Here in the Arendal Public Library we have often discussed how best to become more visible to the general public and to young people in particular. Youngsters make considerable use of the library, but mainly in connection with school and their studies. We have repeatedly asked ourselves what more we could offer in the fields of leisure and general reading.

So when in the spring the newspapers
started writing about the coming rock
festival at Hove on the island of Tromøya
and referred to it as “Norway’s best
rock festival for young people”, we decided
to participate. An e-mail to the
festival organisers and we were off.
They wanted to have us!

Preparing to meet the challenge

In June we took part in a profiling seminar
and workshop with a view to
hearing about experiences from other
rock festivals. Several meetings with the
organisers established good communications
and a mutual exchange of aims
and ideas. As they wrote in an e-mail,
“The fact that you can be flexible
enough to adapt your product to our
particular public is super-cool”.

An agreement was signed where the
library committed itself not to ‘advertise’
the products or services of any
third party.We were to “run an information
stand at our own cost and to
cooperate with the Hove Festival in
creating a library which would be a
festival attraction and an interesting
place to visit.”

Contact with the press has shown that
they are mainly interested in the special
and unusual.When we announced that
our library was to participate with a
stand at the Hove festival we were
promptly invited to the TV-studio!

We were librarians between 40 and 60
years old. None of us had ever been to
a rock festival before, the nearest similar
experiences being Christian youth
camps and an all-women’s gathering in
the 70s. By taking part in the Hove Festival
we hoped to dispel the image of
librarians as dull, boring people and
there was much discussion about how
we should present ourselves in the festival
publicity.

Were we sexy? Were we ‘cool’? We finally
decided to be simply ‘festival librarians’,
aiming to challenge the public
by doing untraditional things and
giving priority to our many, varied
services for young people. As we gradually
worked towards our goal and
enjoyed favourable reactions from the
festival organisers, we did in fact start
to feel quite ‘cool’.

The festival library

Loaded down with books, café tables,
exhibition panels, old wooden book
containers, steel boxes from Ikea, a
counter top, trestles, posters, the library’s
jubilee banner, various spin-off bits
and pieces and, not least of all, the library
bed, we set off – with the invaluable
assistance of two splendid caretakers,
two cars and two trailers – to
spend the next five days at the festival.

We were given a place in the festival
village together with a number of organisations
such as Amnesty International,
Médecins sans Frontières, the
environmental Bellona Foundation,
Oikos (The National movement of organic
producers and consumers) and
others.

Choice of media

50 kilograms of new strip cartoons
from the specialist bookshop did the
trick and bolstered our confidence.We
could also offer novels and short stories
suitable for our youthful target
group together with non-fiction and
periodicals dealing with subjects such
as music, the environment, feminism,
homosexuality, human rights, philosophy,
science, photography and even
quizzes and jokes. Altogether we had
425 titles on our list.

“Take a book and pass it on”

We purchased 20 novels bearing the
following message, “These books are
released into the public domain and
beg to be read. If you find one, please
make yourself comfortable wherever
you are and read it.We hope you enjoy
it and will take the trouble to write
your comments, either in the book
itself or using the blog on our website.
Pass the book on to a friend or leave it
in a public place where somebody else
can find it and enjoy reading it.”

We had hoped for a good response and
there was indeed considerable interest
among the young festival-goers, even
though the constant rain forced us to
distribute only from our stand. Unfortunately
we cannot boast of many
contributions to our website.

“Exchange a book”

A box full of paperbacks was set up, the
idea being that people could exchange
their old paperback for a new one.
However, very few festival-goers had
books with them, so little exchange
took place. Some we simply loaned out
and one we actually sold for NOK 50,-
(6 Euro).

Daily newspapers

Local and national newspapers were
made available every day and proved
very popular. The Hove Festival’s own
daily paper containing reviews of the
concerts and reports on the festival in
general was widely read. Here the library
had taken out a whole-page advertisement.

“Are you a poet?”

Festival participants were invited to use
the library stand to present their own
poems or texts every day. Response,
however, was negligible, so we ourselves
performed as ‘stunt poets’,
reading poetry aloud.

WLAN

The festival village had its own wireless
local area network and the library system
‘Bibliofil’ was installed on our PC.
However, the network functioned
poorly, particularly in relation to our
Bibliofil programmes. Searching on the
Internet was easier, but at times this
also failed. As a result we were unable
to issue as many National Library
Cards as we had hoped. However, since
many festival-goers wished to borrow a
book or a cartoon strip, we wrote
down their names and mobile numbers
and agreed on a return date. This
worked very well and we lost only one
book.

Staff

Our stand was open from 10 am to 10
pm every day but was only manned by
library staff for eight hours. In the
evening two festival participants/librarians
took over, working on a voluntary
basis.

What about the literature?

The most popular book was without
doubt 1001 Albums to listen to before
you die with The Norwegian pop and
rock lexicon a close second. Interest was
greatest for fiction, cartoon strips and
newspapers, whereas works of non-fiction
were in much less demand.Who
says that young people, boys in particular,
do not read? Many of them spent
hours with us. Our bed became the
most popular fixture with people sitting,
lying down, reading and talking
for long periods.

The weather

Every day we displayed the weather
forecast. Since it rained a great deal
throughout the festival, the weather
became an important topic of conversation,
second only to the music itself.
Books swelled up in the damp atmosphere
but have since regained their
proper shape.Many people sought
shelter with us during the worst downpours,
the record being some 40 people
crowded together on our 36 m2 of floor
space, furniture and fittings included.

There were still plenty of visitors even
when the sun was shining. They took
books and other material and settled
down in front of the stand. Evenings
were devoted to the music, but even
then there were many who called in.
Altogether we registered a total of
2,200 visitors – well above our highest
expectations.

Local presence

The presence of the library introduced
a local element into the festival.We
were well acquainted with the area and
could answer most practical questions,
such as how far it was into town, bus
connections, where to go shopping, etc.
Our range of services gradually
widened, the recharger for mobile
phone batteries proving particularly
popular.We offered a slightly different
place to be, a place where one could
relax, read, chat over a cup of coffee
and feel at home.

Summary

The young people at the Hove Festival
seemed to find the library a cool place
to visit and we received many positive
reactions to our being there. Nobody
before had come across a library at a
rock festival. Our central position in
the festival village was a great advantage,
making us easy to spot from a
distance and a popular meeting-place.

Since our nearest neighbour was the
café, people often brought their cup of
coffee into the library. As for the festival
organisers, our impression is that
they did all they could to help us. In
spite of an enormous pressure of work,
they always responded quickly to our
requirements. Not an unfriendly face to
be seen

We would definitely like to do this
again!

Read more about the Hove Festival and
Arendal Library: www.arendal.folkebibl.
no

Eli Søyland
deputy head librarian
Arendal Public Library

eli.soyland@arendal.kommune.no

Translated by Eric Deverill