Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 7

13 May 2004

Gosport Discovery Centre - Children's Library

Report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage

Contact: Chris Edwards (01962 826703) / John Parry (01962 846967)

1. Summary

1.1 The following decisions are sought:

i) That the Executive Member for Recreation and Heritage agrees to the Children's Library being located on the ground floor of Gosport Discovery Centre.

ii) and supports the inclusion of other new services as listed in the responses to the public consultation survey .

2. Reason

2.1 During the public consultation on the development of Gosport Discovery Centre, Hampshire County Council was requested to reconsider the proposed location of the Children's Library within the Centre.

2.2 Having reconsidered the options, it is now recommended that the Children's Library be located on the ground floor. Other services will be relocated accordingly.

2.3 The public consultation shows broad support for the introduction of new services, whilst retaining core library services within the Centre.

3. Other Options Considered and Rejected.

3.1 To locate the Children's Library on other floors within the Discovery Centre.

4. Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker or other Executive Member consulted.

None

5. Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee

Not applicable

6. Reasons for the matter being dealt with if urgent.

Not applicable

Approved by: Date:

............................... ........................

Councillor J.Waddington

Hampshire County Council

Recreation and Heritage Policy Review Committee Item 13

13th May 2004

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 7

13th May 2004

Gosport Discovery Centre - Children's Library

Report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage

Contact: Chris Edwards (01962 826703) / John Parry (01962 846967)

1. Introduction

1.1 During the public forum held in February as part of the public consultation process for Gosport Discovery Centre, concerns were expressed about the proposed location of the Children's Library on the first floor of the Discovery Centre and Hampshire County Council were asked to reconsider the issue.

1.2 It was decided to test out these concerns with the wider public in the planned postal survey of Gosport residents to be conducted in March 2004. A total of 3,193 questionnaires were posted to a systematic random sample of residents [10% of all households]. 757 questionnaires were returned by the end of March deadline.

2. Public view concerning children's library location

2.1 Of the 757 completed questionnaires, 26% did not express an opinion concerning the location of the children's library.

2.2 Of those residents who did express a preference, the preferred option overall was for Option 3 [move the children's library to the ground floor alongside the planned `teenzone']. (see appendix 1)

2.3 Among parents with children, Option 3 and Option 2 [move children's library to ground floor while moving `teenzone' to first floor] received equal preference. (see appendix 1)

2.4 Both Option 3 and Option 2 support the move of the children's library to a ground floor location. Option 1, the least favoured option, was the only one advocating putting the children's library on the first floor.

2.5 Having reconsidered the general layout of services within the building, and taking particular account of the opinions expressed by the public during the consultation, the plans have been reviewed and it is now recommended that the Children's Library be located on the ground floor.

3. Facilities and Services

3.1 Other questions in the survey asked respondents which facilities and services they would like to see included within the Discovery Centre.

3.2 From the tables in Appendix 2 and 3, it is possible to see the profile of services and facilities as envisaged by respondents at this stage. It is possible that some of the newer concepts (e.g. café and shop) will not necessarily be as readily and quickly absorbed as others, and thus liable to attract lower ratings of importance. Only actual market testing will establish if this is in fact the case. Research in other areas where Discovery Centres or similar concepts are being introduced across the country, indicates that these services are in fact very popular and successful where they have been included.

3.3 The café, shop, play station loans, and areas to chat all had more than 10% of respondents overall marking them down as `not at all' in the importance ratings.

3.4 Respondents can be distinguished between `users' and 'non-users' and Appendix 2 shows the response ratings analysed in this way.

3.5 For the majority of services and facilities there is little difference between users and non-users in the importance they place on the services.

However, there are three services where significant differences do occur. These are: Business Resource Centre, Café and shop, where non-users feel it is far more important to provide this facility than do users. The implication of this is that any new facility is more likely to attract new users of these services from amongst those who are currently non-users, than current users of the library. This supports the key aim of Discovery Centres, to attract new audiences and provide a wider range of services to both new groups and to existing customers.

