## **Thirsk Community Library** **Registered Charity Number: 1169352** ## **Annual Report April 1[st] 2022 to March 31[st] 2023** _**‘I cannot say anything that would improve this library. The volunteer staff are all wonderful, very helpful and with a great sense of humour. Thanks to all of you’**_ 1 ## **Introduction** This is the 6th annual report of Thirsk Community Library Charity. We continue to live up to our vision of being an inclusive community hub where people can read, learn, use IT, socialise and have fun together. Above all else we prioritise being welcoming, friendly and helpful and being a great place to visit and to volunteer. ## **Leadership of the Charity** Trustees lead the charity and are responsible for the overall sustainability of the charity, setting priorities and direction, ensuring that we meet the requirements of the agreement with North Yorkshire Council and of the Charity Commission and overseeing financial and service governance. At March 31[st] 2023 the trustees were. Sally Burton: _Chair_ Shirley Ward: _Secretary_ Bronwen Cohen: _Treasurer_ Anna Naughton: _Trustee_ Irene Marwood: _Trustee_ Fiona Maher: _Trustee_ Ann MacNamara: _Trustee_ Stephanie Fletcher: _Trustee_ ## **Operational Management** Day to day operations are overseen by volunteers. Some volunteers hold key responsibilities such as Three Rings Manager (rota management) Data Management and Coordinating activities such as Story Times, School Visits and Pop Up Libraries and looking after our Book Clubs. Volunteers are always welcome to propose activities and to put forward suggestions for projects or services. For example one volunteer has run an excellent Collage Art session for us and another has offered her skills in producing social media posts. We don’t have a ‘Manager’ as the library is self-managed by the volunteers on each shift. All work to deliver our vision and all have induction and training to undertake their roles. Our volunteers have a wide range of skills and aptitudes and their strength lies in good teamwork and communication. ## **Financial Position** Our finances remain healthy. However we cannot be complacent. We have a good reserves position mainly due to the Covid-related grants we have received. We have allocated significant sums to purchasing new shelving, desks, trolleys and chairs, re-decorating and carpet cleaning. We were supported in this venture by an allocation of £3800 from Hambleton District Council . 2 We have been able to pay for activity leaders to run sessions for children with the help of a Get Going grant of £1000 from NYCC. We received £380 from HDC to support our Warm Spaces initiative. Our income and expenditure on day to day running costs are broadly in balance but we do not make a profit from day to day income. We undertake fundraising activities such as holding Quizzes, selling second hand books, Christmas stalls, raffles and a 50/50 Club. We also welcome donations. The agreement with North Yorkshire Council allows us to keep all monies from fines, reservations and printing. NYC pays for the lease for the building and we are charged for a percentage of this each quarter. We also fund all insurance, cleaning, fire safety checks, consumables and volunteer expenses and all activities for the public. ## **Partnership with North Yorkshire Council** The Council continues to buy all the books and provides all the computers and systems. The Council also funds a part time Community Library Support Officer who works with volunteers to train them, advise on new systems and support day to day delivery. For the last 6 years we have also been supported by Laura Dinning, an Outreach Librarian from NYC. Following some staffing changes Laura has now moved to another patch and we welcome Lucy Harrison-Wright as our new Outreach colleague. We would like to record our thanks to Laura for all her help, patience and advice over the last 6 years. At the end of March 2022 Brenda Robinson retired after a career of over 35 years in public libraries. Brenda had been our Community Library Support Officer for 5 years. She had worked with us from the first day we took over the library and we are very grateful for all her support, goodwill and pearls of wisdom she passed on from that career in libraries. Our new Community Library Support Officer, Emma Jenner started in April 2022. She has wide experience in a number of charitable ventures and has built up strong relationships with volunteers and customers and is a highly valued member of our team. ## **Opportunities for Volunteers** Our volunteer policy makes it clear that we are welcoming and inclusive and that we believe our strength lies in having a range of volunteers with varying skills who work together to deliver our vision. There are no specific qualifications or experience needed to volunteer with us. The priority is that people understand and sign up to the vision and values of the library, work in a team and are welcoming to all our customers. 