CMLS – RENEWAL/RECOVERY

Hello everyone. We hope you are all safe and well.

The Network has been very busy recently: contributing to discussions at national level where we champion the voices/needs of CMLs; running bi-monthly virtual learning sessions; developing a CML database; undertaking research into CMLs which operate as Community Hubs with support from Power to Change; building our website and forum which has just been completed and ready to be populated; creating opportunities for CMLs to share their experiences with others and much more.

Over the next few weeks and coming months we will focus on renewal or recovery, sharing experiences of CMLs as they re-open their doors and services.

What is in today’s Article?

1. Dates for the July virtual learning sessions focused on Renewal/Recovery planning
2. A Case study about Garden Surburb Community Library’s Click and Collect Service; an interesting initiative from Archibald Corbett Community Library and a digital skills training case study from ClearCommunityWeb based in South London. Do you have an interesting story/learning to share with other CMLs? Please email us at info@communitylibrariesnetwork.
3. Resources and Toolkits:
   • Twine Benchmark
   • Digital Boost
   • Digital Skills Training – A Case Study from ClearCommunityWeb in South London

Dates for the June and July 2020 Virtual Learning Sessions – Renewal and Recovery

Click the relevant date to join a session of your choice – we have spaces for 9 more people on the 9th of July. Once you confirm your place, we will send you an email with a Zoom link to join the session on the day.

• 9th July 2020 @ 11.30am
• 23rd July 2020 @ 11.30am

Please note that the team will take a break from August, so the virtual learning and support sessions will resume in September 2020.

CASE STUDY: Garden Suburb Community Library’s Click and Collect Service

Like all libraries Garden Suburb Community Library made the decision to close on the 17^th March, find out what they did and lessons learnt from their Click and Collect scheme.

garden-suburb-case-study-3 Download

CASE STUDY: Digital Skills Training in South East London

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis ClearCommunityWeb in partnership with Upper Norwood Library Hub has helped over 100 people
stay connected online, many of whom are vulnerable or working with
vulnerable groups. Read the case study to learn more.

case-study-clear-community-web-promoting-digital-literacyDownload

An Interesting Initiative by Archibald Corbett Library

The ‘Doorstep Chat’:  Throughout June & July they are offering a ‘Doorstep Chat service’ for customers that are shielding and fancy a chat! You can book a 30minute slot and a volunteer will come to the outside of your house and sit either in your front garden (if you have one) or on your front wall and chat with you. You can also use this opportunity to place book orders if you are a library member.

Plus the online support services starting form Monday 8^th June  where you book a slot with a colleague from the Online Support Services. He can help you complete any online forms you may be struggling with. This will be done at a table in their courtyard out the back of the library so social distancing measures can be put in place.

RESOURCES AND TOOLKITS

Twine Benchmark: you can learn more about the financial health of your CML using Power to Change”s Twine Benchmark. To find out more please click HERE to access their webinar.

Boost your digital business skills: Digital Boost launches today, the platform is founded by Founders4Schools and BCG Digital Ventures, with support from DCMS. It offers free digital advice for small businesses and charities impacted by coronavirus, provided by expert volunteers, helping them to improve their digital capability to grow and prosper. You can download the media pack below:

media_social-assets-pack-dcmsDownload

Thank you all and stay safe.

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PRINCIPLES OF GOOD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT (INTRO TO THE BASICS – 1 OF 2 SESSIONS) (WEBINAR)

First of two finance webinar sessions designed for CMLs.

Session 1 – 26 June 2019

• Explores basic principles underpinning good financial management.

We will encourage colleagues who attend the first session to commit to participating in the second session as this is a follow up to the first session, building on learning from session 1.

Session 2 – September (date to be agreed with attendees to the first session)

• We will ask attendees to our first session to outline some of the key areas of issues they would like us to cover in our next session.

The webinar will be led by Neal Trupp, Chartered Accountant (FCA), a SFEDI-accredited Business Adviser, and holds an ICAEW Practising Certificate.

Register Here

Twine WEBINAR – a Free Digital Tool for community businesses from Power to Change

This webinar delivered by Edward Walden walks you through Twine, a bundle of digital tools being offered FREE by Power to Change to community businesses.

Twine allows you to

• log volunteer hours and visitor footfall quickly and digitally and then use this digital data to create efficient reports.
• It is designed overall to make reporting on volunteer and visitor stats faster and easier. It has been designed with simplicity in mind and overall is very easy to use.