3.6 The term `users' here and in the tables refer to respondents who indicated they have visited the Gosport Library four or more times during the past 12 months. The term `non-users' refers to respondents who indicated they have visited Gosport Library a maximum of three times or not at all during the past 12 months.

3.7 The responses have also been analysed for importance by age, and the results can be found in Appendix 3.

3.8 From the table, there is a clear pattern showing that overall, the younger the adult age group, the wider the range of services and facilities they feel it is important to provide. The introduction of new services therefore supports the key aim of Discovery Centres to attract new and younger audiences.

3.9 Over 65's (and even more so among the over 75's) are much firmer and more vociferous about not introducing new services. That is an indication they are the group most likely to be upset by the introduction of a wider range of services. We will of course work to ensure that disruption to this group is minimised.

3.10 Overall, there is general agreement about which services it is important to provide. It is not surprising that those services rated as most important are the core library services and all age groups agree on the top 3 services/facilities - namely: books for loan, books for reference, and quiet areas to read, study and think. It is clear that these elements must stay at the core of a Discovery Centre.

Recommendation

That the Children's Library be located on the ground floor of Gosport Discovery Centre and other services as shown in the public survey be included within the building.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers.

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or in important part of it, are based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

N.B the list excludes:

1. Published Works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined by the Act.

TITLE LOCATION

Transcript of Public Meeting 12.2.04 Discovery Centre Project Team files

Report of Gosport Public Consultation Survey Discovery Centre Project Team files

Appendix 1

CHILDRENS LIBRARY LOCATION

The options available to choose from in the public survey were:

Option 1

Put the children's library on the 1^st floor

Option 2

Put the children's library on the ground floor in the proposed young people's area. Move the young people's area to the 1^st floor

Option 3

Put the children's library alongside the young people's area on the ground floor.

No Preference

Notes:

The above questions were asked. Alongside each option, a list of advantages and disadvantages were tabled to help inform respondents.

Respondents ranked their options in order of preference

Percentage Preference

%	Overall	Residents with children aged 5 and under	Residents with children aged 6 to 12	Residents with children aged 13 to 17	All residents with children (Mean average score)
Option 1	30	31	36	30	32
Option 2	31	34	34	34	34
Option 3	39	35	30	36	34
Total	100	100	100	100	100

.

Appendix 2

Facilities and Services

Respondents were asked which facilities and services they felt should be provided in the building. (Rating importance on a scale of 1 to 5, and an option of `not at all'). The average rating for all services and facilities overall is: 3.59

`Very Important' ratings (4-5)

	Overall	Users*	Non-users*
Books for loan	4.83	4.90	4.76
Books for reference	4.44	4.50	4.38
Quiet areas to read, study and think	4.43	4.52	4.35
Staff customer service skill	4.23	4.16	4.28
Easily accessible public toilets	4.20	4.17	4.25
Easy to use lifts	4.12	4.11	4.15
Children's designated area	4.09	4.06	4.12
Staff visibility	4.02	3.98	4.05
Study facilities	4.01	3.96	4.07

`Important' ratings (3-4)

Area dedicated to young people	3.89	3.84	3.99
Local history services	3.87	3.89	3.84
Adult education opportunities / access to knowledge	3.87	3.86	3.88
CD's, video, DVD loans	3.79	3.82	3.76
Extended opening hours	3.76	3.72	3.81
One-stop ground floor information kiosk	3.72	3.55	3.87
Internet and email	3.60	3.47	3.73
Careers information, resource and advice centre	3.60	3.35	3.86
Museum, exhibits and interpretation	3.53	3.43	3.63
Taster sessions (e.g. internet, local history, genealogy, etc.)	3.52	3.51	3.51
IT learning suite	3.51	3.36	3.67
The naval collection	3.49	3.56	3.42
CD roms	3.44	3.43	3.44
Express service (collection of popular books located on the ground floor)	3.43	3.28	3.59
Exhibition area	3.33	3.31	3.34
Self issue and drop-off point	3.33	3.22	3.45
Flexible space for events and exhibitions	3.13	3.07	3.19
Business resource centre	3.01	2.79	3.24

