Golborne Street Festival

Gaynor, Lending Librarian at North Kensington library, writes…

The library stall — Library stall at the Golborne Street Festival

On Sunday 19 July, Sandeep, Margaret, Natasha, Leanne , Nina and myself manned a market stall at the Golborne Street Festival. The day did not begin well: rain and extreme wind made setting up the stall with bunting and posters very interesting! By the time the festival started, however, the sun had broken out and we were taking shelter under the stall canopy. We took turns to staff the stall and leaflet the crowds.

There was a fantastic atmosphere with representatives from a variety of organisations and community groups, food and craft stalls, plus the obligatory bouncy castle, face painting and live music. For us it was a unique opportunity to reach a wide cross-section of the community we don’t normally see in the library and tell them about all the resources, activities and services libraries have to offer. Lots of people did not realise that the library service is not just about books; they were pleased and interested to hear about Zinio, Universal Class, e-books and events.

Nina completely exploded the myth of the traditional reference librarian by dancing down the street and completely raiding the police and food stalls. She ran a gang of street urchins (also known as her friend’s children), whom she bribed to help us distribute Summer Reading Challenge leaflets.

We had a great day, distributing more than 200 Summer Reading Challenge leaflets and, over the course of the day, spoke to many hundreds of adults and children about our wonderful libraries!