Love Libraries – Summer storytelling sessions are a huge success
Bookbug and storytelling sessions have been going on the road in the Borders to help reach more children and build partnerships with local organisations.
Lyndsay Fairburn, Senior Library Assistant (Mobile & Outreach Services) with Live Borders, the culture charity which runs libraries in the area, proposed extending the popular services in the summer of 2024, when some Bookbug sessions paused for the holiday break. She saw this as an opportunity to improve access for families with younger children and support adults who might be feeling lonely and isolated.
Travelling Bookbug and storytelling sessions were launched. To cover as wide an area as possible, events were held at Bowhill House, Borders Additional Needs Group (BANG) Summer Camp, the Great Tapestry of Scotland, Floors Castle and Paxton House.
The sessions, co-ordinated and delivered by Lyndsay, aimed to create inclusive, stimulating environments for children and families, explore the use of some outdoor venues for storytelling and foster reading, play and community well-being.
Songs
At Bowhill House in Selkirk, the drop-in ‘Bowhill Book Detectives’ event was held within the adventure playground. Children could interact freely with books, puppets and shakers. Lyndsay was available for an hour each week and offered storytelling sessions with stories and songs on request.
As part of the Live Borders summer camp programme, Lyndsay ran weekly sessions throughout July for Borders Additional Needs Group (BANG). A gazebo was set up as a chill-out space with books, puppets, shakers, colouring in, board games and Lego. The Lego was a hit at all the sessions.
At the Great Tapestry of Scotland in Galashiels, Lyndsay ran morning and afternoon sessions of Bookbug activities on three alternate weeks. Participants travelled from as far as Peebles, Innerleithen and Denholm – showing how much the sessions were needed and appreciated.
Floors Castle in Kelso waived its usual admission charge for the Bookbug participants and they were encouraged to enjoy the gardens and grounds before and after the session. Floors Castle had the highest number of attendees, with 804 people. Forty-seven adults and 61 babies attended the first session, so the subsequent sessions were split into two sessions each week to accommodate the large numbers, with an average of 30 adults each session. The youngest participant was only three days old, with older siblings also welcome.
Wonderful
Overall, the sessions were extremely successful and reached 1,001 people. The events were promoted on the partner venues’ social media platforms, which helped to raise awareness. The success of this outreach initiative highlights the importance of having such sessions during school holidays.
Feedback from participants has been extremely positive. A representative of Floors Castle said:
We have loved having Bookbug here at Floors and are delighted that it was enjoyed by so many. Thank you, Lyndsay, for reaching out to us and for your wonderful Bookbug sessions. We would be more than happy to welcome Bookbug back to Floors in the future.
We are huge story lovers here and understand how important the likes of Bookbug sessions are for the development of young children and families. There is clearly a great local interest and demand for Bookbug.
Another person said:
People forget that we aren’t ruled by school holidays when our kids are this small so it’s a pity that everything stops for the holidays. This has definitely been a Godsend!