Page 12 of Twilight at Croftwood Library
‘Night, Oliver.’
He turned up the collar on his jacket against the cold of the late Autumn evening and pushed his hands into his jeans’ pockets. The queue at the taxi rank thankfully wasn’t that long and he was relieved he was going to be able to have an early night as he was opening up the coffee house in the morning.
Where did Lois live, he wondered as the taxi headed out of the city. Not in Croftwood if she rode a bike to work. Maybe in Worcester. He seemed to remember that Rosemary had said she usually worked at the Hive. He wanted to find out, to know everything about her. Most of all he wanted to find out if she was feeling the same way as him.
7
Lois, Linda and Rosemary sat around the big table in the reference book area of the library ready for their meeting. Rosemary looked a little out of her comfort zone which Lois couldn’t help but feel pleased about; at least it meant she might be more receptive than she’d expected.
‘Shall I start by outlining a few of my ideas?’ began Lois, keen to end the awkwardness.
‘By all means,’ said Rosemary.
‘Linda and I have already switched over to using the live system for checking books in and out.’ She paused to gauge Rosemary’s reaction to this. Lois had thought she’d take it as a snub on the way she’d done things before, but her expression didn’t change. ‘And we’ve been issuing county library cards.’ So far, so good.
‘It’s gone very smoothly,’ added Linda, bravely.
‘So, I think the next thing I’d like to do is to add a bit of colour to the library with some genre-specific displays. In the Hive, we have small table-sized units with shelves underneath dotted around with a selection of similar titles grouped together. You might have one with thrillers, crime, romcoms, you know. It helps people find something new from a genre they already know or perhaps tempts them into trying a new genre altogether.’
‘I love that idea!’ said Linda. ‘When it’s Christmas we can have all the Christmas books in one place.’
‘Exactly. How do you feel about taking that on, Rosemary?’
‘I suppose I could…it’s quite unorthodox and it seems like a waste of effort given the future of the library.’
Lois took a breath. ‘I know you haven’t done it here before, but I think it could help to increase borrowing rates because it saves people from trawling through the shelves. It’s much easier for a cover to catch their eye. Once we get known for it, I think it will be a real draw. And I take your point about whether it’s worth us bothering but we’re here for six more months. Let’s send it out on a high.’
Linda looked thrilled. ‘Quite right, Lois.’
‘And how much time do you think it will take?’ asked Rosemary.
‘I know you must be very busy. Why don’t we go with Tuesday and Thursday mornings, if that suits you?’
‘That will do nicely. Thank you.’
‘Great, thank you, Rosemary. It’ll be a great help because Linda and I will struggle to find time for that. Probably why it hasn’t been adopted before,’ she said kindly.
‘Indeed. I shall see you tomorrow morning.’ Rosemary buttoned her coat and picked up her bag. She waited for Linda to return to the desk before she said, ‘Thank you, Lois.’ A little nod along with complete eye contact showed Lois how much she meant it.
‘No problem. See you tomorrow.’ She had made the right decision and had a feeling that it was going to work out just fine.
The next day, Rosemary was in the library when Lois arrived, though thankfully not behind the desk. She was browsing the shelves and had begun making a pile of books. Lois had already decided not to interfere but was pleased to see a CL Taylor title in amongst a pile of other thriller and suspense novels.
‘Morning, Rosemary.’
‘Good morning, Lois.’ Rosemary left what she was doing and came over to Lois. ‘I had a thought. I happened to be in Waterstones last week and they have recommendations written by the staff for various books. I wondered whether we might do something similar to put on the displays?’
‘Brilliant idea, Rosemary. Yes, if any of us have read anything you choose, we’ll write a brief review.’ Lois felt like she’d won something, she was so pleased that Rosemary was on board. ‘In fact, I could start you off with a review for that CL Taylor book.’
‘Wonderful,’ she said and went back to browsing the shelves.
‘I think you could call that a breakthrough,’ said Linda when Lois sat down behind the desk.
‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.’
Linda grinned. ‘Honestly, I’ve never seen Rosemary so willing to go along with anything before. It’s amazing.’
‘Well, thanks for suggesting it.’
