A life in libraries

I became a member of Worthing (where I grew up) library at the earliest age allowed as my parents couldn't keep up with my incessant demand for new books to read. I remember the children's library as being a sunny, warm and joyful space for a little girl who was happiedt with her nose in a book. The Saturday morning visits continued through my school days and browsing the initially rather forbidding tall wooden stacks of the adult library lead to many serendipitous 'finds', even if they were rather too advanced for a 14 year-old! The library became the meeting place for our Saturday teenage perambulations through the town, hitting all the record shops and ending at the local coffee-bar.

Not surprising then that, having graduated from university with a degree in English and looking for something to do while deciding on a career (which wasn't teaching!) and my family having moved to the area, I found what I thought would be a temporary post in the old Chichester library located in what was then called Wren House – now Edes House. I worked first on the schools mobile library, and then in the cataloguing department for 16 months where one of my weekly jobs was to file accession cards on Friday afternoon for the books added to stock that week....well, someone had to do it! It was a good time with good colleagues, and above all the excitement of the opening of the new library with the first computerised issue system in the country.

I was no nearer deciding on a career when Gordon Bearman, the County Librarian, called me in to suggest that perhaps librarianship might be my métier and I should apply for a post-graduate place at 'library school' and get a professional qualification which would at least be something to have even if I eventually decided on a different path!

He must have been clairvoyant, as librarianship did become my profession – first in Norwich Public Libraries/Norfolk County Libraries as Children and School's Librarian, and then at Brighton Polytechnic working in the Art and Design Faculty with design students. With the transition to university status I was moving into management, and ended my career as Information Services Manager at the Grand Parade campus.

Now I am back living close to Chichester and delight in being a library user where I started my profession.

Thank you Worthing; thank you Chichester and Gordon Bearman, for sowing the seed and then giving me the impetus to embark on what has been a fruitful, satisfying, and happy professional life.