Chair of The Library Campaign, Laura Swaffield, writes:
“This year’s TLC AGM and mini-conference was a treasure-trove of insights, ideas and experience.
Campaigners from Lincolnshire (Angela Montague) and Barnet (Barbara Jacobson and Keith Martin) had loads of really useful tips – though less news of real success.
The discussion underlined the point. Library plans nationwide fail to show any understanding of what libraries do, or any common sense or financial sense. Opposition by local people is always total – and shown to be so.
Campaigners work incredibly hard, and make watertight cases.
Local councils don’t listen.
The only real hope of change lies with the new libraries Taskforce. It has quite a list of things to do. For many, it’s already too little, too late. Your chance to find out more is on November 14 at the Speak Up For Libraries conference!”
ELECTION OF TRUSTEES
The following stood for election and were elected as Trustees of the charity:
Elizabeth Ash
Geof Dron
Bob Goodrick
Mathew Hulbert
Keith Martin ( Treasurer)
Laura Swaffield (Chair)
MAIN MESSAGE Much has been achieved this year. Much much more could be done with more on board. Read the committee report, delivered by Laura Swaffield in the minutes.
TLC accounts to report – AGM 2015
Mini-conference
The AGM was followed by a mini-conference, opened with presentations from Angela Montague from Save Lincolnshire Libraries and Barbara Jacobson and Keith Martin from Save Barnet Libraries, offered an insight into their campaigns, useful tips and advice. Issues and priorities were discussed.
More on this in the next issue of The Library Campaigner, but
Angela led us through the history of the Lincolnshire campaign, offering lots of helpful advice and went on to produce a post on Save Lincolnshire Libraries site to share the campaign’s tips and advice to others. Find it here.
Keith and Barbara shared their experiences of campaigning for Barnet libraries, a campaign well-supported by the local branch of UNISON, and the text of these can be accessed here:
Report – Barbara Jacobson
Report – Keith Martin
WE NEED OUR MEMBERS Every membership of The Library Campaign helps to further our work, adds another piece to the jigsaw and gives a further voice to library users. We now send out two copies of the magazine to members. We know that many, as intended, pass on the extra copy or place it in public places. Members are also needed to contribute to our expanded website and help with social media is always needed. Much work has gone on to reconstruct and expand our list of Friends and campaign groups. It is the only such list available. But it requires constant updating. If you know of a group not listed, please let us know. Similarly, please let us know if you spot an error or dead link.
ADD YOUR VOICE TO THE CAMPAIGN
You can join us by taking up membership. You can follow us and engage on social media: If you are on Twitter, follow The Library Campaign at @LibraryCampaign. On Facebook, find us at The Library Campaign It’s a great way to keep in touch with current news. The more members we have involved, the more we can achieve as a charity. A strong and active membership helps The Library Campaign to better represent the views of the various campaigners and friends of libraries groups.
