libraries support vulnerable and isolated people, but many others outside of libraries remain unaware of the services that libraries offer and the amazing impact that these can have.
Evidence and advocacy: The power of data to influence
Lindsay Prestage is a CILIP Chartered librarian who has been part of Kent Library Services since 1988. Here she looks at how evidence-led advocacy has helped the service develop and provide support for some of the county’s most vulnerable residents.
I BEGAN working for Kent Libraries in 1988, straight from Library School. Throughout my career I have stayed with Kent Libraries working in a variety of roles which have included focusing on both older people and young people. I started my current role as a Service Development Officer nine years ago. I am part of a team of three with a countywide remit to develop and deliver quality library services to meet the needs of people living, working and studying in Kent by working with partners and communities. Kent is a large and diverse county, with 99 library buildings and five mobile libraries, so there is lots to do and no day is ever the same. I have been a member of CILIP since student days in the late 1980s, chartered in 1990 and I have been revalidating my chartership for the last seven years. Like most other public library services, Kent has a Home Library Service that delivers books and other library materials to people at home if they find it diffi- cult or impossible to get to a library, usually because of ill health, disability or caring responsibilities. Kent’s Home Library Service is provided through local libraries across the county and coordinated by library staff, while volunteers deliver books and other materi- als to customers. Volunteers have delivered the Home Library Service to customers since the beginning of the service, and are part of our Time to Give volunteering programme. Our volunteers do not undertake the work of paid staff, but add value.
42 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL DIGITAL
We currently have around 530 customers, and the service is provided from 71 libraries by 214 Home Library Service volunteers. With the introduction of a new structure in 2016, I took on the oversight of the Home Library Service, so I started to learn more about the service and think about how it could develop. It is a proud fact that throughout the COVID pan- demic the Home Library Service was always available in some form, and Kent adjusted very quickly during the lockdowns. Initially library staff phoned Home Library Service customers to offer a befriending service and link them with local support if needed. The Home Library Service was the first of our library services to resume in June 2020 with library staff taking over from volunteers for a while, dropping books off on people’s doorsteps rather than going into their homes. One of the things that I was keen to review and devel- op was the annual satisfaction survey. I identified that this was only covering a small sample of customers, and was not sufficient for drawing valid conclusions. As a result, both the process and the survey have been completely refreshed, and we now reach out to all cus- tomers. The survey takes the form of a questionnaire which covers customers’ satisfaction with the service. We ask about the impact of the service, so that we can better demonstrate this within Kent County Council. Customers also have the opportunity to comment on the service and let us know about anything that we can improve. Most customers receive a printed question- naire, delivered to them by their volunteer. We brief the
Winter 2025
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