3 We provide a detailed induction, shadowing our experienced volunteers, and training sessions for all new volunteers. When people feel ready they are able to go onto our rota and be part of the team on days they select. Some of our volunteers do not work as part of the rota but help us with regular admin, fundraising, and help with events or working for part of shifts processing books, shelving, making refreshments, reading stories or chatting to customers. All contributions are very much valued and appreciated. We also offer placements for Work Experience, CV building and Duke of Edinburgh’s candidates and placements for young people with a range of additional support needs. ## **What’s in it for volunteers?** People who volunteer gain new experiences, make friends and get the satisfaction of knowing they are contributing to their community. Volunteers are able to undertake additional training if they wish to build up their CV and skills portfolio and they can also use volunteering as a stepping stone to employment. Others will use it as a stepping stone into retirement, bringing their skills and experience to the team as they end their paid working lives. We hold regular social events and ‘thank you’s’ for volunteers and many attend our regular fundraising quizzes. Around 75 adults and 20 young people have volunteered with the library since 2017. We appreciate every one of them. ## **How much time has been donated?** In the 6 years April 2017-to April 2023 over **25,000** hours of volunteer time was committed to direct service in the library (this would have been over 28,000 without Covid). At the same time around **7500** hours were committed selecting and delivering books to people’s homes. In addition, around **7000** hours were spent on ‘support activities such as finance, training, applying for grants, managing the building, ordering materials, planning for activities, cleaning and liaison with partners. This is a huge commitment of which we can all be very proud. ## **An inclusive and welcoming public service** The building is accessible with dedicated disabled parking, level access, accessible toilets, a lift and a hearing induction loop. We also have volunteers with experience of supporting people with learning disabilities, autism, dementia and mental health needs. We provide Large Print and Audio Books for those with visual disabilities. 4 We provide a range of services to support local people. In the last year this has included: - A ‘Warm Space’ to welcome people struggling to afford heating or simply looking for some company. - Zen Tangle Sessions- mindful drawing with drinks and chat. - Friday Friends, a welcoming group for people who want to chat, play board games or devise quizzes together. - Hard of Hearing Group in collaboration with Community Works. - Volunteering opportunities for people with disabilities and health issues. - A meeting space for employment support discussions, one to one help and counselling. - Pop Up Visits by the Police, Public Health and Local Charities. - Adult Learning classes in Literacy, numeracy, English as a second language and family learning. - Providing space for the Thirsk Repair Café. The brilliant volunteers from the Repair Café and great partners and the popular Repair Café is a great asset to the community that we feel really complements our values and philosophy. All these groups add to the wonderful atmosphere in the library and comment on the warm welcome we provide. **The Repair Café, bringing people together to learn how to fix things, reducing waste, saving money and adding to the social atmosphere in the library** **Adult Learning from North Yorkshire Council have delivered lessons in the library and continue to work with us on new projects** 5 ## **Working outside the library** Some of our services are delivered outside the library, meeting local needs in the community. We have a Home Library Service whereby volunteers select and deliver books to people who cannot get to the library. This is a highly valued service supporting some of the most vulnerable people in the community. We also visit schools and nurseries to read to children and provide a Pop up Library which takes books into schools for children to borrow. ## **Activities for Children