St Just Library Community Involvement

St Just Library community involvement possibilities start to be explored. This week I met with Adam Paynter, Cornwall Cabinet member responsible for Libraries, Cornwall Council’s Head of Service,  the relevant Communities Team Lead, and 2 committee members of the Friends of St Just Library. We began to explore the impact of the reduction of opening hours from 1 June on Community groups, Link into Learning and the wider community. The ‘Friends’ have many people willing to step forward to become volunteers to support community groups continuing to be based at the Library and hope in the future that this might allow computer use and even book withdrawal.

Sadly, it is likely that the best we can hope for, at present, is that the community groups maybe able to continue, behind closed doors. There are computer access security concerns and the volunteer vetting procedures will take a while to put in place. The Head of Service is working to resolve barriers to a community partnership in maintaining the Library Service at St Just but it is likely that the doors will only be open to the public all day on Tuesdays and Thursday and Saturday mornings for a while.

A priority is to ensure that the current Link into Learning students can complete their studies in an appropriate environment and provisional arrangements are in place for Tourists to be able to access information 6 mornings per week in July and August.