New chapter begins for Warwick Library

Warwick Library will be closed to the public for two weeks from Monday 13 February 2012, as it moves to its new location at Warwickshire County Council’s Headquarters, Shire Hall. The new look library will re-open in its new home at 8am on Monday 27 February 2012.

During the closure customers will be able to renew their books online: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/renew, over the telephone on the automated 24/7 renewal line: 01926 499273, or at any other Warwickshire Library. Return dates will be adjusted in the run up to the closure to ensure items are not due back during the two-week closure. Customers can continue to return books during the closure using the letterbox on the outside of the Barrack Street library. Leamington Library will be open as normal throughout the closure.

For customers who wish to use the Music & Drama collection, there will be no public access to the collection from Monday 13 February until the collection moves to new premises in the late Spring. However, from Monday 27 February, customers will be able to request items from the collection online: www.warwickshire.gov.uk/librarycatalogue, over the telephone, or at any Warwickshire library, and have items delivered to their local library for collection. Customers who wish to request performance sets can continue to do so by email: librarymusicanddrama@warwickshire.gov.uk or by telephone: 01926 412168.

Kushal Birla, Warwickshire County Council’s Head of Customer Service said: “We are excited about our new look, modern library and hope our customers are looking forward to seeing it too. Unfortunately we will need to close for a fortnight to enable us to move all our books, restock the shelves and make sure we are all set to greet our first customers from 8am on Monday 27 February.

“We are taking all necessary steps to ensure minimum disruption to our customers, and there are a number of ways they can get in touch to renew their books, or make any specialist enquiries.”

The library move is part of a refurbishment programme at Warwickshire County Council’s Shire Hall headquarters, which will see a number of changes to the building to maximise the space available for customer facing services. In addition to the new library, the refurbishment will also mean the availability of a wider range of registration services.

These services are conveniently co-located alongside other public services already provided by Warwickshire Police, Warwickshire County and Warwick District under the Warwickshire Direct brand, and the Post Office.

The opening hours of the new library will mirror those of the other service available from Shire Hall.

Monday – Thursday: 8am – 5.30pm

Friday: 8am – 5pm

Saturday 9am – 4pm

Cllr Colin Hayfield, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio-holder for Customers, Access and Physical Assets, said: “The relocation of Warwick Library presents the opportunity to develop a modern library, serving the needs of existing and new library customers. Shire Hall will become a real community hub, enabling customers to head to one place for the information and services they need. ”

A guest blog from Mike Harris and Kineton Community Library

Today we offer a blog from guest author Mike Harris and his community library experience.

Well, that was the week that was!

It’s not often that I get up early on a Monday morning to go to a radio station for a live interview, get back home, open a community library and then do an interview for TV.  Doesn’t this sort of thing usually happen to other people?

It all seems so long ago that we were putting together our business plan and waiting for Cabinet’s approval.  Now, the library is live with customers coming through the door, us volunteers are being trained by county council staff in the management systems and basically on how to run a library.  There is no going back; we have launched and Kineton has a community library.

We are the first community library in Warwickshire to ‘go live’ as we had a comparatively simple business plan. Nevertheless, we have had to arrange a new agreement with the Village Hall Association for the room we occupy, arrange a new telephone line and internet connection and we have had to address the problem of opening times.

For that, it was necessary to try to balance the days and hours that volunteers are available, the current opening hours and the wishes of our customers. No doubt we will have to review these once we have been up and running for a time.

The Library Service has modified the management system and staff are currently testing the modified version out of Kineton. We realise that we are guinea pigs and expect some trials and tribulations in getting a new system up and working.  But we place our trust in them that it will work!

We met the deputy portfolio holder for libraries from Warwickshire County Council on Monday.  He pledged the council’s ongoing support and I am delighted.  Just as Kineton needs volunteers to continue the service, we couldn’t have got this far without the support of the council.

But similarly, the council expressed the view that community libraries such as Kineton are dependent on volunteers.  It couldn’t do without us.  Cllr Jim Foster said as much on the video which can be found on YouTube.  Here’s a link for anyone who fancies watching it.

http://bit.ly/yqNvbq

Before I (b)log off, I should like to pay tribute to the other volunteers who have made this community library possible.  I appear to have been the ‘media darling’ this week – well, you know how it is, some of us have just got that X factor… – but this has been a terrific team effort.  There will still be a much-loved library service in Kineton because of the volunteers we have.  They know who they are.  People in Kineton will know them soon enough as well.

Mike Harris

Chair Friends of Kineton Library

Library opening hours – the decision

The future opening hours of 16 Warwickshire libraries have been decided – by the communities they serve.

A consultation conducted between November 14 and December 11 last year invited local people to choose between two sets of opening hours for libraries remaining in local authority control from April 1 this year.

