Marksbury School/Village Hall

When I arrived at Bath Central Library in 1993 it was part of Avon County Council’s Library Service. The Reference Library had moved from Queen Square and the Lending Library from Bridge St to form this new library in The Podium only three years before. So many things were still new for the staff, including the layout of the library, all the behind-the-scenes rooms and books stacks, and where everything was stored. As well as the staff from Queen Square and Bridge St, there was also the Bath Branches Team, who mainly worked at Moorland Rd, Weston and the Mobile Libraries.

Three staff worked at the Enquiry Desk at any one time, and it was positioned right in the middle of the library. Half of the floor space was taken by shelving for the reference books, with only a few tables and chairs. There were several hundred directories and Fast Fact books which were very well used as the internet was still in its infancy for most people. The most popular directories were “Who’s Who”, “Dictionary of National Biography” and “A Guide to Company Giving”. Many of these directories are now available online which means a lot less books and shelving in the library.

Newspapers, maps and journals were stored at the Enquiry Desk. If a customer wanted something from the Stack or Local Store, they would have looked it up in the Card Catalogue and filled in a yellow request slip. The Catalogue was a beautiful piece of wooden furniture with tens of drawers holding thousands of cards, all representing an item held somewhere in the library’s collection. Where the public computers are now there were three “study carols”, which were small, private, quiet areas for customers using our reference material. There were also three or four huge metal cabinets which housed the excellent map collection: these have moved to the Guildhall. In what we now call the Map Room were all the back runs of newspapers and journals were stored. Today they are all available to library members online, so freeing up staff time and library space.

Although the library was using computers, staff had to handle every book when it was either returned or borrowed, with two sets of two computers either side of the large Counter. This was positioned in what is now Quick Select and was the entrance into the library, and the large area in the middle was full of trollies for all the returned books. Despite the number of staff working there was still often queues as all procedures and processes took longer. All lending books had been electronically catalogued, but the system was slow and clumsy, which meant a search for a book could take a while.

Bath Central Library still has the same, separate Children’s Area. It used to have a lovely Train-and-Carriages kinderbox for the picture books, which the toddlers could sit inside and “drive”. There was a large desk there for one member of staff, with seating for three customers. As well as the usual Children’s activity of Storytime, there were regular craft events as well as class visits and children’s author talks. As today, lots of noise was generated in this area, which sometimes caused upset for our serious-minded researchers!

Hilary Cox

June 2024

[Transcript]

CHILDREN'S author Dick King-Smith had some surprise help from his brother Tony during an afternoon of story-reading at Keynsham Library.

Just as 66-year-old Dick was settling down to read to the children, his brother, a local businessman, bounded in dressed as a gorilla.

But the author took it in his stride, laughing at his brother along with the children.

The Queen Charlton children's author has recently turned his pen to script writing and is working on the second series of Tumbledown Farm for Yorkshire Television. The first series is now being aired and stars the author as Farmer Dick.

The former Bitton farmer and primary school teacher took up writing ten years ago and has since published more than 30 children's books.

The idea for his first book, The Foxbusters, came after he lost several chickens to a fox and decided it was time for the chickens to get revenge.

Dick King-Smith is pictured above reading to the children.

[Transcript]

CHILDREN'S author Dick King-Smith had some surprise help from his brother Tony during an afternoon of story-reading at Keynsham Library.

Just as 66-year-old Dick was settling down to read to the children, his brother, a local businessman, bounded in dressed as a gorilla.

But the author took it in his stride, laughing at his brother along with the children.

The Queen Charlton children's author has recently turned his pen to script writing and is working on the second series of Tumbledown Farm for Yorkshire Television. The first series is now being aired and stars the author as Farmer Dick.

The former Bitton farmer and primary school teacher took up writing ten years ago and has since published more than 30 children's books.

The idea for his first book, The Foxbusters, came after he lost several chickens to a fox and decided it was time for the chickens to get revenge.

Dick King-Smith is pictured above reading to the children.

The headlines above show how aggressively the library was pursuing fines for overdue and lost books in the '60s and '70s!

In 1968, if you had overdue books you may have had to face Mrs Coleman!

22 years later, in 1990, Mrs Coleman was still on the hunt for missing books, having collected 20,000 by then!

How things have changed!

In 2019, B&NES Libraries stopped collecting fines for overdue books and held a 'no questions asked' book amnesty.

Visit lovewestonlibrary.org.uk/2020/01/02/book-amnesty-in-banes to read the article.

Now, you'll only be charged if a book is lost or irretrievably damaged. So if you find it on your shelf six months after it was due, just bring it in back and we'll reset your account with no fine. We promise Mrs Coleman won't knock on your door!

You can find out more about why this decision is made here.

