At the risk of creating yet another library thread, I thought something with a more upbeat headline than 'cuts' would be appropriate in order to draw attention to what's being achieved.
The people behind the successful bid to turn our council-run library into a community library are now getting the keys to the building.
But they need to raise £6,000 to pay for a whole bunch of things until the business model kicks in and some revenue is generated. This from their crowdfunder website:
Forest Hill Library is a community run in South East London. We are solely reliant on generating our own income to maintain and run the library building and services. Lewisham Council will continue to provide books and the lending software, but we have to provide and maintain the structure of the building, shelves, IT, cleaning, heating and lighting, non-book-borrowing services and all staffing. We have to pay licences, taxes, legal expenses, insurance.. the list is almost endless!
We have a fantastic community spirit in Forest Hill, and hope to raise extra funds from local residents and businesses who know how important a well run library is for the community.
Please help support the library, thank you in advance.
I learned recently that because the community library does not yet have charitable status, it has to pay business rates. To Lewisham. For the privilege of running a Lewisham library. Yep, totally nuts. But you can start to see why they need initial funding.
The crowdfunder is here: http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/forest-hill...nch-fund/?