Meet the Team – Creative Learning Advisors

We recently caught up with Sylvia Main – Children & Families Libraries Lead for ANGUSalive and our three amazing Creative Learning Advisors; Avril, Sarah, and Jane to find out a little more about the work they do and what makes them tick.

In 2018 the library service introduced a specialised team to plan, develop and implement a programme supporting all aspects of working with children and families in Libraries and Museums.

These new roles would enable a consistent, dedicated, enthusiastic team to support the library and Museum offering to schools, early years, and the wider community. We wanted to learn more about the role and asked the team how they all came to be in the role of Creative Learning Advisor (CLA).

Avril started with the team in September 2022. Before this Avril worked as part of the Communities Team as well as an Early Years Practitioner (EYP). She has always loved visiting that library service and when her children were babies, Avril took them along to Bookbug sessions and saw how beneficial it was to share stories and sing to them.

Sarah joined the team after completing her art degree at University (Duncan of Jordanstone) and felt her creative skills would be put to good use.

Jane worked in Forfar Library for 16 years, delivering Bookbug as part of her Library Assistant role and developing key skills through the completion of Scottish Book Trust lead training, obtaining her SQA award as a Bookbug Rhyme time leader and went on to graduate as a Bookbug session trainer.

Each member of the CLA team brings their own experiences and qualities from childcare to creativity and qualified experience of delivering sessions for little ones.

There is much more to the role of a CLA then Bookbug and the team can often find themselves visiting schools and nurseries, gifting Bookbug and Read Write Count bags, support school classes visiting their local library as well as welcoming local groups, such as Rainbows and Cubs, visiting their libraries as part of their badge work. With such a wide variety in their day-to-day role we asked the team to tell us what they thought was the best part of the job.

At the heart of the team’s answers were the children that they have the pleasure of engaging with.

Sylvia and Jane, both said the best part of the job was working with a group of children, and you can see they are holding on to every word of the story to find out what is going to happen next. Sitting down with the children and sharing books, songs and rhymes and watching them develop into confident little readers is hugely rewarding. Avril also referenced her enjoyment of engaging with the families that attend Bookbug sessions helping to instil a love of books with children.

“The best part of my job is working with the schools. I think it’s great to be able to bring children into the libraries and museums, who might not get the opportunity to come in any other time. I always hope that by running our workshops, the children will discover how great our libraries and museums are and will become life-long users of our services. I also love being able to visit our rural schools. It’s amazing being able to bring all the things our services have to offer to these more remote places since it isn’t as easy for them to visit us during school time”. – Sarah

Avril also thinks that the best part of the job is the team that she works with noting she is part of a great team with the other CLA’s as well as the staff at the libraries and museums.

Finally, we asked the team to tell us their favourite children’s book and hope their choices give you some inspiration for your next library visit.

Sylvia: Dogger by Shirley Hughes. I have great memories of reading the story to my two children for many years.

Avril: Whales on the Bus by Nick Sharratt, which is a very funny singing book and was recently in one of the Bookbug bags.

Sarah: What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson. It’s a great one for the children joining in with. It’s full of great animal noises and there is nothing better than having a group of children having fun pretending to be ducks.

Jane: Bunnies on the Bus by Philip Ardagh and Ben Mantle.

Find your little one’s new favourite story at: https://angus.spydus.co.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/MSGTRN/WPAC/HOME