I remember the excitement of going to The Podium, wearing hard hats, to look at our new library space.  The pillars throughout were a disappointment, but the large space and the plan to integrate lending and reference were exciting.

Another exciting time was trips to buy new books.  I think we went to Askews in Preston, but I may be wrong.  I’ve been there a few times over the years and the trips have tended to roll into one!  Pulling brand new books off of shelves into trolleys was like a mad Supermarket Sweep.  We started off fairly tentatively, as we were conscious that we didn’t want to overspend, but at the end of the second day we were still underspent and were pulling off whole series of books.

The last weeks and days of the old lending library were hectic as we prepared for the move.  We allowed readers to take out as many books as they wanted, as long as they agreed to return them to the new library.  In this way we hoped to get the readers to help us move the books over.  It turned out this was not such a good idea…  More on this later.

[TRANSCRIPT]

TAKING advantage of Bath library's policy to let readers take as many books as they want is Philip Edmonds of Ivy Park, Bath.

To ease the problems of transferring 140,000 books from the Bridge Street lending library and the Queen Square reference library to the new combined library at The Podium, borrowers have been told they can take any number of books from the existing Libraries - as long as they return them to the new one when it opens.

The libraries close on August 18 for the transfer. Six weeks later, the new library will open.

As the closure of the old lending library drew near the shelves emptied and we dragged older books out of store to fill gaps – Another idea that sounded better than it turned out in practice.

Then we closed.  We had several hundred plastic boxes delivered to fill up with one shelf of books in each box. Of course one shelf did not fit in each box, (especially books from the Reference library.) but we managed.  The new books were delivered and we started filling the shelves in the Podium. The stock from the old lending and reference libraries was transferred over and we started putting these on the shelves.  The books were transferred by a delivery company who were used to doing this, and they provided sort of skateboards to put the boxes of books on and transport them around the library. That made moving the books around very easy.

Eventually we were ready to open, and on the first day we were inundated with people and books.  Staff were obviously keen to help but finding some of the reference stock was quite difficult.  The catalogue cards for the reference books were annotated with various abbreviations which the former lending staff had difficulty translating.  Then we had to work out where the books on the “shelf behind librarian’s desk” had been moved to in the Podium.

At busy times we had three members of staff on the enquiry desk in the centre of the library. Unfortunately we had four phones, so sometimes the public were treated with the sight of three librarians on the phone, with a fourth ringing while a queue formed at the desk.

Over the next few weeks the big mistake of letting people take out as many books as they wanted became clear.  I remember that I looked at the statistics for the first month of opening and if I remember correctly, we had 60,000 books taken out and 70,000 returned, so we had to find room for 10,000 extra books.  They went into the stack but were not in order. This proved to be a problem for quite some time as books were supposed to be on the shelves but we couldn’t find them because they were in the stack in no particular order.  We ended up having to come in on a Sunday on overtime to sort out the stack.  Even the head of service at the time, Richard Ashby, joined us.

Despite the teething problems, and a few more difficulties over the years, (such as the drumming workshop that was too big for the activity room and had to be held in the children’s’ library on the day after we had been closed for a 4 day May Bank Holiday – We got a bit of negative publicity for that one!) the library in the Podium was an undoubted success.  (Ask Waitrose how much their profits went up after we opened!) It was the first time that lending and reference had been in the same building , (I’m sure local historians will correct that.) 

Given the history of libraries in Bath, with public demonstrations against having a lending library in the first place, and being one of the few places, (possibly the only place?) to refuse Carnegie’s offer of $65,000 to build a library (New York Times, Feb 27^th, 1906), then having both services in one place was a long awaited triumph.

Lots has changed in the Podium since the library opened, but one thing that will not have changed is the dedication of the staff.  There are a few people there from my time in Bath, but the majority of staff are “new” (in that they have joined in the past 17 years!) but I am sure they have the same service ethic that we had when the Podium opened.  They have been through a lot of uncertainty in recent years, and I hope they keep up the good work for the next 30 years.

-Dave Moger, Former Staff
Written on the occasion of The Podium's 30th Birthday

Staff from the Reference Library remember the move well too...

We were pushing the crates around the new library on black wooden pallets, like extra wide skate boards. They were an enormous help...

I remember crating up thousands of books in the Reference Library in Queen Square. Many were tightly double-stacked on the shelves. I can remember how physically exhausted we were at the end of each day. We would stagger to the staff room and sit and rest for half an hour before finding the strength to walk out the door to go home.

We were envious of the Lending Library staff in Bridge Street, who had a policy of persuading their borrowers to check out as many books and LPs as they could manage, not returning them until after the move...

As a boy the library played a great part in my life. I lived opposite to the library in a cottage a mere 20 yards away. In the years of austerity after the war, when everything was on ration, the opportunity to read books was all. Without television to while away the hours before bedtime, I read and I read and I read.