and Young People** We continue to deliver a range of activities for children as follows: - A weekly Story Time Session with a rota of keen story tellers who all bring their own magic to the sessions - Regular sessions for a group of childminders and the children in their care - Weekly Construction Play for pre-school children - 2 Lego Clubs after school - Warhammer Games Club every week - Regular crafts activities. - Author talks - Visits from schools to the library We affiliated our War Hammer Games Club with North Yorkshire Youth in order to test out whether we can build this into a wider games club and whether we can obtain financial support for this. Over the summer we ran the popular Summer Reading Challenge with the theme of Gadgeteers. We provided a range of activities from fixing bikes, trikes and scooters, to mini engineering projects, arts and crafts and Lego building. We were also supported by Thirsk Yarn bombers who came every week and taught children how to knit. Two volunteers ran ‘Gadgeteer Sessions’ introducing children to fun activities using circuits, batteries, magnets and elastic. **We took part in a Reading Agency Project to encourage under 5s to attend and listen to stories. This lasted 6 weeks and was very popular. Many thanks to volunteer Pat for delivery of the sessions.** 6 **Making Minecraft Models was very popular with children and adults and we did a repeat as we sold out** ## **Making Christmas decorations** **One of the highlights for children was a talk about Space by local author Mike Barfield** 7 ## **Partnerships with schools** We work with all local primary schools to help them promote reading and literacy. We visit all local primary schools and invite pupils to take part in the summer and Christmas Reading Challenges and we welcome school visits when we read stories, issue library cards and undertake games and activities to help children learn about how libraries work. We also offer a ‘Pop up Library Service’ to take books out to Thirsk Community Primary School and Carlton Miniott Primary Academy School for families to borrow and volunteers visit schools to read to children. We also have a partnership with Alanbrooke Primary Academy and will develop this further this year. We work with Thirsk High School to provide Work Experience and Duke of Edinburgh award placements and we have other students attend for extended periods to supplement their education. **Pupils from All Saints Primary School enjoying a library visit** 8 ## **Helping people to find information and use IT** We have 8 Public Computers and a Printer/Photocopier available for public use. We are aware that many local people do not have a computer or broadband at home and the library is an important place for them to access IT and manage their affairs. The library also has free access to the NYC Guest Wi-Fi system and people can bring in their own devices and work in the library. ## **Our Digital Buddies continue to support people with a range of IT support** This year they offered drop in sessions for people wanting help with the NHS App and we will repeat this. They also support people applying for Blue Badges, Bus Passes, setting up email accounts, helping people print items and helping people with data protection. We also take part in the ReBoot Scheme to collect and repurpose PCs and devices to donate to people who need them. ## **Talking Newspapers for the Blind** We have formed a new partnership and now provide a service to copy the Talking Newspaper and post it out to local people. We receive the USB sticks back each month, record the new paper and send it out. We are looking into offering a social group for people who would like to come into the library to listen to the articles and discuss local issues. ## **Priorities for 2023-24** - Complete the re-decoration and refurbishment of the library - Maintain our links with schools and our range of children’s activities - Promote and increase the numbers using Home Library Services - Repeat our offer of a ‘Warm Space’ - Increase our number of activities for adults - Recruit and induct new volunteers - Re-open one late shift per week to make us more accessible to more people - Complete the drafting of new guidelines on all core tasks for volunteers - Work with North Yorkshire Youth to explore the possibility of providing more services for young people aged 10-16 - Introduce a Local History/Local Affairs discussion group - Set up a programme of speakers 3 or 4 times a year 9 ||**Charity Name**
**THIRSK COMMUNITY LIBRARY**
|**Charity Name**
**THIRSK COMMUNITY LIBRARY**
|**Charity Name**
