Dear Colleagues
I hope you are all well and safe. Here are a few updates, please share with colleagues and in your networks.
Arts Council England: Arts Council England in partnership with DCMS and the Network have just launched a new survey to establish the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on community managed libraries. This survey builds upon the previous survey and consultations conducted by the Network. The survey link should now be with a contact in your library. If have not received a link and you would like to complete the survey, please contact libraries@artscouncil.org.uk who will issue you with a survey link.
Department for Communities Media and Sports (DCMS): DCMS is conducting a survey to understand the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak on organisations in the digital, culture, media, sport, gambling, telecoms, and tourism sectors and their engagement with the available government interventions. It has been commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) to better understand the needs of its stakeholders. Your answer will remain anonymous and will be used to inform DCMS’ preparedness efforts. Please follow the link below to begin submitting your response: DCMS Business Impacts of Coronavirus Survey To be completed by by 23:59 GMT on 15/05/2020.
Useful Information, Resources and Toolkits
DfE: DfE recently launched a platform: Skills Toolkit– a platform aimed at furloughed workers (and others that want to take the opportunity) to upskill, with an initial focus on digital and numeracy skills. Here’s a link to the GOV.UK news story. The toolkit is not sector specific and can be promoted widely. The two key audiences to reach are those individuals that may have scope to take up this offer, and also employers to encourage their staff to do so.
Libraries Connected: https://www.librariesconnected.org.uk/page/librariesfromhome
#LibrariesFromHome is one of the resources that can be used by parents or carers homeschooling primary age children, and is on the Hungry Little Minds campaign website, which provides fun activities for children to help stimulate speech and language development.
CILIP have also launched the National Shelf Service, to share the expertise of librarians through daily book recommendations.
Law Works: Covid-19 related guidance, information and advice for charities and not-for-profits. Including: corporate/governance, employment, property and tax issues: https://www.lawworks.org.uk/legal-advice-not-profits/covid-19-faqs-and-resources-not-profits
Covid-19 Virtual Support and Learning Sessions
These sessions are well attended by CMLs and feedback has been very positive. Attendees share their experiences around the impact of Covid-19 on their CMLs/communities, they also get the opportunity to exchange ideas with their peers, ask questions, seek support and learn from others. The sessions are held on Zoom.
To register please select one of the links below, and follow the instructions. We will send you a Zoom Link to join the session on the day.
Next week, we will share future learning and networking sessions here and on our website: https://communitylibrariesnetwork.org/
Thank you.