Seascale Library Link – annual report 2023/24
The library continues to have a solid core of regular users, and recent figures show a significant increase in membership over the last year and encouraging results for footfall and for the borrowing of books. There are several older people in the community who often drop in and stop for a long chat, as well as a number of young families who regard the library as a morning out.
The five trustees are very well supported by our treasurer and team of twelve other volunteers, and everyone seems to be working very enthusiastically and very well together at the moment.
We enjoyed the help of three Y11/12 students over the summer as part of their work experience, and tried to find useful things for them to do.
We are also extremely well supported by Sarah and the team at Whitehaven library, with whom we often need to consult about technical issues. This year they supplied us with a “new” self check-out machine when ours stopped working, which we were all very pleased about.
We are also very grateful to Seascale Parish Council for its support, especially with the cost of heating the building, and look forward to working closely with them in the future.
As well as our usual supply of library books, both fiction and non-fiction, we have a good selection of donated secondhand books to borrow or buy, and are adding to and updating our range of books by converting the most popular of these books into library books. We now have a range of talking books for people to borrow, and there is also a range of jigsaws and magazines available.
We applied for some funding from LLWR, which has been spent on improving our computer facilities, with the printing especially proving very popular, and also on new blinds for the front and east walls of the library, and we plan to continue to improve the interior of the library as funds become available.
We have continued to organize coffee mornings every few months, which help to encourage people in, and there are several other groups that meet regularly or as a one-off, such as the Richmond Fellowship, the health visitor’s baby clinic, and the women’s wellness pilates sessions. The local Scout groups have also used the library for visits, meetings and Christmas fundraising activities.
The trustees have decided that the planned refurbishment of the library into a community hub as outlined by the Day Cummings report is an unnecessary upheaval, considering the other work going on around the village, but that the structure of the building needs to be repaired and a good refurbishment and kitchen/ toilet improvement is more in order, and we have recently started discussions with the parish council to move this forward.
Seascale Communlty Ubrary Income and Expendlture for Perlod L423 to 31.3.24 2024 2023 Income Grants Donations Hlre of Prem15es 2332 5370 1620 5416 930 7206 Expendlture Non-Domestlc Rates Bank Charges Mlscellaneous Expenses 697 72 542 1311 72 6829 6901 Surplus Expendlture over Income -1485 ReconclllatSon Ststement 31.3.24 2024 2023 Opening Balance 6792 896 In¢ome 5416 12208 7206 8102 Expendlture 6901 1310 Balance clf 5307 6792 HELD Debtor INNDRI Unity Bank Cash 414 4818 75 6726 66 Total 5307 6792 251iiJ20