Good Practice

Libraries and Civic Centre Closer to Citizens

Decentralised public facilities with schedules to ensure citizens can access them.

Terrassa City Council
Catalonia
Local policy

POLICY OBJECTIVE

Decentralise services by offering a significant number of them at city council libraries and civic centres which also host programmes and activities for people of all ages.

CONTEXT

These facilities offer extensive opening hours, both morning and afternoon, as well as a wide range of activities for all ages. To reach all citizens, the network offers a range of special services for people with disabilities.

POLICY DESCRIPTION

The “Home Library” project, with the collaboration of the Red Cross and volunteers, offers a home loan and reading service for people with reduced mobility.

Bibliomóbil is a joint service of the Terrassa Centre Business Association and Terrassa Public Library Service. It offers a document lending service in various squares in the historic centre and makes reading more accessible to the elderly, people with reduced mobility and the general public. City libraries also have document drop boxes, and borrowed documents can be returned to any library in the municipality.

The “Boomerang” project lets citizens request documents from other libraries. Documents are sent by courier service to the requesting library, requiring no travel on the part of users. Additionally, an inter-library loan service enables library users to obtain titles not available in Terrassa libraries from other libraries outside the city. Online services exist as well, such as the online information service, online municipal services and more.

The “Question” Project, an online information service of the Barcelona Provincial Council’s Municipal Libraries Network, connects people to librarians, who respond to inquiries within 72 hours.

Online municipal services promote the use of personal time by offering document reservations and loan renewals, library card applications and at-home access to assorted information and resources through Terrassa’s bibliographic database (daBi’T), the digital newspaper archive, MP3 audiobook downloads, “virtual shelves” and more.

KEY ASPECTS

Indicators to assess communication channels and actions include:

  • Newsletters sent: 12 (348,558 users reached)
  • Posts: 160
  • Tweets: 820
  • Videos published: 14
  • Followers: 2896
  • Stories: 213

RESULTS

  • New user cards: 2,188
  • Total library cards: 100,862
  • Total books lent: 88,882
  • Total audiovisual and other media: 27,870
  • Online renewals: 47,009
  • Virtual loans: 26,104
  • Total documents lent: 189,865
  • Inter-library loans: 16,067 (lent) Inter-library loans: 15,793 (received)
  • Drop-in activities: 254
  • Sign-up activities: 448
  • Number of visitor sessions: 283,796

Review: Maybe only choose 2-3 impact data on libaries and add data on civic centre

Joan

Chicón

Director for European and International Affairs

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