On my first Wednesday at the BCC library I assisted with preparations for the visiting pantomime troupe, including setting up, greeting and seating, and head counting for audit purposes. Later I assisted with collection management by shelving fiction, biographies and non-fiction. Then over lunch I discussed the library's free adult education program for people without home computers and the elderly called User Ed IT which includes Introduction to Computers (focussing on Web and mouse); Introduction to the Internet; Introduction to Email; Advanced Internet; Advanced Email; ‘I’ skills training in Web 2.0 social networking, digital photography and flickr.

I was impressed by the library's client-focussed approach that was able to cater for such a wide range of age groups, but amused by the head-counting culture of 'accountability'. The libraries have to account for their expenditure on community events, and justify it by showing an increase in community participation. It was also interesting that the courses run by the library focussed on the use of ICTs. These were very skill-based courses. Personally I have always been frustrated by skill-based computing courses because they are usually very slow-paced to cater for the lowest skill level. If I were to run such courses, I would focus more on using collaborative, exploratory and problem-solving approaches to tailor the courses to individual needs.