In Middlesbrough we look to use the Mobile Library service for groups of
elderly or disabled people who may not want or qualify for Housebound
Service (which is used for individuals who may be more isolated, or unable
to climb on the vehicle), and for whom access to a Branch is difficult. For
groups of elderly or disabled people who are not able to enter the vehicle
we provide a trolley service delivered by the same staff and vehicle.
My working definition of a group is "several people". If the number of
users declines to less than several we would consider a housebound option,
providing the user lives in Middlesbrough: some institutions have clients
bussed from neighbouring Boroughs. This may give us a problem with a person
who lives outside the Borough, but as yet we haven't had to face one.
We are hoping to replace our Deposit Collections (aimed at essentially the
same user group) with Mobile Library calls and are designing a new vehicle
capable of making more calls per trip.
Apart from numbers, we don't seek to justify the service through issues.
Length of time spent at a stop would depend on time available and whether
the people will let us leave. Arrival times are therefore only ever
approximate.
Alan Sandham, Delivered Services Librarian
original message:
Please respond to "Watkins, Viv (E&LL)" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent by: "lis-pub-libs: UK Public Libraries"
<[log in to unmask]>
01/04/04
Staffordshire -
> We no longer mention distance from a static library but look at each
> community according to need. Hence our move towards urban estates on the
> edge of towns.
> With any new stop we expect at least 3 households to use the service and
> use our 1.5 issues per minute as a guideline in establishing length of
> stop and monitoring use.
> However, we will do a housebound drop if it is located en route or within
> walking distance of an existing stop for mobile staff.
> Hope this helps
>
Viv.
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