Friends of Street Library Annual Report 2025
In a year which has seen the celebration of 100 years of having a public library in Street, the Friends have continued to provide support for our library.
We have maintained the provision of the local newspapers, thanks in part to a grant from Street Parish Council. The Council also managed to secure a donation of two national daily papers from Premier Stores in Street, which have proved very popular with the users of the library. We are very grateful for all this help.
Marilyn, our volunteer coordinator, has been doing a fantastic job of ensuring that we meet our commitment to provide customer support volunteers to work alongside the librarian each afternoon. A new library management system was introduced in all libraries across Somerset around this time last year. This meant that all staff and volunteers had to be trained to use the new system, which led to a few of our volunteers deciding that the role was no longer for them. Marilyn did a brilliant job of ensuring that all the volunteers had a chance to become familiar with the new system and were confident to work with it when it went live. After a few ‘teething problems’ everything seems to be working well, and we have been fortunate enough to have some wonderful new volunteers to ensure we always have full cover.
The Friends have continued to organise many children’s activities during the holiday periods, as well as providing prizes for treasure hunts and competitions. This year we have also been able to offer some very popular activities for adults. We hope to be able to develop some new ideas to build on this further.
Due to changes in the fire evacuation regulations for the Parish Building, we have been unable to use the upstairs rooms for any of our activities. This has restricted our ability to offer as many activities as we would have liked. This has also led to the popular Booker book group and Poetry group having to hold their meetings in the downstairs library space. Whilst this space is a bit more limited, it has been working well so far. Some of the members of these groups have been encouraged to join the Friends, which has been a welcome boost to our membership, for which we are very grateful.
Once again, we were able to support the library with the annual Summer Reading Challenge. The theme for 2024 was ‘Marvellous Makers’ for which we donated several books and organised related activities and competitions. Sadly, I think the main winners of the sunflower competition were the slugs, although there were some very impressive successful entries. The banner which hangs on the outside of the library to promote the Summer Reading Challenge was unfortunately damaged during bad weather and we are in the process of purchasing a new one in time for the 2025 event.
In November 2024 there was a celebration of the Street Library’s centenary. An incredible cake was supplied by Johanne Saunders, which tasted every bit as good as it looked. The event was attended by members of Street Parish Council, Somerset Library Service and many of the Friends of Street Library, including a few of the founding members. It was lovely to see everyone there and the display of photos of the library through the years sparked many interesting stories and discussions.
Negotiations are already underway for the renewal of the Community Library Partnership contract, which is due to be signed in 2026. We are very proud of the way that Street has been able to thrive as a community library and look forward to that continuing well into the future.
Thinking of the future, the Friends of Street Library really need your help. Despite the fact that we have over seventy current members, we only ever seem to see around 6-10 people at our meetings, usually the same 6- 10 faces every time. We don’t expect everyone to join us at every meeting, but a few fresh faces would be
very welcome, we are always on the lookout for some new ideas of things we could be doing to encourage people to come into our library. In addition, when we do put on events, we usually have the same small group of people doing all the work to organise and run things, again it would be lovely to see some new helpers. So, if you feel you may be able to play a more active role in how the Friends is run, or have some fresh ideas for activities or fundraisers, please let us know. We can’t keep doing this without you, I look forward to meeting more of you soon.
Finally, I would like to say a massive thank you to all our committee, trustees and Street Parish Council, without your support none of this would be possible.
Sarah Ivory
Chair
Friends of Street Library final accounts for the year 2024- 2025 Income and expenditure for the year 61412024- 51412025 Income C88h in bank (oed04r2024) Current alc Cash in hand Raadvwwritsng thIen8JvitTra& Resr(S8 for library Quiz Fffizes Insurance 2710512024 Sundriè5 Newspaper ffKJney to libr8ry fosd.¢yg.uk renewal from 123-reg Stationory. postage e 292.06 516.49 40.00 154.56 188.85. 703.85 28.78 15.60. 7450.48 2.54 2024-2025 $ubs paid earfy Subs since 0610412023 Donations In{>)ff from stalls Quiz sales Gift Aid Newspapèr donations •tc 987. 55.50 73.20 202.50 168.00 . 4CKJ.27 Total Income Total Expenditurn sUlUs 1966.47 1940. 19 26.28 Cash iii bank (OW2025J Current al¢ Cash in hand 7588.68 88.62 Total 9617.49 Total 9617.49 Signed: Peter Fry (Treasurer) Inde endent examiner's r ort I have examined the above accounts of the Friends of Street Library for the period 0610412024 until 0510412025 (the end of their nornial accounting peri(MJ) and compared them with the books and records of the charity. I confimi they are in accordance therewith and with the explanations given. Julie Hiliman Date