As soon as I skipped home across the road from Bath Hill Junior School it was across the road to the library to seek a new book. Often, I would finish it and I was able to change it for another before closing time.

The children’s section was to the left of the entrance door and staffed by a very kindly elderly lady. The method of recording loans was by stamping the date on a sheet on the inside of the book’s cover and removing an identifying card which was then placed in a card pocket in a rack. My choice of books was fairly predictable for my age. Swallows and Amazons, Just William, Five Go Adventuring etc with the odd tales from the Wild West and Bertie Wooster.

Later as I grew older, I graduated to the Senior Section up the stairs which was much larger and I started on adult novels and the classics. There, it was a much different atmosphere of hushed silence. It was sad to see it closed and the building used for other purposes after it moved into its new premises.

Brian Vowles

My very best memory of my time at Bath Central Library was a guided tour of the library given by the manager of the day Andy when it was part of our creative writing group.

We learned that the library at that time held every copy of the Bath Chronicle since it's first issue over 250 years ago. I then used this resource to research for my Novella set between the two world wars and during World War II. This novella is published on Amazon.co.uk and is also available from bookshops worldwide.

I also have used the library computer and think that it is a wonderful resource and place of peace to escape to.

Thank you for the opportunity to tell my story.

I’m one of the library staff in the photo ( far right) I was Saturday Assistant at the time while also a sixth former at Norton Hill School.

A memory of mine from that time just prior to the opening we pushed trolleys of books across the high street to the new library building from the old one attached to the Hollies building!

I would like to thank you for this lovely place that I have been using since May. I'm from Brazil and I came here for a short time to study. I'm really grateful for so much space, so much comfort and the possibility of staying and studying. Now, I have to return to my country. It was a lovely time I spent in Bath and I was able to study in this library. Congratulations for the 100th year.

Danielle

Via Social Media

My lasting memory of the Bath Library is happiness!

One of my first memories, at probably the age of about 3, is going into the children’s library while my mum went to choose her books, knowing that I could have my pick of the books on the shelves and be transported into lots of different worlds.

I would spend hours seeking out my treasures to take home to read.

I can still see myself sat in there, feeling hugged by all the books around me.

I waited with anticipation to be old enough to have 2 books out and could not wait to join the adult library when I could have, oh delight!, 3 books.

I am now in my 70th year and love my memories of the Bath Library - thank you and thanks to my Mum, who also loved reading and taught me at a very young age, for bringing the love of books to my life. 

I might have to now use a Kindle, but I can always be found with a book in my hand or my bag.

Linda Bonfil

The debate over Bath's Public Library was fierce and everyone had an opinion. Above and below are a selection of posters, preserved in our scrapbooks, advertising meetings to rally for and against a Public Library.

And it wasn't just meeting organisers having their say. Below are just some of the pages from our scrapbooks featuring 'letters to the editor' in local papers. Every single letter is someone sharing their opinion on Public Libraries and they are frequently signed 'A Ratepayer'.

[TRANSCRIPT]

ARTIST Nina Fairless is holding her first one-woman exhibition at the reference library in Queen Square, Bath.

The display shows about 100 oil paintings of flowers, still life, landscapes and portraits. They are for sale at prices ranging from £45 to £100.

Mrs Fairless, now in her 70s, took up painting full time eight years ago after giving up her job as a pharmacist.

She regularly takes her paintings to the Bath College of Art for criticism by the tutors and students. Since moving a year ago to her home in Edward Street, Lower Weston, she has exhibited at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol and with the Bath Society of Artists.

She has also had works accepted by the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the National Society and the Laing Calender Exhibition. All these pictures have been shown at the Mall Gallery In London.

Mrs Fairless said she polished up her drawing techniques when she attended the Sir John Cass School of Art in London part-time for seven years.

The exhibition will run until Saturday, July 23.

[TRANSCRIPT]

THREE Bath friends have got together to put on their first joint art exhibition at the city's reference library.

The show, in the Moore Gallery, is the work of illustrator Steve Angel, of Marlborough Buildings, photographer Tim Cann of Brunswick Street, and painter Helena Serafin of Lansdown Crescent.

Their works range from paintings to light-hearted clock faces moulded in reinforced plaster. The exhibition runs until November 21.

Did you know there was a wrestling match held in Bath Central Library in August, 2008?

The wrestlers took a quiet moment to relax with some children's books (and argue over them too!)

Bath Library

Keynsham Library

Midsomer Norton Library

From Paper to Pixels - Changing Technology

The Mobile Library

Library At Home

Moorland Road Library

Radstock Library

Paulton Library

Saltford Library

Weston Library

The New Libraries