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We look forward to seeing you on the 23rd March when we re-open

We have some fantastic news to share.  Coventry Building Society (Earlsdon Branch) have chosen us as their community partner for 2020 and held a launch event for us on Friday 17th.

We’re really excited about what the future will bring and delighted to be working with such an amazing team of people. 

Exciting news! 

We are delighted to announce that we have signed a lease with Coventry City Council; securing our future until April 2021.

We have lots of exciting ideas and initiatives to welcome you into our library; including a reimagination of the inside space.  We will have a Reading Room where you can browse through our books to borrow or to buy – and enjoy a cup of coffee whilst you do so.  The outside will look different too starting with restoring our beautiful oak doors and painting our windows – but this is only the start of the story.

We will share our journey with you once the restoration work begins, so keep looking at our Facebook page for details; we’ll also put our ideas into print and display them in the library.

We are proud that we have increased our opening times by 9 hours a week and the number of people coming through our doors keeps rising – 7000 visitors in September this year.

None of this could have been achieved without the hard work and dedication of our volunteers and our lovely library community.

Thank you for using our services, borrowing our expanding stock of books (Man Booker Prize shortlist 2019 added soon) , buying our donated books, attending our events and generally keeping us going as a wonderful local asset.

Why is Earlsdon library a Carnegie library ?

A library outranks any other one thing a community can do to benefit its people.  It is a never failing spring in the desert.  Andrew Carnegie

Andrew Carnegie’s passionate belief in public libraries began at the age of 13.  Having left Dunfermline for Pennsylvania he was working in a textile mill earning $1.20 a week. A retired merchant, Colonel Anderson, opened his personal library to deserving boys.  Andrew Carnegie was one of them. The seed was sown and he went on to found  2509 libraries, many in America.

Councils had to apply for the necessary funds and thus the Carnegie Formula was designed.  Councils had to:

• Demonstrate the need for a public library

• Provide a building site

• Pay staff and maintain the library

• Draw from public funds to run the library

• Annually provide 10% of the cost of construction to support the operation

• Provide a free service for all

A covenant protected the library for 100 years

Three Carnegie libraries were built in Coventry around the same time; Stoke and Foleshill libraries are still fully funded by Coventry Council; Earlsdon library will close unless we can raise enough money to, quite literally, pay the bills. As Earlsdon library opened in 1912, so the 100 year covenant expired in 2012.

Our achievements so far

A registered charity; The Earlsdon Community Library, 1180063.

A board of Trustees and over 80 volunteers committed  and passionate about keeping our library as a vital community resource.

Extension of  our opening hours and will be remaining open at lunch times from May 2nd.

Around a 1000 people a week come through our doors.

A range of regular activities and events in place

A very successful Launch day in April (see Events)

The way forward

We continue to pursue the City Council’s stated objective of combatting loneliness, recognising that social interaction is beneficial for both mental and physical well being.  We will offer a place to meet, browse our shelves, and provide free access to computers.  There is a very real threat of digital exclusion for those people needing to access services but with no computer at home.

What we need

We continue to move forward.  We have excellent volunteers and a supportive community with many local businesses stepping forward to help but there is a need for a reliable monthly income stream to cover operating costs.

Please help us by donating through Virgin money giving to Earlsdon Library

We are fortunate to have a large children’s library with everything from early board books for beginners to a non fiction range which feeds into  curriculum needs of local schools.

It’s a perfect setting for children to begin their reading experience; much loved and well used by carers and children alike.

Not just children like doing crafty things

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