Going Green at MWL

Inspired by the annual Green Libraries Week last year, MWL Libraries, based at Southport Hospital, decided to try out a couple of ideas to endorse the green agenda within the Trust, encourage sustainability in the Library and beyond, and to support staff wellbeing. It was also seen as a way of promoting the Library service itself.

We started with the new MWL Seed Library! Having seen this done successfully at a couple of other Trusts, this was something we were excited to put into practice here.

We started by liaising with the team at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire who had successfully launched a Seed Library the previous Spring. It was really interesting to find out what had worked for them and what hadn’t. We then created a logo, display and  marketing materials, as well as a padlet as a way of collating all of our gardening and growing advice and guidance.

We purchased seeds, seed envelopes and display boxes. Cue sorting seeds to become the Library staff’s favourite ‘last-thing-on-a Friday’ job. Highly recommended as a therapeutic activity! We also bought some book titles specifically on gardening, growing and sustainability to add to our stock.

Image descriptions

• Photo 1: NHS Supply Chain team holding Green Gazette L-R: Kate Taylor, Michelle Johnson and Claire Dyson
• Photo 2: Green library titles in stock
• Photo 3: The Green Library
• Photo 4: Copies of the Green Gazette
• Photo 5: Go Green! display at Southport Hospital

The Seed Library was officially given a ‘soft launch’ in October of last year (bearing in mind, that this wasn’t perhaps the optimum time of the year to be encouraging staff to think about gardening!) by setting up a stall outside the canteen at Southport Hospital, complete with information, handouts, books on gardening and growing, gardening paraphernalia, plus lots of packets of seeds to give away. Library staff were available to explain all about how Trust staff could get involved in the initiative and to encourage and support staff to get growing! The stall proved really popular, and we were cleared out of seeds within an hour! Our seeds for growing herbs were particularly popular as they could be done indoors in pots. Several staff thought they’d like to try growing herbs at their desk or in their staffrooms.

The Seed Library continued to be promoted throughout the year on social media and via internal comms. A display stall was again set up in March of this year and similarly to the first one, we were able to chat with staff and promote the idea to them. And again, we were cleared out of seeds!

As well as getting great feedback from MWL staff, the Seed Library was endorsed by three senior nurses at NHS Supply Chain, who visited and afterwards declared they had been inspired to set up their own Seed Library!

In conjunction with the Seed Library, the Library also decided to create a new online sustainability newsletter for Trust staff, called the Green Gazette. This is a quarterly publication covering the latest news, research, ideas and tips about all things green! This was created in Canva and was designed to be quite informal and ‘newsy’ It features staff stories of green innovations throughout the Trust, as well as promotes our own sustainability collection of book titles and our online resources. The Green Gazette is circulated on social media and through the Trust’s internal comm systems. Read the latest issue. Feedback has been very positive, and a member of the Library team has been appointed as a Procurement Champion, as well as being a voice on the Trust Sustainability Group on the back of it.

So almost a year on, we can safely say both initiatives are here to stay! Whilst there is initially a small cost implication to setting up the Seed Library, it is hoped that over time this will become self-sustaining. The popularity of the Green Gazette is growing (excuse the pun!) and has been a new and innovative way of promoting what we do, as well as helping to get Trust staff to see how they too can become involved in the bigger green agenda within the Trust.

Stephanie Burns

Librarian

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust