Something to shout about

They haven't had much to shout about in Newcastle lately with the Toon Army still digesting the awful reality of relegation from the Premiership and games next season against the likes of Doncaster Rovers.

But the good folk of Newcastle do have something new to feel good about - the opening of their new City Library: follow the link from http://www.newcastle.gov.uk/core.nsf/a/home and see the front cover of the next issue of Gazette when it drops through your letterbox.

Having seen the new library in construction last year when it was just a big box of girders and having attended the handover of the building from contractors to Council a few months ago, I was interested to see what the new library would be like when in use. So I popped in at the weekend for a first look around.

There were certainly lots of people and lots of activity as I made my way through the building from the ground floor entrance up to the top floor Viewing Gallery. I took the stairs (I need the exercise) rather than the very popular glass lifts, so I was grateful for the rather splendid pink swivel chairs up there in the Viewing Gallery. 

The new library is self-service throughout, and there's not a counter in sight. Instead staff and users interact around well-signed "Enquiry Points" - small, circular and stand-up height so there are no physical barriers of any kind between staff (natty and identifiable in black polo shirts) and users. This seems like a good move to me, although it must require a significant culture change for staff.

My only quibble about the self-serve system was that there only seemed to be self-serve machines on the ground floor, and the guiding to them was a little too discreet and library-like for my taste. Big department stores have big signs saying "Pay here" so why don't big libraries have big signs saying "Borrow your books here."

There were plenty of people who were clearly just having a look round - possibly attracted in to the library by the clever posters on the local Metro trains; or indeed by following the posters which form a trail along the pavement leading to the front doors of the library. But there were also plenty of people already colonising the various spaces around the new library - particularly the study booths, the computer workstations, and the local studies facilities. I did wonder if there would prove to be sufficient study booths and if some of the workstations would be a little cramped if you wanted to use books and papers as well as the computer - but these are matters which (like the guiding to the self-serve machines) can be easily fixed if need be.

Harder to fix (if indeed it needs fixing) will be the noise levels. It's a very open building with a big top-to-bottom atrium in the middle and a wide stairwell to one side so noise travels and it's difficult to get away from the hum of conversation and the occasional sound of babies crying or children laughing. But then, hey,  it's a public library not a research institute, and the sound levels would certainly have been low enough not to break my concentration if I'd been working in the areas where people were studying - at the study tables away from the atrium at the far end of the ground floor, across the local studies area on the top floor, and in some of the small specialist areas positioned to the side of the stairwell.

All this and a proper cafe as well with direct entrance from the outside piazza and the shops - serving a decent cup of coffee and, as I can testify, a rather tasty cheese and onion tart (or flan or whatever they call it in on Tyneside).

So - positive first impressions and I'll be interested to see how use of the building evolves over the new few months. Will people start taking their coffee and sandwiches from the cafe to their study tables? Will there be more integration of the spaces for computers and the spaces for books? Will more people start bringing in their own laptops? And what will happen when the two local universities are back for the new academic year? What is clear, however use of the new library evolves, is that the new Newcastle City Library is an expression of the vision shared by former Secretary of State, Andy Burnham, at the CILIP PLA Conference last October - a library "full of life, full of joy, full of people." Well done, Newcastle!