Features / New chapter beckons for Fraser after more than 25 years in library service
BACK when Karen Fraser started working in libraries in Shetland, some 26 years ago, they were still using yellow tickets to issue books.
It is fair to say a lot of things have changed since – computerisation, electronic and audio books, reading habits, and the Lerwick library flitting across Lower Hillhead and back, to name but a few.
“There have been lots of changes, but one of the most important things the library still does is just being here as a free, safe and welcoming space that everyone can use,” the Shetland Library manager says. “There’s nowhere else quite like it.”
But today (Wednesday) marks the end of an era in the Shetland Library as Fraser hangs up her boots and heads towards retirement.
You have to rewind back to the turn of the Millennium to find her first foray into working in libraries.
After an admittedly “less than illustrious career doing a variety of things”, she managed to land a job as a temporary school library assistant at the Anderson High School in Lerwick covering maternity leave.
Fraser then managed to “hang on in” as a public library assistant, before getting a librarian job in 2005.
“Then when my boss Silvia Crook retired in 2011 I got this executive manager job,” she continues.
“Librarian was my favourite job – I got to order the books, start book groups, plan events, promotions and displays – all the fun stuff really.”
When asked what attracted her to working in a library, Fraser says she thought it would be a “fine change from the fish factory” – but she did use libraries a lot, and appreciated what they did.
“I wasn’t sure how I’d get on with the teenagers at the Anderson High School but they were remarkably nice to me,’ Fraser reflects.
“If I had thought it was possible to get a library job I might have gone for it at an earlier age, but when I was young I don’t think I ever had council jobs on my radar.”
One of the biggest changes in the last 20-odd years was the Shetland Library’s move from the premises at Lower Hillhead it previously shared with the museum to the former St Ringans church – just a matter of metres away – in 2002.
But some 20 years it returned to its old premises – much revamped and refurbished, reopening there in late 2021.
Fraser describes the St Ringans move as a “beautiful refurbishment”.
“In some ways it was well thought out because we got a dedicated space for ‘People’s Network’ computers, a very important development for libraries at that time,” she says.
But it lacked room for books and social spaces too, and after councillors signed off the old premises’ refurbishment in the 2010s, a move back was in motion.
“In fact we never really moved out of the 1966 building, as we had to keep offices, event space and book stock there,” Fraser adds.
“That said, the museum didn’t move out to Hay’s Dock until years later so it’s not as if the whole of the old building was vacant for us just to expand into.
“Also it did need a major refurbishment so one way or another we’d have had to move out for some years.
“We made St Ringans work for us, but it was inefficient and getting the chance to move back was great.”
In early 2020 the library’s “back room operations” were moved out to the old Anderson High School, but then the Covid pandemic hit.
But late 2021, however, thanks to a “massive team effort from us, the contractors and Davie Wiseman’s removers” the move back was completed.
Fraser says the revamped library has been a hit with customers from day one, and has increased visitor numbers too, so she agrees with the view that it is back in its rightful home.
“It looks bright and welcoming, especially on the dark winter nights, and people have made it their own.”
More change over the last 26 years can be found in modernisation, and how people consume books and literature.
Gone are the yellow tickets, and in their place are online catalogues and computerisation.
This is “good in many ways, but managing systems adds extra layers of complexity”, Fraser adds.
Public computers also quickly became essential and staff have had to “adapt and keep learning to keep up”.
“Our staff’s customer skills are at least as important as their digital skills because it’s all about being able to support people of all ages,” Fraser says.
She also points to the introduction of Bookbug, the scheme which has been on the go for more than 15 years and aims to encourage bairns to enjoy stories, songs and rhymes.
“It has become one of the most important things we do – a big investment in early years, bringing so many young families into the library,” Fraser says.
“Again our staff have risen to the challenge because leading a group of parents and babies would be terrifying for most folk, me for example.”
The popularity of eBooks and eAudio continues to increase too, while the rise of the Internet and information at the touch of a button has had an effect – reducing non-fiction lending in particular.
“There are so many things we’d all Google now rather than borrowing a book,” Fraser concedes.
“Reading a proper book is still a good antidote to scrolling, however – [it’s] far better for your wellbeing and powers of concentration, and I think history, travel and biographies are still popular.”
The library manager reveals she herself has joined the “audiobook brigade”, which has allowed her read more as she listens while doing other things at the same time.
While the advent of social media and allure of screen time has given risen to challenges too, Fraser says school library staff “do all they can” to foster the reading habit in youngsters.
“We are lucky to have integrated school libraries because we can get most bairns a library card by the time they are in P1,” she says.
“It is more of a challenge when young people get their first mobile phone but staff find ways to tempt most of them into some reading, finding things that match their interests.”
So what have been the most popular types of books Fraser has seen stamped out of the library over the last few decades?
Shetland books still lend well, she says, and there are a lot being published – “the amount of stock in the Shetland Room is quite a revelation to folk”.
Local men, meanwhile, continue to have a big interest in anything to do with ships and boats.
“I think crime dominates adult fiction more nowadays, a big expansion in Scottish crime for example, and Scandi Noir was one of the first trends I picked up on as a librarian,” Fraser adds.
“Shetland crime became a thing of course – Ann Cleeves launched Raven Black here in 2006 and the whole thing took off, then the Marsali [Taylor] series launched and she is still writing one a year.”
For children, authors like Julia Donaldson and even Enid Blyton “seem to keep going forever”, and for many years now the Wimpy Kid books have “totally dominated the top ten for older primary bairns”.
“Harry Potter was just becoming a phenomenon when I started and is still being endlessly borrowed in eAudio – always waiting lists, it never ends,” Fraser adds.
But these days the library is not just books – it is place to enjoy a sofa and a newspaper, a quiet haven to work on your laptop, a space for children to play Lego or board games.
Fraser is quick to reel off a list of highlights from her time working in the library – from a pub crawl with a famous Scottish author to poems in public toilets, visits from musicians and just about everything else.
Oh, and there is that infamous – but thankfully lighthearted – Twitter ’spat’ with library peers in Orkney in a classic Northern Isles rivalry.
“A fantastic Zimbabwean band called Grass Roots came to play a short afternoon gig in St Ringans once and they packed the place out and blew the roof off,” she reflects.
“We once had circus performers in St Ringans too.
“[There were] lots of great visiting authors or sometimes famous people just dropping by – John Hegley, Liz Lochead, Jackie Kay, the Rev Richard Coles.”
She says being included in a book festival pre-party by Alec Cluness, and going on a pub crawl with Iain Banks, were also highlights.
“Bairds in the Bog, putting poetry in public toilets…Twitter sparring with Orkney Library and ‘Librarians on Loan’, a staff exchange we did with them,” she adds.
“Filming of ‘Shetland’ scenes in the library. Running a Bad Language Night with sweary readings.
“Our book group shadowing the Booker prize and getting invited to the shortlist party in London.
“A lot of these highlights are before I got the exec manager job, as then life became slightly less fun.”
But she says a real highlight was how the close-knit library team pulled together during the Covid pandemic to provide services from home and get open again quickly.
Fraser says she had “total pride at seeing the mobile staff take the first home deliveries out after lockdown”.
“I will miss the staff in the library and the wider council,” she adds, “and in fact managers in other authorities, because libraries across Scotland are a bit of a community.”
With Fraser set to move on, a new chapter beckons for the manager, and for the library itself.
But, it will no doubt carry on flourishing, because – as she says – there is nowhere else quite like it.
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