Twine could save you a lot of time and effort from logging volunteer hours on paper.

Twine is FREE and to find out more about this excellent tool tailored for organisations like yours, join us on either

See below for a short video about Twine: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CunZEoTF0PY

Register Here

Community Asset Transfer (CAT) – Webinar Recording

View the recording of the Community Asset Transfer webinar:

https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/6819594813704819457

This two hour webinar on Community Asset Transfer (CAT) explores:

• The context – what’s happening nationally?

• The basics – asset or liability?

• Understanding your community and its needs

• Get legally organised

• Understand the CAT process in your area

• The business plan

• To own or lease?

• Q/A

The webinar was hosted by Stephen Rolph, Head of Community Enterprise and Assets.  Locality are well known experts in the area of CAT.

 

About KOHA, a web based open-source Library Management System (FREE WEBINAR)

Wed 19 September 2018
11:00am – 12:15pm

 

Koha is a web-based open-source library management system used world-wide by libraries and schools. It provides a low-cost and full featured solution to library Management.

Koha is currently used by three community libraries in Sheffield to manage the circulation of donated book stocks,

This webinar, presented by Chris Brown, Vice Chair and Events Lead at Greenhill Library in Sheffield shares their experience in adopting Koha including hosting, data migration, volunteer training, operation, support and cost.

 

For more information and to book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/about-koha-a-web-based-open-source-library-management-system-free-webinar-tickets-49085298449

 

Reflection: Looking back and looking forward

Best wishes for the new year to all our members. We thought we’d take this opportunity to take a quick look back at what we’ve achieved as a network in the last year and more importantly, look ahead to our exciting plans for 2018.

Over the last 12 months we have seen the Community Managed Libraries Network grow to almost 200 members, we have hosted two webinars and a legal workshop and two pilot group meetings for those involved in shaping the network as we grow.

We are now planning for 2018 and are excited to announce plans for our upcoming Community Managed Libraries Conference: The Changing Landscape as well as more webinar and workshop opportunities. We have added a Resources page to our blog, where you can find links to watch our past webinars, workshop handouts and other resources. On top of all this we are busy working to ensure a growing and sustainable network that remains relevant and useful to our members beyond 2018.

Network Conference: The Changing Landscape

We are delighted to announce the first national conference of the Community Managed Libraries Network. To be held in Sheffield on 20th March 2018, the conference is a chance for anyone involved in running community managed libraries to get together, meet other libraries and access relevant talks, workshops and masterclasses. There will also be an opportunity to visit community managed libraries in Sheffield.

The conference is FREE and relevant to anyone involved in running a community managed library.

Date: 20th of March 2018

Location: Sheffield Library Services, Carpenter Room

Contributors: Community managed libraries in Sheffield; Upper Norwood Library Hub; Locality; Libraries Taskforce; Power to Change; Sheffield Library Services; Society for Chief Librarians and more.

Draft programme (subject to slight changes): Organised visits to community managed libraries in Sheffield; masterclasses in Building Impact & Creating Influence, Volunteering & Succession Planning, Skills Acquisition, Income Generation and Business Planning; surgeries and carousel type events including stalls.

Please register now to secure a place at the conference or for further information email margaret.adjaye@unlt.org

Have you attended one of our webinars or workshops yet?

We have had excellent feedback on our first set of workshops and webinars and we are planning lots more for 2018. A list of the planned events can be found on our Events page, however do keep an eye on it as we are busy working on adding more dates and topics to the list.

If you haven’t attended a webinar before and are concerned about joining one for the first time then don’t worry, it’s simple to register and join in. Also, once you have signed up to take part in one of our webinars we will send you a brief ‘how-to’ guide for logging on and joining in and will also give you the opportunity to log-in the day before as a test run for the next day. And you don’t have to take part alone, you could always get a group of colleagues together and join in as a team?

 

Guest post: Chris Plant on his experience of the Legal and Governance Workshop

The Community Managed Libraries network is running a number of webinars and workshops on topics relevant to those that are involved in running community managed libraries. Following on from our November Legal and Governance workshop delivered by David Alcock from Anthony Collins Solicitors, we asked one of the attendees, Chris Plant, if he would write a post about the event and his experience of it.

