By Ottery St Mary Friends of Phyllis Baxter Action Group.

We have all found ourselves, at some point in our lives, having to step into someone else’s shoes and wondered if we could continue the good work done by our predecessor or make changes that would mark our journey through that task if not differently but as successfully.

With Xanthe, our energetic former library Supervisor unsurprisingly promoted to wider new pastures, leaving in the spring Kerry Carr 'officially' took up the Supervisor mantle in August for in the meantime Annette & Kerry had steadfastly and professionally kept things on track during the spring/summer and enthusiastically faced the challenge of dealing with a very busy Ottery St Mary Library.

Realising the challenges this situation brought to Kerry and her team and how difficult it must have been to juggle the situation, or, in the words of a member of FOOL, for “Kerry herself has had a time getting her ducks in a row in her library”, we went to the source of one of the most popular, professional, friendly and efficient services we have in Ottery as we wanted to know what the last six months had brought and what Kerry and her team had in mind to offer in 2023.

“Thank you for the lovely introduction. I feel privileged to hold this position at the library and would love to thank all our staff, volunteers, customers and the community for their support. The success of our library really is a team effort. I hit the ground running last year, starting my new role in the middle of our busiest time of year – the Summer Reading Challenge. It was a lovely time to be in the library – to see all the children so passionate about books and reading. To date, I have found my new role to be both varied and interesting. My favourite day of the week is a Friday – starting the day with lots of happy singing in the library at Bounce & Rhyme, followed by greeting babies & their parents/carers coming to use our baby weigh station, chats and swapping book recommendations with lots of our regular customers, getting my knitting needles out for Craft & a Cuppa in the afternoon and then ending with Lego Club – it is a very social day.

“I have lots of plans for our library in this upcoming year, I can’t reveal them all but I can say that my next priority is to reopen on a Tuesday night with our volunteer led Library Extra Session. The volunteers do a fantastic job at opening the library for us on a Wednesday at present and it will be great to offer the community another day to be able to access our library, especially as the Tuesday session will have later opening times (5pm-7pm), to cater for people who work 9-5. Please keep an eye out in the library & on our website and Facebook page to find out when this will start.

“Following on from our ‘Stories with Santa’ event in December, I am hoping to be able to offer more regular Storytime events, some of which will have a twist! We are already looking forward to and planning this year's Summer Reading Challenge and hope to be able to offer a full programme of events over the summer holidays, including ‘LitCraft’ which helps children discover a love of reading with a little help from Minecraft. Intrigued? Watch this space.

“Our library has so much to offer to our community, beyond our books of all shapes and sizes. We also have a Home Library Service for those customers who are unable to get into the library (whether on a temporary or permanent basis), computers, Wi-Fi, printing and photocopying facilities, access to eBooks, magazines & papers and e-Audio books, jigsaw puzzles, various groups and events for all ages, a meeting room available for hire and a permanent book sale, raising money for Libraries Unlimited, the charity that runs the library service in Devon and Torbay.

“Luckily for us, we also host Barclays Bank fortnightly on a Monday who offer one to one IT support for our customers & as well as banking advice and support. We are happy for people to come and keep warm, relax or work in the library and enjoy all we have to offer. I welcome feedback, so if there are any additional ways that we can support you, our community, please pop in and have a chat. The team at Ottery Library look forward to welcoming you soon.”