Newsletter

July 2022

November2021:There’s a distinct chill in the air, and as we move towards the colder months we’re pleased to bring a number of exciting events and dates for your diary!

On November 20th we will be holding our first live music event, with local bands The Moonbears and The Pigeons, plus a live DJ and bar. The event sold out before we’d even advertised it (!) but there’s a further gig planned for 18th December (bands tbc) – watch this space for more info!

Our spooky Halloween torchlit scavenger hunt and Drama Tots Pumpkin Party went down really well – see attached images. Despite it being the sunniest day for MONTHS the kids loved seeing the library in “darkness” – well, as dark as we could make it anyway!

Our Children’s Saturday Morning Clubs – craft club, LEGO club and new for 2021 “Read to Sophie” (our visiting therapy dog) are suitable for children of all ages – see facebook or our website for more information. The children’s library also hosts Rhyme Time, with two sessions (bookable in advance) on Thursdays at 10:30-11:00 and 11:45-12:15, as well as our drop in storytime sessions on Tuesdays at 11-11:30. We also have our Kids Chess Club for children in school years 4-6 on Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 which again needs to be booked in advance. Just call the library on 02476 786 970 or pop in to reserve your place.

Our language clubs continue, with French conversation club on Saturdays from 10:30-12 and Spanish conversation on Mondays from 5:30 – 7. Knit and Natter is back on Thursdays at 10:30-12 and we have two new adult events; T’ai Chi on Wednesdays from 9:30-10:30 and Yoga on Fridays from 9:15-10:15. We are also hosting a new Carer’s Advice Clinic on the second Wednesday of every month in conjunction with The Carer’s Trust – if you look after someone and need advice or support call Rowan on 07719568300 for further information or to book an appointment.  

We hate to mention Christmas already but we’re very excited to share our forthcoming plans with you. We will be holding a Christmas Craft Fair on December 11th from 2.00-5.00pm with a range of different stalls, plus Santa will be in attendance to meet with children and (if they’ve been good!) provide them with a gift. On December 20th we will have a special storytime session which will be translated into sign language by a live interpreter – all families are welcome. Our ever popular Christmas cards will also be on sale in November with all proceeds going to the library, with new designs available.

October 2021: As we begin our Autumn programme of events, we’re pleased to say that thanks to a huge amount of work, all of our new events and activities have been off to a roaring success!
We’ve just hosted “An Evening With Andrew Davies” in our Reading Room – the first night time event that we’ve held in our newly reimagined space. We sold out all of the tickets and provided a bar – also for the first time! – which went really well. The library looked stunning with the new uplighters and theatre lights on and we’re really pleased to say that we received excellent audience feedback. A huge shout out to the Cottage for lending us the glassware, the Albany Theatre for lending us technical equipment and of course to Alan Denyer for all of his hard work to transform the “computer area” into the gorgeous new events space. I’ve attached some pictures from the event so that you can see how beautiful our building looked.   
In early September, we worked with Rhubarb Theatre, Black Country Touring and 2021 City of Culture to bring you a children’s theatre event called (after some last minute changes) “The Time Machine”. The sellout show took place in our new events space and was really well received by everyone who attended – even the shyest of children were soon hurtling through time and space, trying to avoid being eaten by dinosaurs or recruited into the Roman Army! The show was the first in person event that we’ve held as part of our ongoing collaboration throughout the City of Culture year so lookout for our next event towards Christmas/the New Year. Our Children’s Saturday Clubs – craft club, LEGO club and new for 2021 “Read to Sophie” (our visiting therapy dog) have all restarted to noisy acclaim! Suitable for children of all ages, come along on Saturday mornings to have some fun. The children’s library is also hosting the return of Rhyme Time, with two sessions (bookable in advance) on Thursdays at 10:30-11:00 and 11:45-12:15, as well as our drop in storytime sessions on Tuesdays at 11-11:30. We also have our Kids Chess Club for children in school years 4-6 on Thursdays from 3:30-4:30 which again needs to be booked in advance. Just call the library on 02476 786 970 or pop in to reserve your place.
Our language clubs have also now restarted, with French conversation club on Saturdays from 10:30-12 and Spanish conversation on Mondays from 5:30 – 7. Knit and Natter is back on Thursdays at 10:30-12 and we have two new adult events; T’ai Chi on Wednesdays from 9:30-10:30 and Yoga on Fridays from 9:15-10:15. We are also hosting a new Carer’s Advice Clinic on the second Wednesday of every month in conjunction with The Carer’s Trust – if you look after someone and need advice or support call Rowan on 07719568300 for further information or to book an appointment.  
We have to say a huge thank you to the Rotary Club of Coventry Phoenix for their very kind donation, which has allowed us to purchase the Times top 10 bestsellers in both the fiction and overall categories. We have added these books to our stock (and will continually be doing so over the forthcoming months) as well as purchasing the Booker prize shortlist, so do pop in if you’re interested in reading the most popular, hotly debated books out there!
We’re really pleased to announce the winner of our Book Bingo reading challenge is Grace Bullingham, who won an original artwork of Lady Godiva by local artist Suki Fitzgerald. We’d also like to congratulate Marjorie Leitch for winning a £30 voucher for The Royal Bengal and Alison Manning for winning cake and coffee at Myrtle’s Cafe. Well done to the winners and thank you to all those who donated prizes.
We’ve been hosting a number of local artists over the summer months with displays in the library and during October we will be continuing to provide exhibition space. We currently have paintings from local artists Dave Ingram, Tala Lulu and Adam Tucker, with new images from Madeline Terry and David Caines coming soon. All of the exhibits are free so do pop in to have a look – the quality and creativity really is stunning.
Whilst you’re browsing our new book stock and art displays, perhaps you’d like a hot or cold drink to sip, or maybe you need a bag to carry your newly borrowed books in? We’re pleased to say that we’re now able to serve refreshments (refillable tea and coffee is just £1, bottled water and children’s juice boxes are also available) and sell ECCL branded canvas tote bags for £5 each.
Look out for our activities during Libraries Week (4th – 10th October) and get ready to #sharethechange that libraries have made to your life on our Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