My name is Chris Plant. I am Staffordshire County Councils Libraries and Arts Service Community Capacity Manager. Following Staffordshire County Councils commitment to transform its Libraries and Arts Service and not close any libraries in the County, I hold responsibility for the transfer of 23 of the County Councils 43 Libraries through into community management. I manage a Team of 6 Community Support Officers who help recruit, train,build capacity and provide ongoing support to the 800+ volunteers and 13 community organisations who are currently operating in Staffordshire’s Libraries.

So far in Staffordshire we have transferred 18 Libraries through to community management. We are currently progressing the 5 remaining library transfers. We are also working in partnership with all the community organisations to ensure all 23 Community Managed Libraries are sustainable as we move forward into our third year of Library Service transformation.

I registered on the Legal and Governance session with Anthony Collins Solicitors after reading about the session on the Community Managed Libraries Network Blog.

I felt that as a member of staff working for Staffordshire County Council it would help to have a refresh of some of the detail relating to key topics such as setting up a community enterprise, dealing with governance and community organisations arrangements with local authorities.

In my previous role in Housing I had worked closely with Anthony Collins and so I was confident that the training offered would be of a good quality and provide me with some additional knowledge and understanding. I’m fully aware too that these sort of sessions can provide an excellent networking opportunity. I’m a huge believer in learning and sharing with colleagues (both staff and volunteers) across the West Midlands and beyond to help embed best practice.

The Workshop saw quite a diverse group of attendees from across the country. There was representation from Upper Norwood Library Trust (who are, of course, facilitators of the National Community Managed Libraries Network). There was also attendance from Cambridge Council, volunteers from Coventry City Council Library Service as well as Harbury Community Library in Warwickshire. The London Borough of Brent was also represented too. Also one of Staffordshire’s early transfer Community Managed Libraries in Rising Brook, Stafford attended. Viv, the Lead Volunteer there is a member of the Community Managed Libraries Network and booked the session co-incidentally to me. Good to see her there.

David Alcock from Antony Collins led the session. Aside from the key areas outlined above, what really brought the session alive were David’s real life examples and experiences that he had working with community organisations and some of the trials and tribulations and learning they went through. I found this approach engaging and it allowed for a better understanding than just the legal facts as they sit.

The session was well paced and allowed for contributions from those in attendance, both with questions from our differing perspectives and also experiences and examples we had been through whether as a community organisation or staff within our respective authorities.

The accompanying notes were comprehensive and have provided a good ‘go-to’ suite of information for myself and my Team to refer to as we engage further with community organisations moving forward.

I don’t want to concentrate on the finer detail of the course except to say it was comprehensive, but a couple of the key points that I picked up…

‘Not worrying about labels associated with different legal structures’ and an overview of Charitable Status criteria, managing risk, models of working with councils and tools and structures for doing so. This was all really good stuff to update myself and my Team on and be able to further understand Community Managed Libraries in Staffordshire requirements.

All in all, I found the session to be a great networking opportunity, a comprehensive briefing session and actually a pretty enjoyable half day out!!

Thank you Chris. Chris Plant is Community Capacity Manager at Staffordshire Libraries and Arts Service. For the latest news from the team visit their ‘People Helping People’ Blog

Web: www.staffordshire.gov.uk/libraries

Twitter:@SCCCCM

Blog: http://scchost.org.uk/ccblog/

The next Community Managed Libraries event is a free Business Planning webinar on 15th December. You can reserve your place and find out how to join the webinar here and our future events can all be found on the blog events page.

Latest news and workshop opportunities

This week we’re posting a round-up of some of the latest news from the library sector, plus details of upcoming workshops and training opportunities.

News

Latest on library consultations in three areas

Three councils are currently going through major consultations regarding the future of their libraries. Unsurprisingly, this has created significant public and media interest with local residents fearing for the future of their library services. Here are some of the latest news pieces we found on the Bristol, East Sussex and Northamptonshire library service consultations:

Bristol Post reports on the Bristol Council consultation

Eastbourne Herald reporting on East Sussex County Council consultation

And the Northamptonshire Council plans have received wide coverage locally and nationally, including from the BBC, The Bookseller and The Telegraph

Flying start to campaign to re-open a Lancashire library

12 months after the closure of Lytham Library in Lancashire, The friends of Lytham Library and Institute have already gained over 600 signatures on a petition in a great start to their campaign to re-open the library. You can read more in the Blackpool Gazette.

Community Managed Library receives royal honour

Chalfont St Giles Community Library received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service at a ceremony on 23rd October. The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to local volunteer groups in the UK and it is recognition for the hard work of the library’s many committed volunteers. Congratulations to Chalfont St Giles library on this prestigious award.