**THIRSK COMMUNITY LIBRARY**
|**1169352**|**CC16a**| |---|---|---|---|---|---| ||**Receipts and payments accounts**||||| ||**For the period**
**from**|Period start date
4/1/2022|**To**
|Period end date
3/31/2023|| ||||||| |**Section A Receipts and payments**|||||| |**A1 Receipts**
LibraryServices
**4,468**
Fund Raising
**1,206**
Grants and Donations
**11,095**
Room Hire
**2,962**
Activities and Events
**1,952**
Bank Interest
**170**
**-**
**-**
**21,853**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ -**
**_Total receipts_ 21,853**
**A3 Payments**
Activities and Events
**3,415**
Marketing
**-**
Rent and Insurance
**4,001**
Salaries
**4,617**
Administration & Maintenance
**2,406**
Licences & Subscriptions
**299**
Fund Raising
**243**
**-**
**-**
**_Sub total_ 14,981**
Book & Poster Stand
**-**
Reception Desk,Cupboards,
Shelving& StoryChair
**17,707**
**_Sub total_ 17,707**
**_Total payments_ 32,688**
**_Net of receipts/(payments)_ - 10,835**
**A5 Transfers between funds**
**-**
**A6 Cash funds last year end**
**-**
**_Cash funds this year end_ - 10,835**
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**
**_Sub total_**_(Gross income for AR)_
**A2 Asset and investment sales,**
**(see table).**
**A4 Asset and investment**
**purchases, (see table)**||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**|**Endowment**
**funds**
**to the nearest**
**£**|**Total funds**
**4,468**
**1,206**
**11,095**
**2,962**
**1,952**
**170**
**-**
**-**
**21,853**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**21,853**
**3,415**
**-**
**4,001**
**4,617**
**2,406**
**299**
**243**
**-**
**-**
**14,981**
**-**
**17,707**
**17,707**
**32,688**
**- 10,835**
**-**
**-**
**- 10,835**
**to the nearest**
**£**|**Last year**
**to the nearest**
**£**| ||||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**4,468**|**3,055**| |||||**1,206**|**2,356**| |||||**11,095**|**7,210**| |||||**2,962**|**145**| |||||**1,952**|**1,135**| |||||**170**|**42**| |||||**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**| |||||**21,853**|**13,943**| ||||||| ||||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|| |||||**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**| ||||||| ||||**-**|**21,853**|**13,943**| ||||||| ||||**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**3,415**|**7,908**| |||||**-**|**480**| |||||**4,001**|**4,017**| |||||**4,617**|**10,452**| |||||**2,406**|**1,538**| |||||**299**|**477**| |||||**243**|**205**| |||||**-**|**-**| |||||**-**|**-**| |||||**14,981**|**25,077**| ||||||| ||||**-**
**-**
**-**|**-**|**289**| ||||||| |||||**17,707**|**-**| |||||**17,707**|**289**| ||||||| ||||**-**|**32,688**|**25,366**| ||||||| |||**-**|**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**|**- 10,835**|**- 11,423**| |||**-**||**-**|**-**| |||**-**||**-**|**-**| |||**-**||**- 10,835**|**- 11,423**| **Section B Statement of assets and liabilities at the end of the period** |**Categories**
**B1 Cash funds**
**B2 Other monetary assets**
**B3 Investment assets**
**B5 Liabilities**
**B4 Assets retained for the**
**charity’s own use**|**Details**
Barclays Bank
Nationwide Building Society
Cash
**Details**
**Details**
**Details**
Shelving and Supports
Trolleys and Library Boxes
Blinds
Gazebo Table & Chairs
Desk Chair
Camera
Filing Cabinets
Book & Poster Stands
Desk,cupboards,shelves & chair
**Details**
**_Total cash funds_**
(agree balances with receipts
and payments account(s))|**to nearest £**
**38,338**
**10,301**
**310**
**48,949**
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
Unrestricted
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
Agreement
Error
**Unrestricted**
**funds**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**asset belongs**
**Fund to which**
**liability relates**|**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
OK
**to nearest £**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**2,541**
**208**
**140**
**23**
**154**
**808**
**270**
**289**
**17,707**
**-**
**-**
**-**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Restricted**
**funds**
**Cost**
**(optional)**
**Cost**
**(optional)**
**Amount due**
**(optional)**|**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |---|---|---|---|---| |||||| |||||| |||||| |||||**-**| |||||OK| |||||**to nearest £**
**Endowment**
**funds**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**Current value**
**(optional)**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**-**| |||||**When due**
**(optional)**| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| ||||**-**|| Signed by one or two trustees on behalf of all the trustees Signature Date of Print Name approval