Libraries working with vulnerable people

This is an interesting blog about work being done in Dundee Libraries. There are some good stories of relatively-low cost, high impact work here. Almost as heartening as the services that are being provided here is the fact that somebody's recording and celebrating them.

A lot of libraries, including Rochdale's, are doing similar types of activities to a greater or lesser extent. I'll encourage the people in our Special Services Team to have a look at this blog, for both the reasons stated above. It would be good if they could share experiences. It was nice to see how they do reminiscence work. Special Services work with "reminiscence packs," which tend to include more objects than books or other reading materials (very often they'll take along some books or audio items along to complement and support the reminiscence packs). The Library Service also does occasional one-off reminiscence events. The last one, I think, was this:

Do you remember the times when washday was always on a Monday?

Fourteen people came along to our morning of washday reminiscences at Castleton Library on Friday 16 January. This was an opportunity to swap memories of living, working and shopping in Castleton, Middleton and Rochdale. We used the "Women's Work" reminiscence pack to prompt discussion, support by materials from the local studies collections in Middleton Library and the Local Studies Collection in Touchstones. It was also very useful to be able to link this with the "Shop" exhibition in the Heritage Gallery at Touchstones.

My conscience is pricked: I need to do a proper page about the reminiscence packs on our web site.