Like a dog with a bone

What do you do when you’re driving to Cornwall and find a stray dog in the middle of the road, dodging the cars and likely to be run over at any moment?

Of course - you take the dog to the nearest library; which happened (because this is a true story) to be at Mere in Wiltshire, and also which happens to be everything that a local library should be - at the heart of the community with the community at the heart of the library.

I was told the stray dog story when I was at Mere a fortnight ago as part of a ‘back to the front line’ visit organised for me by Geoff Langridge and his colleagues at Wiltshire Library Services.

Sitting in my office at Ridgmount Street can sometimes seem a long way from the action, if ‘action’ is defined as library and information practitioners making a difference to people’s lives.  Spending part of a morning in the library at Mere - and part of an afternoon walking the floor with Phil Tomes and his team at the library in Salisbury - and discussing effective stock promotion with Geoff and Phil and Chris Harling, an old friend from my AAL days - was a truly invigorating experience; putting me back in touch with my professional roots and reminding me why I do my day job with CILIP.

It was also instructive - and heartening - in the context of current discussions on professionalism to see the way in which experienced library and information professionals at Area and Community levels work with skilled and enthusiastic front line Library Assistants to deliver an excellent and well regarded service which focuses on providing good customer care and meeting local community needs.

All in all, a splendidly enjoyable and professionally fulfilling day - and the sun shone - and the trains ran on time: I was as happy as a dog with a bone!