Speaker 1: Hello. I'm Ray Lee and this is the Gillingham Podcast
Speaker 1: for anyone living in the Gillingham and Spa area. I'm
Speaker 1: at Gillingham Library talking to Daniel Coleman about the new
Speaker 1: extended Access program. Daniel, can you tell us about extending
Speaker 1: access exactly what it is?
Speaker 2: Yep? So extend Access is something new that a few
Speaker 2: of our libraries now have. Gillingham is the third one
Speaker 2: in the county to be able to offer this service.
Speaker 2: It's where you'll be able to access the library from
Speaker 2: a am to eight pm Monday to Saturday, so six
Speaker 2: days a week. And you can do that even if
Speaker 2: there's no staff in the building. It's just via a
Speaker 2: swipe card system.
Speaker 3: Right, yeah, So do you have to register for the service?
Speaker 2: So you do have to go through a bit of
Speaker 2: an induction, perhaps mostly online, but we can do in
Speaker 2: person ones here at the library if you're not comfortable
Speaker 2: with using that, you know the team here will know
Speaker 2: things that they can ask them of those sort of
Speaker 2: like niche questions you might have. So even if you've
Speaker 2: done the online one, you're more than welcome to come
Speaker 2: on in and still ask us some questions afterwards.
Speaker 3: So how does it work?
Speaker 2: So when you want to use it during extended access,
Speaker 2: you come up to our front doors and part of
Speaker 2: the induction you'll get shown what it is. But there's
Speaker 2: like a swipe system basically near the front door that
Speaker 2: you just scan your library card at and give a
Speaker 2: pin number. You're then into the building. The doors will
Speaker 2: magically open for you and you can then come on in.
Speaker 2: The lights will automatically turn on for you. You will be
Speaker 2: in there potentially with somebody else, if somebody else has
Speaker 2: decided to use it at the same time as you,
Speaker 2: but it's very very possible that you'll be in there
Speaker 2: well on your own, in the piece and quiet.
Speaker 3: So you obviously you need a new library card for
Speaker 3: that is a special card.
Speaker 2: Nope, so it's not a special card. It's anybody who
Speaker 2: is already a member is able to sign up and
Speaker 2: keep their current library card if you want to sign up,
Speaker 2: it's specifically just to use it in extended access because
Speaker 2: you can't currently make it in during our opening hours.
Speaker 2: You're more than welcome to do that. It's exactly the
Speaker 2: same card as anybody would.
Speaker 3: Have, just books that you can take out or can
Speaker 3: you do anything else.
Speaker 2: So it's in terms of taking things out. It is
Speaker 2: just your books. Some people have reservations to collect, other
Speaker 2: people want to browse the shelves, but you'd be more
Speaker 2: than welcome to come on in. We're obviously quite heated
Speaker 2: with warm so the winter months are ying away now,
Speaker 2: but come the end of the year, if you wanted
Speaker 2: to come in and just sit inside for the warm
Speaker 2: for a bit, you'd be more than welcome to. If
Speaker 2: you wanted to meet with a group of friends and
Speaker 2: just have somewhere free that you don't have to pay
Speaker 2: any money to stay in, you'd be more than all
Speaker 2: sign up and then come along that way.
Speaker 1: Services did the library provide normal hours?
Speaker 2: It's really everything. So there's obviously the book lending that's
Speaker 2: kind of like our core offer. But we have a
Speaker 2: large amount of events, so children's and adults, you know,
Speaker 2: even just thinking today. We've had rhyme time this morning.
Speaker 3: We've had an art.
Speaker 2: Group in, We've got a bridge club that meet this afternoon,
Speaker 2: and then throughout the week various other things lego, etc.
Speaker 2: We have public computers, so people who maybe don't have
Speaker 2: access to computer at the time, or perhaps need something
Speaker 2: a bit of help with their digital skills. There's digital
Speaker 2: champions that offer support to them. Yeah, it's really everything.
Speaker 1: So if you wanted to use a computer, for instance,
Speaker 1: would you have to book a slot or do you
Speaker 1: just turn.
Speaker 2: Out so you didn't have to book a slot. If
Speaker 2: you wanted to guarantee yourself a bit of time, you
Speaker 2: might want to sort of contact us and just let
Speaker 2: us know that you'd like to use the computer, couple
Speaker 2: of books, something out for you. You do need to
Speaker 2: have either a library card or use a guest ticket
Speaker 2: to do that. And if you are either signing up
Speaker 2: for a library card or using a guest ticket, we
Speaker 2: do normally need some sort of address or ID just
Speaker 2: to make sure we can do that.
Speaker 3: So this is obviously open to everybody who.
Speaker 2: Lives in anybody anybody. You don't even have to live
Speaker 2: in Gillingham. We get people from when Canton come in.
Speaker 2: Sometimes we get people from other towns in Dorset who
Speaker 2: are either up here for work or just happen to
Speaker 2: be in the area.
Speaker 3: So provided you've got your library card, well.
Speaker 2: You are, and we're part of a consortium with other counties.
Speaker 2: So if you're looking for a specific book that maybe
Speaker 2: we don't have, there's a chance we can order that
Speaker 2: in from another library like Canton or further afield like Bristol.
Speaker 1: So if people want to know more about this new
Speaker 1: extended access other than popping into the library and asking
Speaker 1: is there any information online that they can access.
Speaker 2: So on our Dorsic Council website, depending how familiar with it,
Speaker 2: you might find the library's tab and be able to
Speaker 2: go that way. But you can put in the search
Speaker 2: bar extended Access on the Dorsal Library's website and it
Speaker 2: will bring you to all the pages you could need,
Speaker 2: and that includes information about what extended access is, what
Speaker 2: you're able to do then, as well as the libraries
Speaker 2: that offer it, and links to that online induction that
Speaker 2: you can just get cracking.
Speaker 3: That's great, well, lovely job. Thank you very much for
Speaker 3: your time. Thank you.
Speaker 1: If you're a member of a group or organization that
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Speaker 1: then you can email me at Killing the Podcast at
Speaker 1: gmail dot com. Thanks for listening.