Desert Island Profile – John Gale

This week, Northern Lights caught up with John Gale, Trust Librarian at the JET Library, Mid-Cheshire NHS Foundation Trust, and asked him an eclectic set of questions!

What was your first job in libraries?
Working in Hereford Public Library. Had a month’s work experience indexing the Hereford Times
(lots of flower shows!), going out on the mobile library etc then got taken on as sickness cover
working on the counter and shelving

How have things changed since then?
This was 1995 so the internet was barely a gleam in anyone’s eye at that point. Something of a shock to have to word-process my essays when I started the library course instead of hand-writing them. Most indexes were still printed, and Ask Jeeves was pick of the pops. You got charged per minute to hook through to Switzerland for a Datastar search (white text on a black background) so you had to get your search strategy sorted before you started!

When did you start your current job?
2013

What are you most proud of in your professional career?
Professionally probably the Education Bulletin and Making People Count (although I enjoy them so much it hardly feels like work). Personally the fact that one of the service users we gave work
experience to when I worked in mental health went on to have a good career in public libraries.

What would you do differently if you could go back in time?
Nothing. If I’d behaved differently then I wouldn’t have been me. There are plenty of times when I could have been a better person and made better decisions, but I was obviously not that better
person at the time (or since!).

If you had a magic wand, what single change would you make to improve NHS libraries?
Never thought I’d say this but bring back HDAS!

What advice would you give to someone starting out in NHS libraries today?
There are lots of different aspects to the job so find the one you’re really interested in and do as
much of that as possible. But library managers might have issues with this approach I guess!

Desert Island Discs: You can have eight music tracks, one book and a luxury item. What would they be?
Jeane – The Smiths
Every Day is Like Sunday – Morrissey
Skindiving – The Wedding Present
Ashes to Ashes – David Bowie
Under Pressure – David Bowie/Freddie Mercury
Trash – Suede
Soave il Vente from Cosi Fan Tutte by Mozart
He Shall Feed his Flock from Handel’s Messiah
Book: A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell
Luxury: A snooker table. Be nice to think I could improve on my present highest break of 8!

For other would be interviewees, contact us for the full list of questions!

If any of them feel unhelpful, amend as you see fit or drop them altogether, we really aren’t
precious.  And when you are done, send your piece, plus photo, to our Northern Lights email