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14 reviews so far

06/02/2012 05:30am

Ilse Cornwall-Ross

I did some research work in the reading room upstairs the other day and was delighted to find that you had improved the accommodation for quiet work greatly. However, I did not really understand why the door was kept open, thus allowing quite a lot of noise from the general library to be audible in the room.

 

16/12/2011 07:34am

Ciara Wright

Having recently moved to Winchester I am so impressed by the Discovery Centre. The amazing amount of activities for all from cradle to old age, the very helpful and knowledgable staff and of course the wonderful selection of books, DVDs and CDs.

One thing I feel lets it down is the Cafe area. Unfortunately it has a very grubby feel with dirty tables which are often left uncleared and dirty crockery handed out with purchased items. The selection of food available is limited and the quality poor in my opinion. The waitress today advised us to go across the road to the coffee house for lunch!

I would imagine if it was run properly this area could be a 'gold mine' - all those people using the library could stop for a nice lunch too! I don't like to complain but I think this is a glitch in an otherwise wonderful amenity!

 

12/08/2011 05:01pm

Lynda O'Neill

Libraries have always meant a great deal to me, and my life is impossible to envisage without them. I can't praise the Discovery Centre enough.

I often order books, and the staff go the extra mile to help me with this. The automated booking in/out system avoids a long queue at the desk, and recently my computer wasn't working; being able to use one - for free - enabled me to read my emails and stopped me twitching with unease at the messages I would otherwise have missed.

I like the way that newly bought books are displayed. It's helpful to see specific areas of interest on show, enabling me to feed my addictions - biographies and collections of diaries/letters.

The cards etc on sale are lovely too. An occasional visit to the cafe and a glance at the newspapers is a blissful oasis in my day!

 

27/03/2011 06:42pm

Andrea

Just wanted to say thank you for the free art activity that runs on a Sunday. My daughter made a fantastic fish picture, last week, and thoroughly enjoyed her time at the discovery centre. Thank you to Kate, who led the activity brilliantly.

 

11/02/2011 07:11am

Sue

I visited Winchester on a Sunday and happened to be passing - I was amazed that a public library could be open on a Sunday and so vibrant and full of activity - not to mention a welcome coffee. I wish all councils could have the vision to create such a wonderful resource and highly rate the whole experience.

 

02/02/2011 05:22pm

Jeff Monger

I would just like to let you know that my familly are very impressed with the Winchester Discovery Centre modernisation. My children use your library extensively for books, audio tapes, CD's and videos, we visit the exhibitions, and have attended both concerts and workshops. Well done for making this one of the best libraries we have ever used.  

 

11/10/2010 04:14pm

Darlow

I have seen the Heft exhibition and was impressed with the quality and I am currently writing about it.

However, it has come to light that you do not support education workshops? of all ages. this would be a good idea.

Also I recommend to get involved with the art school down the road. They have so much to offer and so much to learn. This will increase the level of interest and be really rewarding on both parts.

The gallery replies

The Gallery is a keen supporter of education, learning and access. We aim to have in-gallery activities for each exhibition and a programme of associated learning for all ages throughout the Discovery Centre. Within our limited resources, we devise a programme of activities and events appropriate to each exhibition, which varies depending on the scope of the themes, that is always further complemented by programming, displays and retail at the WDC. This does include a schools programme.

For Heft for example, we organised two handling sessions for local schools to participate in the making of Heft. We then ran two further day workshops for schools, making sculpture with artist/curator Tony Hayward. These were tremendously successful and the children's work is likely to be displayed at the School of Art's gallery.

The Winchester School of Art, in conjunction with Hampshire Sculpture Trust were the creators of Heft, so the exhibition and workshops which followed were in fact led by them.

 

24/07/2010 06:20am

Christine Bond

Althought I enjoyed this event I was very disappointed that despite arriving on time that the sample cocktails has run out out. I bought 3 tickets for this event and none of us recieved a cocktail which appears to me to be the result of very bad organisation.

WDC replies

We initially invited a different cocktail bar to come along but unfortunately due to staff shortages they could not attend and therefore we invited a substitute at the last minute. Each business was invited to bring some samples but there were no obligation on them to provide a certain number and this aspect of the event was not included in the £5 ticket cost. It was an additional free add on.We're glad you enjoyed the event and are sorry to hear that you were disappointed at not receiving one of the free cocktail samples. The event was a great success so I suspect we will hold similar events in the future and I will definitely pass on your comments when planning the next event to ensure a similar issue doesn’t arise.

 

28/04/2010 02:40pm

martin healey

I asked at the reception desk book for a book by Cortot, with 'rational piano technique' in the title. It was a long and painful process, spelling out words - I spelled 'Cortot' out 3 times, and still the assistant read it back to me as 'Crotot'! I dictated my email address and that was mis-recorded too, as I discovered when I asked to see her screen. Everyone makes mistakes, so wouldn't it have saved a lot of time and trouble if I had been able to see her screen as she typed things in? Names and email addresses need to be 100% accurate when using a computer, and the customer is much more likely to spot a slip than the library assistant! They know what their own email address looks like. It's inviting trouble not to show the customer what's being typed in, and the customer shouldn't have to ask to do so. At the very least, books will be incorrectly reported as 'not found', which is a frustrating and unnecessary waste of time and resources for everyone.

WDC replies

We do train our staff to show the screen to customers to clarify information and will revisit this in training. I understand that we have sourced a copy of Rational Principles of Pianoforte Technique by Alfred Cortot from outside Hampshire Libraries and will contact you when this arrives.

 

16/02/2010 08:03am

ken

I was looking for the opening times of the Winchester public library from an Internet enquiry, so I end up with the discovery centre.

But what is IT?

is it a library?

or something quite different?

Where is it? that might tell me if its the library I know. No easy information on location.

Not good web site for users with simple questions...

Discovery Centre replies

Winchester Discovery Centre is a new generation of library, which includes a great deal more than you would find in a traditional library such as a theatre space, museum, gallery and cafe. We don't call it a library because the library is only one element of what the building offers, but you can see on the navigation on the left of the home page that Books and Reading are prominently displayed and our contact and location details are on the right hand side of the homepage. If you would like to know more about our Discovery Centre programme.

 

Review Ref. 322424

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