Notes of the Annual General Meeting and Ordinary Meeting held on Wednesday 12th October 2011 at 7.00pm
Present: Benj Emmerson (chair), Kate Hand, Ann Lewis, Leigh Allen, John Abraham (Team manager), Bob Filer (Librarian)
Apologies: Liz Wright, Sue Lloyd, Shirley Holloway, Rosemary Mitchell, Pam Shipp, Sarah Paviour
Resignation: Esme Hodge
Annual General Meeting
Minutes of last AGM on 13 October 2010: Accepted
Matters arising: There were no matters arising
Chair’s report: Benj listed the successful refurbishment which took place this time last year and the very well attended re-opening event with Fascinating Rhythm. He also reminded us about the Thornbury Carnival and the children’s survey. He circulated his colourful graph showing the usage figures from 2000 to date which showed we are holding our own and are now flat- lining since our drop from 2000- 2005. Finally he surprised Bob with a card and gift to mark his imminent ‘retirement’. Bob recovered enough to thank the committee for all their help and support over the 15 years he has been at Thornbury. Many of the successes at the library had relied on help from the committee for example the gazebo at the annual Thornbury Carnival. He will now pass the baton to his successor Jackie Roseblade currently working at Yate Library and ‘put his feet up’ courtesy of his present!
Election of officers: Benj was nominated for Chair by Kate and seconded by Ann and agreed to stand for another year.
Benj nominated Liz for Vice-Chair and was seconded by Kate.
Ordinary meeting
Benj welcomed Annette Hicks – early year’s library support worker to the meeting. Annette started by reminding the committee about the government backed Book Start scheme which she has spoken about before. Because of a cut in funding this scheme is changing slightly next year. The Baby Bag will continue but the Treasure Chest will become a Treasure Satchel and the Bookstart+ pack will in future be gifted by local Sure Start Children’s Centres who will target disadvantaged children in their homes. We must ensure what the libraries offer does not get forgotten, so we will continue to build close working relationships with our local Sure Start Children’s Centre. Annette continued by talking about the new Book Start Bear Club. This is the new name for our regular Monday afternoon story time. Babies and toddlers will get a joining pack and each time they visit the library their card will be stamped with a paw print and they will be entitled to a series of certificates depending on how many paw prints they build up. Annette also spoke about the new Hello campaign which encourages parents and playgroup/nursery workers to talk to their children and ensure they develop good communication skills. Finally Annette spoke about two continuing initiatives from the Book Trust scheme. Book Time is a pack of books given to reception age children while Booked Up gives 11 year olds the opportunity to choose a book to keep from a selection displayed in the library.
Minutes of meeting held on 13 July: Accepted
Matters arising: Library User Survey 2011. This has been simplified with less boxes and new questions e.g. e-audio; self service; provide email address; usage of computers. There are also plans for an electronic version. This survey should be held in the first two weeks of November. Please contact Bob if you can help.
Plasma screen: This should be installed before Christmas (possibly on wall above biographies). Magnox kindly gave £500 (Benj to write letter of thanks) from their Socio Economic fund towards the cost.
Correspondence: Emails in relation to the Magnox funding.
Librarian’s Report: Circulated. Bob highlighted the main points. Summer Reading Challenge results were down slightly with a percentage of finishers over starters of 63% compared with 70% last year but still compares well to the authority’s 59% completion rate overall. Active Mind Month got off to a successful start with the Volunteers Fair on 1st October, this will be followed by the Thornbury in Bloom gardener’s question time this Saturday (update competition from the Welsh rugby game meant that they only had 8 questions but they still felt the publicity they received made it worthwhile). Ticket sales for author Alan Butt Oct 19th and the digital camera talk Oct 26 are also going well. Filton College computer class on a Thursday afternoon is full.
Performance News: Issues are more than holding their own both across all libraries where there have been no library closures due to refurbishments this quarter (new Patchway Library just re-opened) and at Thornbury where spoken word and DVD issues are very healthy. On–line issues are also surging ahead.
Library staff review and reorganisation of library user groups: South Gloucestershire Council has streamlined its organisation and management structure over the past two years. Libraries now within the Community Cultural Services Section headed up by Martin Burton along with heritage, arts, skills and community learning fall. This sits within the Strong and Safe Communities Division under the Environment and Community Services Department. The review of the management structure has now reached libraries with more libraries grouped together e.g. Bradley Stoke/Winterbourne, Kingswood/Hanham with some staff taking the opportunity for early retirement or voluntary redundancy. John will become Operations Manager over all libraries and this might involve a change in frequency of the library user group meetings. The new librarian at Thornbury will no longer be full time. The budget for next year is not yet known but at the moment there are no changes to library opening hours and no closure of libraries.
Any other business: Benj asked what was happening about the Chair’s meetings which he thought provided a useful forum for an exchange of ideas. Benj asked if a suite of underused computers in the Turnberries Centre could be of use to us.
John informed the Group that a recent survey of self- issue machines installed in five of our libraries had resulted in a very positive result with over 88% of customers using them and 94% reported that they were easy or quite easy to use. 75 – 84% of all items being issued through these kiosks.
Bob to circulate current membership details to include Christian names.
Bob to invite librarians at Castle and Marlwood schools to join our User Group.
Date of next two meetings: Wednesday 18 January; Wednesday 18 April. Time 7.00pm