Tale of two cities: UK library twins with French counterpart

Paris library Place des Fetes and Westminster's Church Street share a unique 'entente cordiale', and hope more will follow suit

by: Julie Gadault

In Westminster, closer working with neighbouring Kensington & Chelsea and Hammersmith & Fulham councils as part of the tri-borough arrangement has helped to save libraries from closure.

With that success, it is natural to ask if there are any other innovative partnerships that could benefit residents?

It's something I thought soon after joining Church Street library in Westminster four years ago. Before coming to London in 2010, I spent two years working for library services in my native Paris and regularly used my local library at Places des Fetes, where I knew the staff very well.

Place des Fetes has a similar local resident base to Church Street library – it is an area less affluent than other parts of the city, with the library itself neighbouring a social housing estate and in regular close-working with local youth organisations.

It occurred to me how much each library had in common with one another and how an official relationship between the two – an entente cordiale perhaps – might be something which would have great benefits.

Having approached managers and councillors with a plan for a pilot twinning project (which was given the OK), Church Street library and Places des Fetes became the first libraries from two European capitals to be twinned with one another in autumn 2013.

As well as having more opportunities to share best practice, books are exchanged and cultural events held throughout the year to provide an additional resource to those on both sides of the Channel.

There are an estimated 400,000 French people living in London (making the English capital "France's fifth largest city" by population), but there is not much on offer in London libraries for them. The twinning scheme serves as a way to provide something to French expats in London and British expats living in Paris.

The number of books exchanged between the two libraries has now reached 200, meaning library users in Westminster will have access to a range of modern and classic titles by renowned French authors such as Frederic Beigbeder, Michel Houellebecq and JMG Le Clezio. Both libraries regularly hold cultural events, including children's arts events, coffee mornings and language drop-in sessions.

At Church Street library, a modern pen pal project has also been arranged between pupils at the local King Solomon academy and the Parisian school College Budé, who use the Place des Fetes library.

The twinning project has not been without its problems and challenges. We've had a slow response from French expats in London dropping in to our library, although we do expect this to pick up soon. The language drop-in sessions and cultural events have proved popular with residents, and are among our best attended events.

The aim of the pilot project has always been to keep costs to an absolute minimum, so the only expense to the council has been my time in putting on the events and language sessions. The rest of the project has involved a great deal of volunteering, including me carrying book exchanges on personal trips back home to see family and friends, to ensure it works.

The pen pal project has really taken off, and students from King Solomon Academy in Westminster are due to head out to meet their friends at College Bude in April. We hope this will help the education of young people in both local areas, and improve their employment prospects later in life.

The library twinning project is something other councils may want to consider, if, for example, they have a diverse local population or if language results in local schools could do with improving.

After thinking about how twinning might be benefit your area you will need to convince those in your organisation to make it happen.

Reaching out to other towns to twin with can be difficult. I was lucky to have strong links in Paris to begin with, but you shouldn't let that deter you.

Westminster is monitoring the success of the pilot twinning of Church Street and Place des Fetes libraries over the course of this year before considering a roll-out of the programme. There is the potential to even twin other libraries in Westminster with those in other European capitals.

Other councils could do the same, perhaps even establishing a specialist language at each library in a borough, which wouldn't necessarily need to stop at our European borders, but could extend to include other world languages such as Chinese and Japanese.

Budget constraints shouldn't be an obstacle if you share the same passion for libraries and languages that I do, and are willing to go the extra mile.

Julie Gadault is senior library assistant at Westminster city council.

from: Guardian