These were based on known usage – visits and loans per hour, time and day – along with other relevant local factors such as market days or regular events.

Local people were asked to decide on the opening hours of the following libraries:

• Alcester
• Atherstone
• Bedworth
• Coleshill
• Kenilworth
• Leamington
• Lillington
• Nuneaton
• Polesworth
• Rugby
• Shipston
• Southam
• Stratford
• Wellesbourne
• Whitnash
• Wolston

The consultation questionnaires, which were available in all Warwickshire libraries and online, also contained a third ‘no preference’ option. There was also a space for people to add comments if they wished.

A total of 5,881 consultation responses were received countywide, 4,299 on paper and 1,582 online.

The votes have been counted and the most popular option, as chosen by each community, will be implemented on April 1, 2012. Until, then opening hours will stay as they are.

The overall reduction in opening hours across the library network will contribute to the service achieving target savings of more than £2 million.

Warwickshire County Council will continue to run 18 libraries after March 31 and is working closely with local groups to develop community libraries elsewhere. These should be open and operational by 1 April 2012.

Two council-run libraries, Warwick and Stockingford, were not included in the recent consultation because their future opening hours had already been decided – to match those of Shire Hall and the Stockingford Early Years Centre respectively.

More details on the new opening hours are available at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/news

Cllr Colin Hayfield, Portfolio-holder for Customers, Access and Physical Assets, said: “We took the decision that our customers will decide the opening hours of the libraries, and thanks to the thousands of responses we have received we believe we are meeting the needs of the communities with the new opening hours.”

Meanwhile, Warwickshire County Council continues to work closely with community groups around the county developing new community libraries. All of these should be open and operational by April 1, 2012.

The transformation of the Library and Information Service is a part of the general financial savings, where Warwickshire County Council must cut spending by more than £70 million over the next three years. As part of the savings plan, the Library and Information Service budget will reduce by £2 million.

Library opening hours consultation is now closed

The Warwickshire Library and Information Service consultation into the future opening hours of the county’s main libraries has now closed.

The consultation got underway on Monday, November 14, and ran until last night, asking local people to decide on the opening hours of the following libraries:

• Alcester
• Atherstone
• Bedworth
• Coleshill
• Kenilworth
• Leamington
• Lillington
• Nuneaton
• Polesworth
• Rugby
• Shipston
• Southam
• Stratford
• Wellesbourne
• Whitnash
• Wolston

More than 5,000 people completed questionnaires in libraries or online on the future pattern of opening hours for libraries remaining under the Library and Information Service control.

There are two exceptions: Warwick’s new opening hours will match Shire Hall’s opening hours, and Stockingford’s opening hours will match those of the Early Years Centre.

The new opening hours will be introduced from March 31. Details of the outcome of the consultation will be available at www.warwickshire.gov.uk/libraries and www.libraryconsult.wordpress.com

Cllr Colin Hayfield, Portfolio-holder for Customers, Access and Physical Assets, said: “We have taken the decision that our customers will decide the opening hours of the libraries. The majority vote will be the option we go with. We are still gathering all the consultation entries, it is extremely encouraging that more than 5,000 people have responded.”

Meanwhile, Warwickshire County Council continues to work closely with community groups around the county developing new community libraries. All of these should be open and operational by April 1, 2012.

The transformation of the Library and Information Service is a part of the general financial savings, where Warwickshire County Council must cut spending by more than £70 million over the next three years. As part of the savings plan, the Library and Information Service budget will reduce by £2 million.

Library opening hours consultation ends on Sunday

There are just a few days left to respond to the library opening hours consultation and for local people to join almost 5,000 who have responded so far to the survey.

By the end of the third week of the four week consultation, 4,667 people had completed and returned a survey, with 3,188 completing the paper survey in libraries and 1,479 people completing the online survey.

There have also been more than 2,000 visits to this blog for information.

There are just a few days left of the consultation left until Sunday, December 11.

Almost 3,500 surveys returned in 2 weeks!

In just two weeks there has been an incredible response to the library opening hours consultation, with almost 3,500 surveys returned.

During week two of the consultation there were 1,329 paper surveys handed in to libraries and 333 were completed online, this follows the first week, where there were 958 paper surveys completed and 839 online. A total of 3,459 survey responses so far.

There have also been more than 2,000 visits to this blog for information.

There are still two weeks of the consultation left until Sunday, December 11.

Survey responses flood in

The library opening hours consultation is continuing to attract responses, with the latest figures revealing that in the first week of the survey there were 958 paper surveys handed in to libraries, far more than first thought, plus 731 online surveys were completed – a total of 1,689 consultation survey responses in the first week!