Group’s bid to take over running of library in Bury

Friends of Dumers Lane Community Centre are bidding to take over the running of their local community centre and library and are inviting residents to share their ideas for the building’s future. They have submitted an expression of interest to Bury Council to run the library, and want to bring residents and community groups together to hear how they would like to see it used.

Last month, the council said that they were inviting applications from local groups wishing to take over the running of six sites. You can read more here.

 

Webinars, workshops and briefings

If you read our newsletter then some of these opportunities may already be familiar to you, however we don’t want anyone to miss out on these free workshop opportunities and so here they are again, plus one new briefing we’ve just found out about:

Community Asset Transfer Webinar

The first network webinar was held last week. The subject was Community Asset Transfer and the session explored topics such as what is happening nationally, understanding the basics, your community and the process of asset transfer and the business plan. The session was hosted by Stephen Rolph, Head of Community Enterprise and Assets at Locality. Dont, worry if you missed the webinar, you can watch it here.

Libraries Taskforce Masterclasses

The Libraries Taskforce have designed two toolkits, an evidence-based strategic planning toolkit and a Benchmarking Framework which libraries can choose to use for self-assessment. These toolkits are designed to help libraries assess the services they currently provide, and then think long-term as they plan and develop their library service, in consultation with their communities.

The Libraries taskforce are running two FREE masterclasses in London and in Leeds whereby you can find out more about the toolkits and learn from the experiences of those already using them. You can find out more about the masterclasses, who they are suitable for, and sign up for them by visiting the Libraries Taskforce blog.

Legal, Governance & Trustee Workshop (FREE)

10th November 2017
10.30am – 1.30pm
Venue: 134 Edmund Street, Birmingham, B3 2ES

For more information and to book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/legal-governance-and-trustee-workshop-free-tickets-33357242410?ref=estw

Income Generation & Fundraising Workshop (FREE)

7th December 2017
10.30am – 4pm
Venue: Upper Norwood Library Hub, 39-41 Westow Hill, London, SE19 1TJ

For more information and to book your place: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/income-generation-and-fundraising-free-tickets-38494495071?ref=estw

General Data Protection Regulation briefing

New data protection rules come in to place in April 2018. If you’re unsure how these new rules will affect you then this briefing aimed at leaders in the public sector may be for you: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/gdpr-briefing-for-the-public-sector-tickets-38805185354

If you have any further news or training and development opportunities relevant to the community managed libraries sector then please share them with us via our contact us page so that we can share them with the network.

Free Workshop in Newcastle on Wednesday 11th October

The Friends of Jesmond Library are organising a free workshop for anyone involved in community libraries, or wanting to know more about taking on the challenge of opening (or re-opening) a community library. The workshop will take place on Wednesday 11 October from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm, in Jesmond Library, Newcastle upon Tyne.

If you would like to take part, or you would like to know more, email events@jesmondlibrary.co.uk .

Jesmond Library itself recently passed the fourth anniversary of it’s re-opening as a volunteer-run library, after being closed by Newcastle City Council.

Legal and Governance, Trustee Workshop – 10th November 2017, Birmingham

We are really delighted to let you all know that David Alcock from Anthony Collins Solicitors – a specialist law firm with a clear purpose – to improve lives, communities and society will be running our first half day workshop on ‘Legal, Governance and Trustees’ .   This FREE session is developed and tailored for Community Managed Libraries (CMLs) and will take place on 10th of November 2017, from 10.30am in their Birmingham Office, 134 Edmund Street, B3 2ES.

The session will explore:

• Different legal forms
• What makes good governance
• Legal considerations when trading
• Local authority agreements
• Defining your needs and sourcing help
• Trustees
• Q&A

Lunch and refreshments will be provided.

To book, please follow this link: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/legal-and-governance-workshop-10th-november-2017-tickets-33357242410

We have also organised a number of face to face and webinar based events, they include:

• a two hour webinar (starts 11am) on Community Asset Transfer, 27th October 2017, facilitated by Stephen Rolph, Head of Community Assets and Enterprise, Locality
• a whole day session on Income Generation and Fundraising, 7th of December,  in London, starts 10.30am. This session is facilitated by Elaine Harrison from the Crystal Palace Community Projects Fund.

Both events will be published on Eventbrite on 29th September.   Please look out for the link, it includes details of how to book and kindly share through all your networks, colleagues, trustees, volunteers and other CMLs. Thank you.