September 2021: Welcome back to the ECCL newsletter. There’s so much going on in the library this month we hardly know where to begin! We begin our Autumn programme with an extremely special guest – well known film and TV screenplay writer Andrew Davies! Andrew will be appearing on September 25th at a one off “Evening With…” event to talk to Chris Arnot about his career to date, including his adaptations of Vanity Fair, Pride and Prejudice, Middlemarch, War and Peace, Les Miserables and A Suitable Boy. Tickets cost £15 and are available from the library. 

We’re also very excited to announce our latest event from Theatre Next Door (and supported by 2021 City of Culture) “The Bookworms”!  Wriggling their way in and out of trouble, The Bookworms pop-up to bring their stories to life! Join them in our first ever live children’s theatre show – it’s ‘bound’ to be crazy! Taking place on Saturday, 4th September at 12pm and 3pm, book your pay-what-you-feel tickets now either via the 2021 City of Culture website (https://coventry2021.co.uk/what-s-on/theatre-next-door-the-bookworms/) or in person in the library.

We will be restarting our Children’s Saturday Clubs – craft club, LEGO club and new for 2021 “Read to Sophie”, our visiting therapy dog! Suitable for children of all ages and beginning on 11th September, come along on Saturday mornings to have some fun. We will also be hosting a new Kids Chess Club event on Thursday afternoons – places will be limited so pop in to the library or contact us to reserve a place!

Chris Arnot will be in the library for a children’s storytime session on Tuesday mornings throughout August – the session we had this morning was really busy and it was so lovely to see so many children in the library!

We will also be starting our new genealogy course on Thursday, 2nd September at 6pm. Supported by the Rotary Club of Coventry Phoenix, the course lasts for six weeks and costs just £20 in total. Places are limited so contact us ASAP if you’re interested! 

We have a number of people to thank this month, including Coventry Building Society Earlsdon High Street for their amazing community support! All the staff have put so much effort into decorating the branch and there’s a top prize of £1000 for winning their raffle too, with all proceeds going to support the library! Huge thanks also to Greyfriars Stoves Ltd for renewing our subscription to Coventry Evening Telegraph, so that we can offer you a daily copy of the newspaper for free. Finally, we’d like to thank everyone who volunteered and came along to our open day last month for making it such a success! The library was absolutely buzzing and it was wonderful to see so many people there.

As ongoing events and activities, the library will also be hosting photography and art exhibitions, yoga and t’ai chi classes, book and card sales, our Book Bingo challenge, the Coventry Big Read and One Million Reads schemes, language clubs, support sessions for carers, local councillors surgeries … the list goes on! Just contact us, see our website, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter or pop in for more details. As always, we are open for book browsing, borrowing and computer access as follows:

Opening hours from Monday 5th July

Monday 10.00am – 5.00pm

Tuesday 10.00am – 5.00pm

Wednesday closed

Thursday 10.00am – 5.00pm

Friday 1.00pm – 5.00pm

Saturday 10.00am – 1.00pm

If you have any questions about any of our events or activities then feel free to get in touch.

Many thanks,

Lucy

RETURN TO HOME PAGE