`Neutral' ratings (2-3)

Specialist lectures	2.93	2.89	2.95
Cafe	2.88	2.57	3.19
Meeting / training rooms for hire	2.80	2.66	2.95
Areas to chat, discuss things and make some noise	2.73	2.53	2.96
Shop	2.39	2.11	2.66
Play station game loans	2.19	2.10	2.29

There were no less important ratings (mean average score: 1-2), or much less important ratings (mean average score: 0-1) overall.

Appendix 3

Importance by Age:

	Overall	18-34	35-44	45-54	55-64	65+
Mean average scores for all services and facilities	3.59	3.73	3.65	3.60	3.66	3.38

Overall very positive ratings

Books for loan	4.83	4.88	4.96	4.80	4.87	4.68
Books for reference	4.44	4.46	4.43	4.49	4.58	4.28
Quiet areas to read, study and think	4.43	4.39	4.51	4.54	4.41	4.33
Staff customer service skill	4.23	4.26	4.11	4.30	4.24	4.22
Easily accessible public toilets	4.20	4.36	4.06	4.16	4.29	4.19
Easy to use lifts	4.12	4.22	4.01	4.09	4.20	4.12
Children's designated area	4.09	4.34	4.34	4.11	4.14	3.69
Staff visibility	4.02	4.08	3.92	4.06	4.15	3.91
Study facilities	4.01	4.14	4.28	4.19	3.99	3.58

Overall positive ratings

Area dedicated to young people	3.89	4.16	4.10	3.98	3.86	3.55
Local history services	3.87	3.66	3.76	3.78	4.12	3.90
Adult education opportunities /access to knowledge	3.87	4.05	3.88	3.91	3.94	3.68
CD's, video, DVD loans	3.79	4.18	4.07	3.81	3.74	3.42
Extended opening hours	3.76	3.86	4.00	3.86	3.88	3.31
One-stop ground floor information kiosk	3.72	3.76	3.59	3.68	3.86	3.69
Internet and email	3.60	4.03	3.89	3.46	3.72	3.12
Careers information, resource and advice centre	3.60	3.85	3.82	3.58	3.74	3.13
Museum, exhibits and interpretation	3.53	3.48	3.44	3.45	3.79	3.43
Taster sessions (internet/loc. history/genealogy, etc)	3.52	3.69	3.47	3.64	3.63	3.28
IT learning suite	3.51	3.86	3.82	3.47	3.58	3.02
The naval collection	3.49	3.38	3.39	3.47	3.60	3.55
CD roms	3.44	3.85	3.78	3.63	3.39	2.82
Express service (popular books on the ground floor)	3.43	3.32	3.40	3.42	3.47	3.47
Exhibition area	3.33	3.23	3.35	3.26	3.47	3.27
Self issue and drop-off point	3.33	3.55	3.53	3.40	3.30	2.99
Flexible space for events and exhibitions	3.13	3.01	3.01	3.03	3.33	3.19
Business resource centre	3.01	3.24	3.20	3.15	3.09	2.47

Overall neutral ratings

Specialist lectures	2.93	3.08	2.93	2.96	3.04	2.70
Cafe	2.88	2.98	2.89	2.91	3.05	2.62
Meeting / training rooms for hire	2.80	2.83	2.65	2.76	3.03	2.74
Areas to chat, discuss things and make some noise	2.73	3.42	3.08	2.69	2.50	2.32
Shop	2.39	2.53	2.23	2.22	2.69	2.33
Play station game loans	2.19	2.89	2.67	2.22	1.85	1.73