West Barnes Library: your help, please!
The Friends of West Barnes Library are holding a Launch Party on Saturday 25th June, between 2:00-4:30pm at the West Barnes Library. The party is a celebration of their fabulous team of volunteers and to wish them well on their first day of “solo” volunteering on Monday, July 4. All are welcome and refreshments will be provided.
Membership secretary Sarah McAlister said: “The Friends of West Barnes Library has been started with the aim of keeping our local library open for five days a week, using the talents of volunteers to assist the library staff and to improve and encourage more use of the facilities it has to offer. We will host some fabulous events for local people and will let everyone know what is planned once we are fully up and running.”
Friends secretary Bob Forsberg said: “In the past few weeks, dozens of volunteers have come forward to help keep the library open on Mondays. Without their hard work, it would have been closed every Monday from July 4 onwards. Everyone is invited to our official Launch Party to celebrate their support. In the meantime, we still need more people to join West Barnes Library and become active users, borrowing books and DVDs, if we are to maintain this community facility for the long term.”
For further information, including any enquiries about stands at the launch party, please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or Sarah McAlister on 020 8395 8069. For more about the Friends of West Barnes Library go to: www.friendsowbl.org.uk.
See also http://www.merton.gov.uk/news-events/press-releases/press-release-details.htm?id=2597
PREVIOUS UPDATES FROM FRIENDS OF WEST BARNES LIBRARY
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UPDATE MAY 2011 - Support still urgently needed
At its budget meeting, Merton Council decided to delay by three months closure of West Barnes Library on Mondays to give the local community time to find suitable volunteers to keep it open. There is now an urgent need for more residents to come forward to ensure a reliable service for library users; otherwise the Council will have no alternative but to close the library on Mondays with effect from 4th July, 2011.
If you are interested in volunteering on Mondays and have not already done so, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Alternatively, please complete the card available at West Barnes Library and deposit it in the box provided. It is important that your contact details (address, telephone number and email address) are provided. Your application will then be processed and contact made with you. On-the-job training will be provided by library staff during the coming weeks. Carole Bundy, the library manager, will be pleased to answer any questions you may have.
If you are not available on Mondays but would be willing to assist library staff on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays or Saturdays we would be delighted to hear from you. Again, if you have not already done so, please get in touch as outlined above.
The Council expects the Friends of West Barnes Library to organise the rota for the volunteers. A volunteer Co-ordinator has not yet been found and anyone offering his/her services for this key post is invited to email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it as soon as possible.
It is essential that residents join West Barnes Library. Membership of Merton’s Libraries is not restricted to those who live, work or study in the borough. People living in, for example, the Royal Borough of Kingston-Upon-Thames and the London Borough of Sutton are entitled to join subject to appropriate identification being provided.
Read more at http://motspurpark.info/libraryhelp.html
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April 2011 update
Following a public meeting on March 22nd and a follow-up discussion, a committee has been appointed to look after the interests of West Barnes Library. The following positions were elected:
- Chair: John Nicholson
- Vice-chair: Rachel Taylor
- Secretary: Bob Forsberg
- Publicity officer: Bob Forsberg
- Treasurer: Penny Price
The committee is seeking volunteers to fill the following positions:
- Volunteer coordinator
- Membership secretary
- Social and Fundraising officer
The next meeting will be at the library on Monday, April 11, at 7pm. The Friends have also set up a new website: fowbl.blogspot.com.
March 2011 update
Opening hours at West Barnes Library are to be reduced from April 2011. It remains under threat of closure after April 2012.
To keep up to date with the latest developments, you might also consider joining the Facebook group "Save West Barnes Library" to keep up to date with latest developments.
In the longer term, to keep the library open, we need to increase its use. Put simply, this means that more people need to use it, as often as possible. If you could use the library more, or encourage your friends and relatives to do so, now is the time!
January 2011 update
More than 240 local residents attended a meeting held on 18th January 2011 to discuss the future of West Barnes Library. Cllr Martin Whelton, Merton Council's Cabinet Member for Community and Culture, chaired the discussions and was encouraged by the level of interest and attendance. There is more detail and some footage from the meeting available here, on the Motspur Park Info website. There are more detailed notes of the meeting on the Merton website here.
Under threat of closure during the recent round of budget cuts, it was announced at the meeting that from April 2011, the library will be open at lunchtime but will close on Mondays (in addition to Wednesdays and Sundays, when it is already closed). Funding for this arrangement is secure until April 2012.