Here are the July news articles, blogs and mentions that we’ve found for community libraries (plus a little general libraries news too).
National/general news
- 19 Jul: New reports demonstrate libraries’ impact on communities (ACE) They cover: Wellbeing of older people, How libraries contribute to place-shaping, Libraries as community hubs, and Evidencing audience reach
- 25 Jul: A year in the life of Good Things Foundation: 2016-17 Annual Review Lots of mention of libraries, including in case studies
- 26 Jul: Shared Reading North West: For the community, by the community (The Reader) 40+ partners and 800 volunteers to join forces to transform North West health and well-being with innovative Shared Reading programme. Funded by NESTA and DCMS through The Second Half Fund.
Blogs
- 25 Jul: Should a public library be more community focused? – Interview with Jan Holmquist (princh blog) experiences from Denmark. Definition of modern library? “The library is the community’s hub for learning and knowledge creation.”
- 25 Jul: Transformation Review: Bracknell Forest Library Service (Taskforce)
- 28 Jul: Reading groups, libraries and communities: an exploratory study (Taskforce)
Local/regional
- Bradford: Volunteers help save Thornton Library, just yards from the birthplace of the Bronte sisters Volunteers take on running of library threatened with closure. Council still own the building.
- Bradford: Libraries in Undercliffe, Haworth Road and Menston remain closed after Council withdrew staff to save cash in April Had hoped to come to arrangements with community groups – but no success so far. Haworth Road to be sold (old building, very expensive to run)
- Brent: Cricklewood Library receives £40,000 pledge from Mayor of London Friends of Cricklewood Library are halfway to reaching their target but need to raise the full amount of nearly £120K by the 25 September. Library has been closed for 6 years.
- ALSO: Sadiq Khan in £40k library funding pledge (Bookseller)
- Coventry: Youngsters design logo for first ‘community-led library’ in Coventry
Cheylesmore Library will be closed for about two weeks at the end of August, to enable building works to take place to ‘open up’ the library into the Cheylesmore Community Centre. The winning logo will be used on badges for the volunteers. - Essex: Community cinema opened up at library A community-run cinema opened its doors after a campaign to discover new uses for Writtle library.
- Lancashire: Volunteer dream fading but library will still re-open Thornton library likely to re-open, under council management. Discussions ongoing with community groups who had stepped forward, to enable them to be able to use the facility
- Lewisham: Concerns over Forest Hill Library plans to rent desk space (Bookseller)
- Lincolnshire: Lincolnshire Co-operative: supporting local libraries by building community hubs (Co-op news) Lincs co-op now runs three libraries, alongside its food stores, pharmacies and post offices. The libraries are at the the society’s pharmacy and post office site in Bar Lane, Waddington; its Spilsby Food Store on Post Office Lane; and on Fleet Street, Holbeach, sharing space with the pharmacy and post office. The libraries are run by volunteers but supported by Lincolnshire Co-operative’s staff from its food, pharmacies and post offices on site. Co-op colleagues help with tasks such as opening and closing libraries, supporting the volunteers, liaising with the volunteer coordinator, supporting library users, and banking duties. The co-op invested £35,000 in each library to set them up, and the council provides around £5,000 per year towards the running cost of each library and offered one-off grants of £15,000 for changes to buildings or equipment.
- North Somerset: Congresbury Parish Council celebrates handover of village library to community Congresbury Community Library, in Station Road, opened this month under the stewardship of Congresbury Parish Council – who will lead the library, working with a team of volunteers
- North Yorkshire: Novelist Leah Fleming officially opens new premises for Bentham Library
- ALSO: Library welcomes the community into its new home
- ALSO: Volunteers help to write new chapter in story of Bentham Library
- ALSO: Bentham library to celebrate move to new premises became community managed in April, moved to new premises in May (closer to centre of town)
- NE Lincolnshire: Boutique offering ‘high quality’ fashion for affordable prices’ opens in the East Marsh Boutique opens in a library offering individual business units alongside a cafe. The Your Community Hub Community Interest Group took over operation of the Library, alongside the Care4all team, from NE Lincolnshire. [one of the ‘small business units’ mentioned in the article last week about the refurbished Grant Thorold library]
- Sefton: Birkdale stationmaster’s house open to the public during The Open local group fundraising to reopen house as community library
- Shropshire: Born Free star Virginia McKenna opens Ellesmere library Ellesmere Library moves to Meres Day Centre. To be managed by Shrewsbury-based social care charity Bethphage, which is taking over the operation of the day centre and the library from Shropshire Council.
- South Tyneside: Funding to be pulled from four community libraries which could close before end of year Funding for Whitburn, East Boldon, Boldon Lane and Primrose libraries to cease in December. Calls for community to step forward to run them.
- Staffordshire: Gnosall Library project extended by three years plans for a portable building which would extend the existing youth club. Original planning permission was for 3 years, now extended to 6. The library would be a community hub and the group would be changing its name to Glean Hub and applying for charity status. The village’s previous library was based at St Lawrence School, but the building was demolished to make way for the new St Lawrence Academy.
- Sunderland: Volunteers bring closed Sunderland library back to life reinvented as Fulwell Community Library after a community interest company was formed with the help of 92 volunteers.
- ALSO: Charity saves Sunderland library collection from the ashes Following the closure of Shiney Row Library last month, charity Sharp, who are based round the corner… have taken in a number of the books from the collection. It adds to the services already provided by the community hub, which include welfare, benefits and debt advice. Volunteers and staff have transformed an under-used meeting room to create a community library service…. Though it’s not a statutory library service, the community library will offer a free loans service of hundreds of books covering a range of genres, from general reference and crime to children’s books. The centre also acts as an electronic village hill with ten computers offering free internet access.
- Swindon: Beechcroft Road library to be turned into ‘thriving’ community hub library will be run by the Stratton St Margaret Parish Council
- Walsall: Pheasey Library in Great Barr WILL reopen – two months after Walsall Council axed facility Councillor Chris Towe to re-launch the facility next month. “We will be reopening part of Pheasey Library on September 1,” he said, “it will now become a Pheasey book borrowers and a book exchange service.
Community Managed Libraries National Peer Network 