(This piece was a response to a “Ten Word Challenge” set at our local writers’ group. Ten words were selected at random (each one proposed anonymously by members) and the rule was that each word must be used once – and once only – in a piece that could be a story, poem or factual article. The words were: scribble, ukulele, antidote, spice, video, Bertie, gratitude, crude, enormity, libraries)
Library rescue
Given that I have worked in various kinds of library for
something like forty years it is perhaps not surprising that I should have
taken up, with some enthusiasm, the challenge of helping to rescue one that was
in danger of closing.
Several years ago the enormity of the global financial
crisis worked its way down to local authorities in the UK who found that they
had little choice but to make drastic cuts in spending on the services they
provided. Some authorities were quite crude in the way they swung the axe, but
Leicestershire followed the line adopted by many others in turning local
library provision over to the voluntary sector, at least in terms of staffing.
It would be churlish not to express gratitude for at least this commitment to
village communities who rely on their library as a hub of local social
activity.
My previous experience of library work had been in either
academic or industrial libraries, and I had not been a regular user of a public
library for a number of years. For me, a public library was a good place to go
for leisure reading – for example, during my youth I devoured my local
library’s stock of P G Wodehouse books, especially the Blandings Castle and
Bertie Wooster stories – but most of my information needs were met by the stock
of the library in which I was working at the time.
I was, of course, aware that a public library provided more
than just books and periodicals. For many years it has been possible to borrow
or hire a music or video tape or disc from a library, and the provision has
developed along with the technology. However,
since I first became interested in the business of “library rescue” I have been
surprised to discover the range of enterprises that a public library can
deliver, either on its own behalf or as a conduit of local enthusiasm.
This became clear to me in 2014 when I investigated what was
going on Warwickshire, which was several years ahead of Leicestershire in terms
of voluntary library staffing. One library, for example, had gone into
partnership with a local dance school and half the space was a properly sprung
dance floor with all the library shelving on the other half. Another had opened
a commercially viable café that operated both inside and outside library
opening hours, the profits from which being ploughed back into the library.
At Newbold Verdon we have continued all the activities that
add spice to the lives of many local people, and have entered a firm
partnership with the Friends of Newbold Verdon who had always used the library
as their base for such things as cinema nights and the popular Knit and Stitch
group. If you live in Newbold Verdon there is much you can do at the library as
an antidote to boredom – even play the ukulele on a Sunday afternoon!
A public library exists to serve its public, and its
management should always keep an open mind on what constitute local needs. With
truly local management – as is possible when it is a volunteer-run charitable
trust – there should be no problem in keeping a finger firmly on the pulse of
the communities served by the library.
That means that the future will not necessarily be the same
as the past, and new enterprises can be developed in accordance with local
needs. That is why this library – the new name of which is “Our Library @
Newbold Verdon” - is playing host to such ventures as “New Bold Words”, which
caters for those who like to scribble for pleasure. We also intend to host
Dementia Café sessions to support dementia sufferers and their carers.
What next? Who knows? Whatever it is it will be an exciting
future for this particular library.
© John Welford
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