LIHNN social visit to Chester: delayed gratification or Storyhouse sugar rush?
Delayed Gratification was one of the print journals lurking on the ground floor of the Seaborne Library at Chester University, visited on the 23rd of June as our latest LIHNN social – a visit very kindly guided by Debbie Spencer, the Chester University subject specialist for health. Somewhat ironically, I couldn’t resist picking up a copy to have a quick look. The extirpation of nearly all print journals from most libraries has, of course, liberated huge amounts of space for other purposes – space put to exceptionally good use at Seaborne. A bit like the Wetherspoon’s at Lime Street station (visited, by coincidence, on our last LIHNN social after the Christmas Study Day) a rather undistinguished exterior gives no hint of the fine space within. Once inside the foyer though a large, curved helpdesk welcomes you with self-service terminals for students to borrow books. Off one side of a corridor are small rooms with carpets, pot plants, and comfy armchairs reminiscent of a Whitehall club; although sadly with no sign of a valet in the vicinity to dispense a G&T and a packet of dry-roasted. On the other are bookable rooms students can reserve for quiet study/groupwork/their bank manager to weep in. Some of the rooms even have screens which the students can plug laptops into so they can practise their presentations. Throughout the library maintains a good mix of spaces for quiet study – with some rooms designated as such – and group work and it even has a help desk for the IT department, no doubt saving many librarians the angst of not being able to reset people’s email passwords. First-floor workspace has big picture windows affording marvellous views over Chester and to the Welsh hills beyond. The books run the whole range of Dewey from 0.01 to the 900s with books on nice wooden shelves (none of that new-fangled metal rubbish) and clear signs on the shelf ends. After 25 years amid piles, pressure sores and pustules it was lovely to see a library with a few humanities books in it; fellow visitors Karen Storms from the Northern Care Alliance and Stephen Molly from Liverpool Women’s nearly had to stage an intervention to drag me away from the history section. Following feedback from the students a separate postgraduate study area has been created with its own kitchen. Sadly – human nature being what it is – the microwave had become a biohazard, but they can still make their own teas and coffees. There is a small coffee bar on the premises, but we were kindly refreshed by Debbie. Over a cuppa we discussed work. There are two teams of librarians at the university; one (which Debbie is in) focuses on teaching, inductions, one-to-ones etc, whilst the other concentrates on booklists and liaising with the departments. I left sorely tempted by the prospect of either curling up in an armchair with a cup of coffee and a good history book, or getting a job there myself, but a moment’s reflection on house prices in Chester made me realise that evenings selling The Big Issue to cover the mortgage payments might not be the best thing for family life.
En route to the Pied Bull we popped in for a quick whizz around the Storyhouse where Yvonne Stubbington from St Helen’s joined us. We poked our noses around the cosy and well-equipped children’s section then headed up to the non-fiction library. Most of the central space is occupied by a bar/café aimed at theatre punters with the books being arrayed around the outside; not unlike one of those pubs who buy a hundred yards of books from Hay-on-Wye (“Practical Poultry Husbandry”, “The Geology of Hertfordshire: Volume 7 – Tring and its Environs”) for ambience. Literary material felt a little peripheral to proceedings. Further exploration revealed a series of study desks curving around a central atrium and a view down to a set of desks for the more assiduous/misanthropic scholar. It’s certainly an impressive space, and a well-used one, but if I had to choose it would be no contest – the armchairs at Seaborne and a good history book would win out every time.
John Gale – Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust