St Helier Children's Library, Jersey

Jersey Chief Librarian Ed Jewell explains the thinking behind the recently-revamped Children’s Library in St Helier and how the project progressed, and talks about reaction to the changes.

1. Why did you focus on the children’s area?

Children and families are very much at the heart of our library service. Our regular programmes of baby bounce sessions, story times, author visits and holiday activities underpin a key service supporting children’s literacy. It’s important to us that children associated reading and the library with high quality services in a welcoming, safe and inspirational environment. Our much loved and heavily used Children’s Library in St. Helier’s Town Library was starting to look decidedly tired and dated, so when funding was identified early in 2024 we decided the time was right for a refit.

2. What was your vision?

We set out to create a library that would engage and inspire, to create a Children’s Library would be a ‘destination venue’ for children. We knew from initial conversations with children and parents that they wanted space for activities and also nooks to curl up with a book in. Alongside that we needed a space that would be flexible, to allow for large events as well as quieter reading spaces.

3. What was your budget?

I can’t divulge details of spend for commercial reasons, but given that we were looking at the full refit of a large space, including carpeting, electrics, lighting and decorating (before we moved onto furniture and shelving) this was a significant project for us to manage, with a number of local contractors working alongside the Design Concept team.

4. How did you find working with the designers?

Given the geographic challenges we posed, being an ‘off-shore’ customer, working with Design Concept went better than expected. Regular online meetings were supplemented by in-person visits, to check measurements etc. The week of the fit-out was like something from Changing Rooms, as Design Concept arrived on-island en masse and set to work with great purpose and focus. Where necessary new parts and decorations were swiftly sent across from the mainland, ensuring the refit stayed on track and we were able to reopen ahead of time.

5. What was your reaction to the designs?

It was great to be able to walk through 3D renderings of the designs. This was really helpful for the team to get a sense of how the space would work, plan out stock layout and pick up any issues that needed to be addressed before the refit. As the designs developed we were able to share them with key stakeholders, including our Ministerial Team, communications team and community partners. This was really helpful in terms of sharing the vision for the space as we closed the old Children’s Library for the refit.

6. With hindsight, is there anything you would have done differently?

The one thing we overlooked were laminates for the back windows. During the refit the windows were masked over, to avoid any prying eyes getting a preview of what was going on. Once the masking was removed we realised, though, that the motor bikes parked outside were quite distracting to the overall sea theme. In the new year we’ll look at installing laminate images in the windows to give a better sense of unity to the theme as a whole, as well as increase privacy for children in the Library.

7. What has been the reaction from customers and staff?

It’s been wonderful to hear the reactions of children as they walk into the new Children’s Library and to see how they interact with the space. It’s not unusual to see young jaws drop as they cross the threshold and to hear wails of disappointment as parents try to take small people home. We very much wanted to keep books and reading at the heart of the new Children’s Library, for it to really encourage reading. The new design has succeeded in achieving this. We frequently see children sat in the various reading nooks, absolutely lost in a book. The story telling area is proving popular, particularly the story throne, and the sensory kiosk.

The practical details have also worked well. The noise baffling clouds have helped calm excited sounds escaping into the rest of the Library and the feeding chair went viral on X locally, after a mum posted her appreciation of it. It’s fair to say Design Concept have delivered on their brief of creating a space that engages and inspires.