Reserve for free in all Surrey Libraries
Surrey Libraries have been working with Active Surrey to develop services and programs to positively impact the health and wellbeing of residents, focusing on physical activity.
As part of this work, involving a collaboration partnership between Surrey Libraries, Active Surrey, Surrey County Council IT and Digital Team, and University of Surrey, adult Surrey Library members can now reserve and borrow a health and activity tracker (smartwatch) for free from all our 52 libraries to track their activity levels, improve their health and wellbeing, and get more active.
To reserve your tracker, please visit our online catalogue.
The Pilot
In March 2022, we rolled out Phase 2 of the Health and Activity Tracker Loan project, where residents could borrow a tracker from six libraries. Surveys were designed to help gather data on the effectiveness of using a tracker in supporting our Surrey residents' health and wellbeing and increase their physical activity - and the results have been overwhelmingly positive.
More than half of the people (58%) made positive changes to their physical activity/exercise whilst wearing the tracker, and even more people were planning to make positive changes in the future as a result of wearing the tracker. Six out of 10 people said they would recommend the tracker or a similar device to friends and family.
I had a fitness tracker many years ago but stopped using it. Having used this one for over a month I now remember how it felt to see the benefits of exercise and how it encourages me to walk instead of using the car.
Key features of the tracker
The tracker is an Amazfit GT2 mini smart watch, and it can be used with a phone app called Zepp or standalone. It includes some amazing features including heart rate monitoring, sleep quality monitoring, step counter and 70 plus different activities tracking.
Key information about the loan
Reserving and borrowing a tracker is free for Surrey Libraries adult (18+) members. The loan period is six weeks, and borrowers can renew the tracker once (in person or online) for another six weeks (unless the tracker is reserved by another borrower). For more information visit the Surrey Libraries web page.
