Brent Library Outreach Services

One part of Brent's library services that does not get properly appreciated is the outreach service.  This tends to get dismissed as a "bookswop" but I think it can have a much more valuable role.  Since we bwent ahead with our new library system in 2011, Brent Libraries have seen a massive increase in library services.

The graph shows an increase of more than 600% between 2011 and the end of 2014, an even bigger growth than with home library services.  The number of outreach loans is actually greater than the total number of loans from Harlesden Library. 

What i9s more interesting is the number of ways, the outreach service can reach parts of the Borough that are less accessible to the physical libraries:

• Outreach arrangements can be made with areas that have never been near a physical library.  An example would be the Children Centre in St Raphaels in Stonebridge.  For those who don't know it, the St Raphaels estate scores very badly on most measures of deprivation, and is somewhat physically isolated for people without a car.  Putting a library outreach service in the middle of it helps Brent Library Service access an area where they have been largely absent.  
• Outreach arrangements can provide temporary cover during building work, as was successfully done during the Kilburn Library refurbishment.
• Outreach can also be used to reach audiences previously untouched.  For example, it has been used in coffee shops, hostels and even Northwick Park hospital.
• Outreach can also be used to respond to shifts in population.  The likely growth in Alperton, for instance, could be serviced in this way.  When Brent's first libraries were founded in the 1890s, much of the Borough was fields and transport and technology were entirely different.

Outreach certainly cannot replace physical libraries, but what it can contribute is often overlooked.