Tavistock Library

Merely a room full of books- right? Not at all. Our local library in Tavistock is so much more than this. It has kept up with the times; evolving into an important resource for families, with benefits for all.  I have been chatting to Chief Librarian, Helen Cooper to find our how the staff work hard to create activities and an environment that ‘invests in the borrowers of tomorrow’.

A Range of Books and More

If you have little bookworms who devour books like puddings, it truly can save you a lot of money. They have books for all ages, from teenage fiction to sensory books for babies and you can take up to 12 books out at one time as well as order books for free.

Reading Incentives

The popular Book Track and Summer Reading challenges encourages those children over 6 who are not keen to pick up a book as well as rewarding those who love reading. And for under 5s, there is the Bookstart Bear scheme.

Clubs and Community

For little ones they have weekly Bounce ‘n’ Rhyme sessions and toys to play with when they come in so that children can build up their reading habits in a relaxed happy environment. On Saturday mornings, staff read books to groups of young children whilst they sit on comfy cushions and rugs.

The library is keen to work in conjuction with exciting projects and has hosted events such as African drumming, animation mornings and shadow puppet workshops. Helen says they go against the norm telling children that they can make noise and enjoy their time in the library.

More recently, Tavistock Scrapstore has joined the library two days a week. All children can join the library on Friday’s after school and Saturdays 10-12 when they cause creative mayhem with their plethora of crafty resources. For older children there are some rather cool clubs on offer including Lego and Coding Clubs.

Staff

For me though the biggest asset to the library are the people who are there to help. They truly enjoy what they do and work hard to establish a positive environment for all. For every child that enters there is a smile and a ‘what have you been up to today’ and the staff become one of the main reasons the children want to attend.

So next time you think about ordering that book from Amazon for the Kindle, think about whether it will give you the same enjoyment as popping to your local library with the children.

Find out about what the library is up to from their Facebook Page or website.