Last Thursday, I volunteered at New Chapters, a second-hand books warehouse run by Kisharon Langdon, a charity which supports people in the Jewish community who have autism or learning disabilities.
The facility employs many of the people whom the charity supports, with around 20 staff running their daily operations, which comprise receiving, sorting, scanning, categorising, listing and packaging books.
During my visit to the warehouse, I was immersed within New Chapters’ line of operations.
They ask the community to send in second-hand books. These were being sorted by Adam, who has a passion for fitness – meaning he was keen to do the heavy lifting of the big boxes and bags of books when they arrived.
Adam sorting donations of books on their entry to the warehouse (Photo: Kisharon Langdon)[Missing Credit]
Then, they are passed to the price checkers, who use the ISBN [a unique code given to books] of the books (when available) to check how much they sell for on Amazon and other websites.
This was my job, and I spent the best part of an hour alongside Daniel, who is supported by the charity, investigating the value of the donated books. New Chapters only lists books worth more than £7; any others are sold on to World of Books, a used-book platform.
Among a treasure trove of books, we discovered several which were valued above £50, as well as ones which were published more than a century ago.
Within the pages of a few of the books were clippings of newspaper articles – including a page of cocktail recipes from an edition of the JC from December 2002.
Once we had worked out the prices, the books were categorised, listed online, and stored in one of warehouse’s many boxes. This is where they will stay until purchased, and there are buyers from all over Europe. Germany is one of New Chapters’ biggest markets at the moment.
Daniel sorting books into categories (Photo: Kisharon Langdon)[Missing Credit]
If there is a tear or a crease, the book is sold with an accompanying letter of apology, something which seems to have drastically reduced the number of returns.
Visiting the warehouse elucidated the benefits it offers to the people who work there.
Martyn Hyland, an e-traders assistant at New Chapters, said that the work gave Kisharon Langdon members “work experience and some confidence going into the big wide world”.
Currently, the warehouse, which has been open for around 13 years, has over 7,400 books listed online, of which they are sell around 220 per month. They add 1,000 more new listings each month, a figure which is constantly on the rise.
Handling such a high volume of books is helped by warehouse coordinator Hannan Ahmed’s tech savviness. In the warehouse, he showed me what he had been working on.
One piece of software is an AI-powered categoriser, which automatically recognises the ISBN once a book is scanned and decides what category the book belongs to.
As well as speeding up the process, it is accurate approximately 95 per cent of the time, compared to around 70 per cent when the task is done manually.
He has also created an automated piece of software for repricing to combat the challenge of other sellers undercutting their prices by a matter of pennies.
“If I see there’s a bottleneck somewhere and there are ways to use technology to improve that for us, I’ll always try to implement it,” Hannan said.
Alongside their daily operations, New Chapters is also launching a 12-week work-based skills development programme focused on building independence and progression into work or volunteering.
Debbie Rees, Kisharon Langdon’s assistant director of programming, employment, and social enterprise, explained that it’s not just the actual tasks that those supported by Kisharon Langdon would learn about.
“It’s also etiquette at work, what you wear to work, how you act at work, how you talk to your colleagues, following processes, coming to work on time,” she said.
Some of the smiling staff at New Chapters (Photo: Kisharon Langdon)[Missing Credit]
Hannan concurred, saying: “New Chapters is about so much more than books. It’s a place where people can learn and develop valuable life and employment skills, while the work they do gives them purpose and a real sense of value.”
“There are three things that the people we support want out of life,” said Debbie. “Somewhere to live – so we have provisions for supported living; a relationship – so we have a full calendar of social events; and a job – which is what you’re seeing here.”
Kisharon Langdon runs other social enterprises in addition to New Chapters. It operates a bike shop in Hendon, a learning and development hub two doors down, a luxury gift shop in Temple Fortune, and Child’s Hill Library, in tandem with Barnet Council.
Debbie was quick to commend the value of employing people they support.
“One thing that we can without a doubt tell the employers who take on our members is that they’re dedicated, reliable, and loyal,” she said. “They thrive on routine and they have so much pride in the jobs they do.
“The difficulty we have is that we also have to train the employers as to what it’s like to have someone with a learning disability work for them, but once the employers actually get to know about our members, they always want to offer them roles.”
Ben from the JC (L) and Martyn checking the price of a rare book about Kyiv, Ukraine (Photo: Kisharon Langdon)[Missing Credit]
Kisharon Langdon is currently working with Chopstix, a chain of takeaway noodle bars. Eight of the people whom the charity supports work at their various locations.
Not everyone who knows about Kisharon Langdon knows the breadth of the services they offer, including their books’ warehouse on an industrial estate in Harrow.
As the UK celebrates the National Year of Reading, Natalie De Rose, the charity's marketing and PR manager hopes that word will spread in the community about New Chapters and the other Kisharon Langdon social enterprise projects. “Everyone wants to be part of something and be with people who are like them and who get them. Here, people can feel part of a community.”
Click here to learn more about Kisharon Langdon and here to browse the New Chapters bookstore website.
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