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Medway Libraries' performance
Medway Libraries is committed to being a vital,
inclusive resource at the heart of the community
Our promise to you
- free membership;
- services appropriate to all in Medway, reflecting the diversity
of local people;
- letters responded to within 10 working days;
- emails responded to within five working days;
- prompt answering of the phone;
- fair and honest dealing with comments and complaints;
- friendly, helpful and courteous staff who will be well trained
to answer your enquiry;
- a high-quality website giving 24-hour access from home;
and
- if things go wrong, we will tell you and put them right.
Find out about our plans for
2010/11.
Quarterly performance figures
This section contains information on our monthly
performance across all our libraries in Medway.
|
Annual target |
October
2012 |
November 2012 |
December
2012 |
Year to date actual |
| Number of items borrowed |
1,205,753 |
98,036 |
97,205 |
72,519 |
850,403 |
| Number of visitors |
1,138,710 |
103,293 |
98,740 |
77,558 |
853,625 |
| Number of sessions on library computers |
No target |
16,360 |
14,811 |
11,852 |
128,998 |
| Number of people attending library events |
46,691 |
4,392 |
4,893 |
3,503 |
36,653 |
| Number of enquiries |
No target |
20,450 |
19,297 |
14,196 |
179,196 |
| Percentage of comment cards, letters and emails answered within
10 days |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
100% |
You said, we did
Medway Libraries are open to comments and suggestions from our
customers. Visit our 'you said, we did' page to view some of
the recent actions we have taken following your comments and
suggestions.
Library service survey summaries
Events
The Evening Events GSO survey was conducted amongst 95 attendees
to five evening events and talks that took place in libraries
during May 2012. The events and talks in question were “A Road of
Marvels”, “A Day of the Cyrillic Alphabet”, a talk by Gerald
Dickens, “Jack the Ripper” and a talk about Higham Village.
Download the
Full Events Report (pdf 57KB). To download this pdf you
will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have it on your
computer, please use our advice page.
Volunteers
The Volunteers GSO survey was conducted among 59 volunteers in a
variety of roles assisting Medway Libraries and Archives during
winter 2011-12. They were asked for their opinions on how
volunteering affects their lives and how they and the wider
community benefit from the role they perform.
Download the
Full Volunteers report (pdf 62KB). To
download pdfs you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you
do not have it on your computer, please use our advice page.
Chatterbooks
The Chatterbooks survey was conducted among 15 young people
attending Chatterbooks sessions during April 2011 at Twydall,
Strood, Walderslade Village and Thomas Aveling School and Community
libraries.
Chatterbooks participants is considered by those young people
taking part to have a demonstrable and positive impact upon them,
encouraging them to develop their reading skills, increasing their
confidence and giving them the opportunity to make new friends.
Chatterbooks predominantly attracts existing eight to
11-year-old library members to take part in the sessions and
largely these young people are white girls.
Over time, Chatterbooks seems able to retain their
participation, sometimes for years, fostering a love of language
and literature in those who take part to the extent that the
majority of those involved would recommend the activity to a
friend, and are willing advocates of taking part in the
sessions.
Download the
Full Chatterbooks report (pdf 179KB).
Baby Bounce and Rhyme
The Baby Bounce and Rhyme survey was conducted during February
2011. Parents and adults participating in Baby Bounce sessions at
Gillingham, Chatham, Wigmore, Hoo, Luton, Lordswood, Walderslade
Village, Rainham, Grain, Hempstead, Twydall and Walderslade Hook
Meadow libraries were asked for their views on the event.
Baby Bounce and Rhyme is popular and well regarded by those
adults who attend the sessions. It is equally effective at
attracting new participants as it is retaining existing ones, and
many attend following word of mouth recommendations.
The songs and rhymes are so beneficial to the children taking
part in the sessions that most parents continue to use them outside
of the library, and on the whole the participants feel that Baby
Bounce is of great benefit to both the children and adults in
attendance, offering children an opportunity for social interaction
with their peers, boosting their confidence and development and
creating an opportunity to have some fun whilst adults equally
benefit from the social aspect of the sessions, the reduced
isolation, and the potential assistance with developing their
parenting skills and confidence the sessions can give.
The library is seen as a great environment for such an activity
to take place and as such Baby Bounce and Rhyme comes highly
recommended, with most participants willing to advocate the merits
if taking part, and in great depth.
Download the
Full Baby bounce and rhyme report (pdf 212KB)
Home library service
A survey of home library service users was conducted
during the second quarter of 2010/11 and was completed by 6 per
cent of those receiving the at home service from Medway
Libraries.
Medway Libraries’ Home Library Service comes highly recommended
by respondents to this survey, and they value the service
enormously for the contribution it makes to their quality of
life.
The social and literary enjoyment that service users seem to
enjoy is in part due to the helpful staff and couriers who help to
run the service, and this ensures retention of customers over long
periods.
Readers' groups
A survey of our readers' groups was conducted during
quarter one of 2010/11 and was completed by members of Medway
Libraries’ Readers Groups consisting of attendees from
Cuxton, Lordswood, Rainham and Rochester
plus eight attendees from the VIP Readers Group at Chatham
Library.
Medway Libraries Readers Groups have a demonstrable and positive
impact upon the lives of those who attend, with people returning
consistently to enjoy socialising with others similarly interested
in broadening their literary knowledge and stimulating
conversation.
Download the
Full Reader's group report (pdf 141KB).
Summer reading challenge
A survey of parents and/or guardians of 104 children who took
part in The Summer Reading Challenge was conducted during September
and October 2010. This represented 4 per cent of
starters to the challenge, and 8 per cent of those completing
the challenge of reading six books.
The Summer Reading Challenge is considered to have a
demonstrable and positive impact on the children taking part,
encouraging them to read, increasing their confidence and being fun
to take part in too.
The conclusion was that most parents/guardians would recommend
the activity to a friend.
Download the
Full Summer reading challenge report (pdf 181kB).
Adult PLUS survey results
PLUS surveys are nationally recognised surveys which are
conducted for adult and children's library services on a three-year
rota. Here are the results from Medway Libraries' last survey
that took place during 2009.
The table below shows the percentage of customers who rated
these areas of the library as very good or good.
| Area |
Percentage |
| A safe place to visit |
95.7% |
| Overall satisfaction with the library |
91.5% |
| Opening hours |
90.9% |
| Overall information service |
83.6% |
| Attractiveness of the library inside |
83% |
| Choice of books |
77.8% |
| Computer facilities |
76.4% |
The children's PLUS survey was carried out during
September/October 2010 and results of this survey will be shown on
this page as soon as the analysis is complete.
Comments and suggestions
If you would like to comment on any area of our
service, have any suggestions on how to improve our service or
have any stock suggestions, contact us using the information
below.
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