We are delighted to announce the launch of the Garden Library, based in the Four Seasons Café, Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust (BDCFT).
The Garden Library was officially opened by Chief Executive, Brent Kilmurray, as part of the Lynfest celebrations on 26th June 2019. Establishing library services for Service-Users/Carers has been an aim of ours for some time – this is largely in response to feedback from service users and staff . In November 2018 we received confirmation that we had been successful in a bid to Health Education England for funding to develop the project.
In the first instance the Garden Library will provide a range of fiction, non-fiction and wellbeing books, as well as health promotion leaflets and IT access. Over time we hope to develop other services, including a Patient Information Service and training, i.e. signposting service users and carers to good quality health information sources.
We consulted service users throughout, and they gave us feedback on the resources and collections they would find useful. Service users also suggested names for the new library – and we chose "The Garden Library” from among them. We will continue to get feedback, suggestions and ideas from service users as we develop the service.
The library is in the conservatory in the Four Seasons Café, which has been redecorated and refurbished with new blinds, shelving and furniture. It contains a leisure reading collection as well as a books to promote wellbeing and health promotion materials:
• Fiction books
• Non-fiction books
• Wellbeing books
• Books in a range of community languages
• Magazines
• Health promotion leaflets
• PC with internet access
People can borrow books by filling out a signing-out slip in the library and one of us will go regularly to the Garden Library to manage the collections. All feedback and suggestions for future development are welcome – please get in touch! (library.lynfield@bdct.nhs.uk)
Rebecca Williams
Bradford and District Care NHS Foundation Trust
