As part of this blog we regularly post profiles of different community managed libraries. Supplied by some of our network members we hope these will start to build a picture of the different models of community managed libraries that exist and that we can learn from each other’s experiences.
This month we’d like to welcome Blackfen Community Library to the blog.
Who we are
We are a community library in the heart of Blackfen High Street and our vision is to have an ‘open door’ for our community – providing opportunities to access a great world of books in a comforting ‘third space’ – a home away from home. We believe our library space offers us the opportunity to not only cater for specific population groups, such as children, families, students, the unemployed, carers, the retired and anyone who needs a place to belong – but also a brilliant way to bring different groups in our community together. Our motto is ‘a big hello’ – a warm greeting and welcoming space for everyone – including those who may not always feel welcome elsewhere. Our coffee shop is a central part of our library and we run various programmes and events in the space to bring our community together. We have big ideas for the future and our staff and volunteers have a big heart, using our space to impact Blackfen for good.
How we run
In 2015/16 The London Borough of Bexley invited community organisations to apply to run several libraries in Bexley including the Blackfen library. The New Generation Church Trust (who runs other community projects in the local area, such as Lark in the Park and Hope Community School) applied to the Council and were approved to run the library in Blackfen as a community library. The New Generation Community Trust was then established to deliver the service level agreement in partnership with Bexley Council.
The New Generation Community Trust opened the Blackfen Community Library in April 2016 and the library now has just over 3,600 members. The Library management is governed by the Trustees of the New Generation Community Trust who meet quarterly. We have a manager who is currently a volunteer and leads a team that has a mix of volunteers and paid staff on a day to day basis. Many of the library tasks are lead and managed by experienced volunteers (Library Leads and volunteer champions) and they are responsible for book stock management, book replenishment, handling the Library Management System and computer and printing access. The Community Lead (volunteer) coordinates and organises the programmes run in the Library, such as children’s story times, recruits volunteers and links with schools. The paid staff are all part-time and assist with financial administration, facilities management and running the coffee shop.
The London Borough of Bexley support the Blackfen Community Library through quarterly funding grants, enabling peppercorn rent for the lease of our building and assistance with facilities and repair costs for our building. We cover the costs of our IT, utilities, access to the Library Management System and other running costs. We also do other fundraising and have received some ad hoc grants from local traders (e.g. the local Tesco and Co-op do local fundraising in their stores for us) and we have just launched a ‘Friends of the Library’ scheme providing special benefits to members who pay an annual subscription, such as free hot drinks from the coffee shop and venue hire discounts. All the revenue from the coffee shop goes into the Library as do other small sales from second hand books and small charges for printing and copying. We have generous donors who contribute to special events, such as the ‘open door’ lunch we run to encourage isolated people in the community to come out for a meal and meet other people from the local area, and our free Santa’s Grotto with presents for local children.
We have a close working relationship with the Council and report on a quarterly basis on progress against key performance indicators and events going on in the Library.
What we offer
Our community library offers a great range of books for adults and children and we regularly ask our users what books they would like to borrow to inform our stock orders. We have a book club and craft group for adults, space to sit and study; free wifi and computer access with affordable printing for those who have no personal access to computers. We have a dedicated space for children (and we hope to further develop a space for young adults). We run fun and educational experiences for babies and pre-schoolers (every week there is one programme for under 1 year olds, two ‘story and rhyme times’ with singing, and one craft activity for pre-schoolers), and a space for their carers to relax with a coffee and no pressure to leave. Our coffee shop is buggy and kid friendly and we run a coffee morning once a week with discounted hot drinks to encourage people to come and make friends.
We run craft and scrabble clubs for adults and the retired, with subsidized drinks so pensioners can enjoy some affordable social time. We make space for groups who would otherwise find it hard to find a place to meet – like the local Parkinsons support group who have a monthly coffee morning in the library meeting space, with special mugs and VIP treatment from the coffee shop. In the summer we ran a ‘pop-up’ Library in the park as part of Lark in the Park to promote awareness of our Library and ran story times in the park for children.
We are also the only premise with a public toilet on our entire high-street, so we make sure it is in excellent condition and hassle free to access.
We offer volunteering opportunities and work experience for those who are unemployed or under-employed and involve local volunteers in every part of our organisation, from shelving books, to making coffees and planning library activities. We hope to provide more sophisticated training and work experience in the future to our volunteers. We have close links with the Bexley Volunteer Service Council, who refer volunteers to us, and we are further developing our links into local schools to offer high quality work experience.
We currently have 15 Library volunteers and 4 coffee shop volunteers on a weekly basis and a wider team of up to 27 volunteers at any given time. We have recently recruited 5 part-time employees across the library and coffee shop to enable us to extend our open hours from 25 to 32 hours a week (10am-5pm Tuesday to Friday and 9am-5pm on Saturdays).
Our vision for the future
The focus of the last 18 months has been on establishing ourselves on the high street and growing our membership and programmes. We want to continue to build on the Library’s success to create a lively community hub providing great library services and a creative and empowering space for the community of Blackfen. Ideas we have include providing more formal training and inspiring experiences for our volunteers (to ‘give back’ and build capability in our volunteers), develop book related parties for children, to develop a creative space for young people to express their literary work (open mic sessions/book launches), to provide more support and training to facilitate work experience for young people with disabilities; provide work experience opportunities in the coffee shop that provide unemployed people valuable transferable skills, provide ‘life coaching’ sessions for our staff and volunteers to enable them to achieve their potential, running repeat events that have been successful in bringing isolated people in the community to the Library (in partnership with local traders) and inspiring local writers and performers to use our space to promote local creativity and bring people together. We also want to network with other community libraries in our area and further afield to learn from best practice, share knowledge and improve our capability.
You can connect with us at:
hello@blackfencommunitylibrary.org
https://www.facebook.com/helloblackfen/
https://twitter.com/HelloBlackfen
https://www.instagram.com/hello_blackfen/
Thank you Blackfen Community Library for this brilliant in-depth profile of the work you’re doing and best wishes with your future plans, we look forward to hearing how you’re getting on.
If you’d like to share your library’s story with the community managed libraries network via this blog then please fill in the Contact Us form or email CommunityLibs@unlt.org