 |
 |
Hi, We've had a coffee machine for the last four years and it has been a rip roaring success! It has brought more people in to the library and it has generated a fair amount of income for the trust. We have branched out into selling biscuits, flapjacks and fruit teas, too, and we have always offered free sweets. People like the ambience. Sometimes users leave empty cups around, but we countered that by providing plenty of bins rather than posters ordering them to put their rubbish away. In my experience, people don't read posters anyway unless you include a deliberate spelling mistake. We bought our machine and we have a maintenance contract. You ought to consider the costs of this - we have called out the engineer on quite a few times, not because the machine is bad quality, but just because of the amount of use it gets. We are now considering replacing it, although if we had room we would get an additional machine to cope with demand. You might want to consider where your library is situated, too. We are in an Education Centre and lots of staff come over for training, but they don't have time to go back to the main site in their coffee breaks, so we get all that custom. It does mean that at certain times of the day the library desk is overwhelmed with people paying for drinks sachets, but it's a wonderful marketing ploy. It can get a bit noisy, but usually only at these times. Hope that helps, but please contact me direct if you would like any further information. Laura Laura Wilkes LLB Hons. MCLIP Trust Librarian/Innovation Scout West Suffolk NHS Trust [log in to unmask] Tel. 01284 713112 The Library...First4Knowledge - follow us on Twitter wshlibrary Want to find online resources? Need to know what your local nhs library can do for you? Go to www.eel.nhs.uk or www.wsh.nhs.uk/library ________________________________ From: UK medical/ health care library community / information workers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jenny Lang Sent: 02 May 2013 10:13 To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Coffee Machines in Libraries Hello all I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before but quite a while ago; please does anyone have any experience of providing coffee machines in hospital libraries and if so what is that experience, or have you thought about it and dismissed it and if so why? Many thanks! Best wishes Jenny Jenny Lang Head Librarian Healthcare Library Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust Salisbury Wiltshire SP2 8BJ 01722 336262 ext 4469 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> Access the library website at www.library.salisbury.nhs.uk<http://www.library.salisbury.nhs.uk/>