Our Community Library

From January 1st 2013, Stokenchurch became a fully-fledged Community Library. Community Libraries remain an integral part of Buckinghamshire Libraries, so all the services and facilities can be used just as before, using your ordinary library card.

However we are also part of the community, staffed by volunteers, and under the control of a charity set up for the purpose.

Stokenchurch Community Library is a Registered Charity Number 1148889.

We are an Unincorporated Association, and our Constitution and most recent annual accounts can be found on our Library Trustees page.

Buckinghamshire Council continue to provide us with full IT and other support, to provide the linkage with the rest of the network. They also provide training for our volunteers who staff the library, and some other financial support. We have considerable local control of how the library is run, and the services it provides over and above the core offering. In this way we should be able to offer something which better meets the wishes of the local people we serve.

We do need to raise some funds locally, but if we are successful in this aim, we can invest them directly into extra stock or other enhanced services. This combination of flexible local decision-making whilst retaining full linkage to the wider network, should hopefully give us the best of both worlds.

From February 2013, we made our first enhancement to service by staying open through Wednesday lunchtime. This should provide a useful facility for the many people who work in the village, who can now drop in during their lunch break, taking advantage of the fact that books can be borrowed and returned from and to any library in Buckinghamshire.

Since then, the premises have been transformed with the installation of a lower ceiling and new lighting, a new colour scheme and new signage, free wifi, and the introduction of a wider range of local information. We will continue to make other improvements to the service we offer as resources allow. Please visit us soon and make use of the suggestions box to tell us what you would like from your library.

A summary of our achievements and performance for the year ending March 2020, taken from our formal Annual Report, is below.

More information about the governance of the Charity, including the Constitution, plus the filed accounts for our most recent full year (April 2019 - March 2020), can be found on the Library Trustees page.

Achievements and performance for the year ending March 2020, taken from our formal Annual Report

The Report year proved a highly successful one for both the core library service and our complementary community activities.

Book issues increased by 7.5%, more than rebounding from the previous year’s decline. This made us the best performing branch in Buckinghamshire (apart from Aylesbury, whose figures were grossly distorted by disruption due to refurbishment during the earlier period). In comparison, the overall county result was a decline of around 4%.

Meanwhile, the community initiatives started during the previous year blossomed, especially the Mahjong group, which met most weeks, and the twice-monthly genealogy group. On closure of the Methodist Church, their weekly coffee morning relocated to the library, proving a very satisfactory (and warmer!) venue for their regular clientele. We continued to host councillor surgeries for our district and county councillors.

Completion of the annual Summer Reading Challenge reached near-record levels, the Junior Book Club for 8 to 12 year-olds continued to thrive, and a regular programme of visits by schools and cubs and brownies groups continued.

Fundraising events continued throughout the year with consistent and welcome income generated from them. We continued our presence at both the Stokenchurch Summer and Christmas Fetes, and held our regular annual quiz, albeit slightly later than normal. The schedule of talks and presentations, initiated in 2018/19, started well but stalled somewhat due to our Events Manager stepping back from the role. They had proved a steady source of income and good use of our premises, serving to bring new people into the building, whilst providing entertainment and interest.

The Library Improvements Group was re-instituted to consider general improvements to the library, consideration being given to the children’s area, decorating, new carpeting, storage and general improvements. Aided by contributions from the councillors’ ward budgets, the children’s area was re-invigorated with new furniture and storage, and a change of layout. Small improvements to the building and contents continued, such as safety lighting at the entrance. A new printer/copier was received from Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC), as well as a new telephone system.

This year proved a rather testing time as far as personnel are concerned. Mary Gallagher and Morag Wagstaff stepped down from their respective roles in promotion / marketing and event management, although Morag was able to continue as an operational volunteer. Louise McAward-White has continued to manage our Facebook presence. Marion Salmon remained as Library Manager, and we were very pleased that Joan van Roon stepped in to pick up the role of Training Officer, and has done a sterling job of formalising and managing the process. The important role of Rota Coordinator was handed over from Cristin Mann to Chris Courtney. The number of Trustees has reduced, with Danny Woodward, Carol Lamb and Jean Burgess leaving for various personal reasons.

2019/20 was the first year of a new Resource Grant Agreement which involves a gradual reduction of grant over a three-year period. (Although a delay with the legal formalities has subsequently led to a slippage in the pace of reduction, as explained in the financial report.)

Developments since end of Report period, and future plans

The end of our year, 31^st March 2020, coincided with the rise of the coronavirus pandemic and the 23^rd March lockdown. At this point the library was forced to close its doors, with no immediate understanding of when we would be able to get back to our ‘normal’ operation. This affected both our ‘core’ service and our ability to provide other community services.

Income from fines, donations and fundraising has been negatively impacted during the lockdown period, whilst most of our running costs have continued. Our small programme of improvements, as suggested by our Improvements Group, has had to be put on hold.

However, by late May, our volunteers, under the co-ordination of Mike Chadwick, were able to set up a delivery and collection service for our customers – the only library in Bucks to maintain service in this way. Later, when we were able to re-open our doors and allow the public in, our volunteers were again there for us, happily adapting to reams of revised procedures. At the time of writing, we continue to offer a mixed model of slightly-reduced opening hours, backed up by a continued delivery service, with ‘closed-door’ sessions to process the books.

Although the closure period during the pandemic has triggered the departure of a small number of volunteers, and some are still temporarily absent to their medical circumstances, it seems also to have led to a burst of new volunteering enquiries, so these recent recruits have gone some way to offsetting those we have lost.

In order to operate in a Covid-safe way, considerable investment in time and some expenditure was put into protection for our volunteers and customers – PPE, screens, signage, contactless card payments, hand sanitisers, anti-bacterial cleansing, and other safety precautions such as quarantining of book returns. A grant of £400, to help with these costs, was sought and received from the Clare Foundation.

Our focus for the immediate future must be the maintenance of our core service in the face of the coronavirus epidemic and any adverse ‘fallout’, and, in due course, a return to our full opening hours. We must also continue to recruit more volunteers for all roles. At the moment our particular need is for Trustees, and some specialist roles such as event management and promotion / marketing. Although our operational volunteer ‘pool’ has been replenished recently, the loss of only a handful of volunteers jeopardises our ability to maintain our services and we should not be complacent.

Due to lower income and unexpected expenditure, and the gradual decline in our grant, we also need to develop a fundraising strategy to achieve a raised financial target. When possible, we should look to re-open for community activities and to reinvigorate the events programme.

Acknowledgements

We thank our loyal library customers, who have enabled us to maintain our core service, as well as supporting our community initiatives, and welcome all new library members.

As usual, we have to thank all of our volunteers, in whichever capacity they serve, for their time and dedication to keeping the library open as a valuable and irreplaceable community asset.

We are grateful to Stokenchurch Parish Council for their contribution in kind through the maintenance of our grounds; to our local councillors for their allocations from ward budgets and support generally; to Stokenchurch Memorial Club for providing storage for our chairs; and to Buckinghamshire County Council (now Buckinghamshire Council) and its staff for providing financial and miscellaneous support and frequent advice.

[This report was prepared by Robert Nikiel (Chair) and Mike Chadwick (Secretary) on behalf of the Trustee Board, October 2020.]