Library Profile
Dementia Services Development Centre Library
Eileen Richardson
In 1989 Mary Marshall founded the Dementia Services Development Centre to improve and extend services to people with dementia and their carers. The centre was then, and still is part of the Applied Social Sciences Department at the University of Stirling. Professor Marshall is still the Director of the centre, which has grown in reputation and prominence, and is now housed in purpose-built accommodation, on campus at Stirling. Back in 1989 the library consisted of Professor Marshall’s own books and papers, and has grown over the intervening years into a collection of some 15,000 items on the specialist subject of dementia care. Averil Harrison was the librarian who built this collection, and developed the service from its earliest beginnings. I took over early in 2002, when the centre was poised to move into a brand new building.
The new building has been named after Iris Murdoch, who had Alzheimer’s disease, and it was officially opened in April 2003 by Dame Judi Dench, who played Iris Murdoch in the film Iris. The building serves as a design exemplar for dementia-friendly public buildings, with many features which designers and architects need to consider when designing for people with dementia, both for public buildings and specialist accommodation. The use of colour, contrasts, signage and clarity of purpose are important themes. The building has a training suite with full conference facilities for up to 150 delegates, a gallery displaying works of art from numerous arts projects for people with dementia, the open plan office which houses the library, a courtyard garden, and a suite of self-catering accommodation for visiting academics and researchers, often from overseas. Open days are held frequently, with a talk by Professor Marshall, tours of the building and garden, refreshments, and an opportunity to visit the library. The next open day is on 16 January. Contact the centre for details.
DSDC services
The centre’s customers are healthcare and social work professionals, planners, managers, researchers and students. Personal carers are also frequent visitors, although we often refer them to Alzheimer Scotland - Action on Dementia, who offer more practical advice and information on local services. The centre’s services include training, research, consultancy, and a range of publications for sale, as well as the library and information service.
The Library
The library had outgrown its old accommodation to the extent that climbing on top of desks and using stepladders to reach the top shelves was common practice. These inconveniences were outweighed by the views from every window - how many campuses can boast of hills, woods, a loch and a castle, plus wildlife? My first few weeks were spent, when not climbing on furniture or distracted by the view, on planning the new library. It was to be placed in the centre of a large, open-plan office space, its purpose should be obvious, colour scheme and shelving height had to fall within certain parameters, but otherwise I had a great deal of freedom with layout and choice of furniture.
Being in an open plan space also allows some flexibility and room for expansion. We allowed for a growth in stock of 30% before we would have to stock edit just to make space. Stock editing does take place, but more from the point of view of the age and relevance of the item, and most of these are archived rather than thrown out. This is a growing subject area, and the volume of printed material is on the increase, so collection development is high on our agenda. Generally we buy single copies, but increasingly we are buying several copies of standard texts to support courses run by DSDC and Stirling University.
We moved in less than two years ago and already the library has changed shape several times, and is about to do so again. This time the rearrangement will be to give us more control over access to the library by reducing access points to a single one.
LIS
We welcome visitors to the library, but since it is quite small, located in an open-plan office, and not staffed full-time (I work full-time, with one part-time assistant), it cannot accommodate large numbers of visitors at one time. We operate an appointments system to ensure that library users have space to browse and study, and that help is on hand at all times.
The enquiry service offers database searches on topics related to people with dementia and their carers. The database operates as the library’s catalogue, as far as finding books and journals is concerned, but in addition to that, each item has a descriptive summary, and relevant journal articles are catalogued individually. This level of cataloguing has made it possible to develop the current awareness service which we are launching at the present time. The main content of this monthly email service will be recent library acquisitions of books, reports and journal articles on dementia care topics. In addition, it will include a digest of recent news items from daily newspapers, a training and events calendar, and a hot topic section which will feature web links, articles and library resources on some of the burning issues which concern those working in this field. For a sample copy please contact me at the email address below.
The enquiry service, and we anticipate the current awareness service will also, lead on to requests for document delivery. We can provide photocopies of journal articles if we hold the original journal, and we offer this service independently to our own customers, as a provider library member of the SHINE network, and within our own network of UK Dementia Services Development Centres (of 13 in the UK and Ireland, we are the only Scottish centre, and the largest information provider).
My hope for the future is to extend the library and information service to a potential worldwide market. We already have many contacts overseas, and with plans in the pipeline to overhaul our website we would have an opportunity to reach a wider audience.
Eileen Richardson
Library & Information Manager
Dementia Services Development Centre
Iris Murdoch Building
University of Stirling
FK9 4LA
01786 467740
eileen.richardson@stir.ac.uk