Notes from the meeting held on 03.04.2008
Those attending: Joan Bowie, Heather Poarch, John Poarch, Janet Cain, Trevor Joyes, John Abraham, Catherine Whiteman.
Apologies from: John Samways, Geoff Stobbart.
Appointment of vice-chair
This was postponed until the AGM at the October meeting.
Evening post
Catherine has contacted the Evening Post directly to see if they can recommend how we can get the Evening Post delivered to the library. However they recommended contacting News Direct, who have already replied that they don’t deliver to the library post code.
National Year of Reading
From April 2008 the library service is celebrating the National Year of Reading. It’s hoped to encourage people to read for a variety of reasons – escapism, entertainment, health and therapy. During the year each library will concentrate on a particular theme and produce display materials for all South Gloucestershire libraries. The theme for Bradley Stoke library is the development of literacy and IT.
All libraries will be encouraging relevant adults to take part in a ‘six book challenge’. This is aimed at encouraging emergent readers to sustain their reading habit and has proved particularly popular in the prison library service.
The national library membership campaign is launched on Saturday 26th April. This campaign will receive coverage in national press and encourage people to join their local library.
Children’s PLUS
The children’s public library user survey took place in September 2007 and surveyed all children who used the library in one week. In Bradley Stoke a total of 353 agreed to complete the questionnaires. On the whole the results were very positive, with a very high percentage of children finding the library a safe and friendly place to visit, a bright and cheerful building with a good book stock. A couple areas for improvement have already been acted on – purchasing a collection of manga stock and making the library a WiFi hotspot.
Performance News
The issues for Bradley Stoke in Jan – March 2008 have remained fairly consistent with issues in the same period in 2007. During February and March there were a couple of promotions offering free audio-visual loans, which has improved the issues of both DVDs and music CDs. The attendance at pre-school events has greatly increased, as the weekly baby rhyme time becomes more established.
Across South Gloucestershire the number of items reserved has increased, with a substantial growth in the number of reservations made through the library website. (595 in 2007, 4278 in 2008)
Library Action Plan
Each year the library service produces an action plan, which illustrates how we contribute to the Councils priority areas. A branch action plan is then agreed and this also links to the priority areas. This enables library staff to see how their own work fits in with Council objectives. New actions for Bradley Stoke for the coming year include:
• Holding story times at the Stokes children’s centre.
• Setting up a Chatterbooks group ( a monthly book club for junior age children)
• Promoting the WiFi facilities now available in the library.
Budget, Income and Capital Plans
Although there have been budget cuts across the Communities Department the library service has received a ‘standstill’ budget, which, unless there are any great political changes, should be the case for the next three years. However the income target has been raised and if these are not reached the money will need to be recouped from within our budget.
Libraries have been awarded £1.1 million for capital works – to included improving buildings and replacing shelving.
Bradley Stoke library should also receive some Section 106 money when the housing is developed in Harry Stoke.
It is still unclear what will be happening with the redevelopment of Thornbury town centre.
Consultation with Friends of Libraries
Now that Big Lottery funding has been awarded to extend and refurbish Yate Library, consultation is underway to involve as many members of the community as possible in shaping the building’s future. As part of this members of the general public are invited to become friends of the library to create a contact list and a quick feedback mechanism on plans for the building.
Members of the group were encouraged to visit the ‘Have your say’ section of the Council website to view the consultation documents and plans for the redeveloped library.
Future meetings – all starting at 7.00pm
AGM Oct 9th 2008