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This article gives an insight into the contribution made by the library staff in Gloucestershire in the project to launch a new social care database, and the benefits of working together. This is specifically about the Library service's contribution although it should be noted that Your Circle database is a product of a wide ranging partnership among a range of statutory and voluntary organisations in the county and it is now managed by the NHS Gloucestershire Guide service1
Gloucestershire's Library service has a long history of shaping the council's approach to information management and access. The Council's website was founded using the skills of the Librarian team who created and managed the first pages. Two decades on we have continued to show our value by contributing to the development and launch of the Your Circle portal.
The Your Circle portal is Gloucestershire?s response to the requirement to offer universal information and access to advice as 2 part of the Putting People First transformation of adult social care . By collaborating with our social care colleagues we have been able to re-launch our community database (first established in 1986), with the added power of faceted searching and the benefits of a sophisticated records management structure. What we brought to the partnership was a core of data that forms the 'Things to Do' section of the database .3
The launch of Your Circle in 2010 was a milestone in progress to reshape how information websites and databases are managed in the county. Since 2008 we have been involved in discussion considering the multiple databases and websites that existed for community information in the county. By putting our efforts into the Your Circle site, and the Glos Families database for children and young people4, we have moved forward to offer improved:
* Use of e communication to help...