Eilidh McLean, Knowledge & Information Officer & Karen Sinclair, Information Officer, NHS Grampian Library & Knowledge Services
At a Glance
- Delivered in partnership between Library & Knowledge Service and Spiritual Care, November 2025 to January 2026
- Reached participants across professional, organisational and geographical boundaries
- 120+ online interactions and 28 live event attendees
- Encouraged reflection on mortality, communication and compassionate care
- Demonstrated the library’s role as a facilitator of connection, reflection and learning
Introduction
Healthcare libraries are traditionally associated with evidence, information resources and knowledge support – however, they also have the potential to create opportunities for reflection, connection and learning that extend beyond their more familiar roles. In NHS Grampian, the Library & Knowledge Service partnered with the Spiritual Care Team to explore whether a shared reading programme could create a welcoming space where participants could engage with complex themes that are often difficult to discuss in routine workplace settings.
The result was Seasonal Reads, a three-month programme centred on Kathryn Mannix’s With the End in Mind. Through reading, discussion and reflection, participants explored themes of grief, mortality, communication, compassion and care. More significantly, the project demonstrated how a healthcare library can act as a convenor of a digital “Third Space”: a neutral environment where people meet as individuals rather than through professional roles, hierarchy or organisational boundaries.
Creating a Flexible and Inclusive Experience
Recognising that staff were balancing busy workloads, varied personal circumstances and distance across a large rural health board, the programme was designed to be as flexible and accessible as possible. Participants could take part through the book, audiobook, TED Talk, podcast, online resources, discussion activities or a live event with Professor Tim Morgan, Consultant in Palliative Care. The asynchronous Microsoft Teams space allowed people to engage at their own pace, whenever and wherever it suited them.
The library’s role extended well beyond resource provision. Without dedicated funding, the programme relied on existing library collections, freely available resources and established professional relationships. Library staff coordinated the programme, curated materials, managed the online community space, promoted participation and encouraged engagement throughout, while Spiritual Care colleagues contributed reflective facilitation and subject expertise. Over the course of the programme, participants generated more than 120 online interactions, with 28 people attending the live event.
Libraries as Convenors of Third Spaces
One of the most significant outcomes was the creation of a digital space for reflection and conversation outside usual workplace structures. Healthcare libraries are strongly positioned to support this kind of activity because they routinely work across professional groups, departments, organisations and geographical locations. This enables them to bring together diverse communities in ways that can be difficult to achieve.
Participants included NHS staff, students, volunteers, Health and Social Care Partnership colleagues and NHS Scotland library staff. Discussions focused on bereavement, communication, ethics, mortality and compassionate care, creating opportunities for shared learning rather than expert-led teaching. The library’s role was not to provide answers, but to create the conditions for meaningful discussion and reflection.
A healthcare chaplain reflected:
“It was beautiful to see how the facilitated space helped staff share and reflect deeply on their own experiences and fears, in a supportive, affirming and very human community.”
Reflection, Openness and Compassionate Practice
Participants described the programme as thought-provoking, inclusive and reassuring. Many valued the flexibility to engage in ways that felt comfortable, while benefiting from the perspectives and experiences of others. Feedback suggested that the programme encouraged reflection on experiences of illness, bereavement and caring, while also helping participants feel more confident discussing death and dying.
One participant noted:
“…the thing that I took away most was the importance of having these conversations, speaking about death so that we can understand it more and therefore it can begin to feel less scary.”
Participants also highlighted the relevance of the programme to professional practice. Recurring themes included the importance of listening, presence and seeing the whole person rather than focusing solely on immediate clinical concerns. Feedback suggested that shared reading and facilitated reflection can complement formal education by creating space to consider the human aspects of care.
Lessons for Health Libraries
Three key lessons emerged from the project:
- Healthcare libraries can successfully facilitate reflective learning around complex and emotionally challenging topics
- Flexible participation routes help make programmes more accessible and inclusive
- Partnership working is essential: The collaboration between the Library & Knowledge Service, Spiritual Care and clinical colleagues brought together complementary skills and expertise that were central to the programme’s success
Conclusion
The Seasonal Reads programme demonstrated that healthcare libraries can be much more than providers of information and evidence. Through partnership working and thoughtful facilitation, they can create spaces where people connect, reflect and learn from one another. In NHS Grampian, this approach brought together staff, students, volunteers and partners from across health and social care to explore challenging topics in a supportive environment.
The lasting value of the project was not simply that people read a book. It was that they used the ideas within it as a springboard for conversations that might not otherwise have happened, sharing experiences, questioning assumptions and reflecting on what compassionate care means in practice. In doing so, the programme highlighted an important contribution of healthcare libraries: Creating spaces where people can make meaning from knowledge together.
Health Libraries Group 