Tag Archives: volunteering

Too old, too big…too little used?

Article update: 28.10.2017  – A really sound article on the utility of libraries by Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett –  No one needs libraries any more? What rubbish  from The Guardian of Thursday, 26th October, 2017.

In it Cosslet takes to task the political pundit Andre Walker, for his omnipotent vision of the library service in the UK. Namely that no-one visits them anymore and they should all be closed down and the books given to schools.

Is there something Presidential in this decimation of the library service by Twitter?

Rhiannon goes on to thread her story with her use of the public library when young – developing intellectual curiosity, cultural awareness, knowledge of the world and taking up the rich opportunity public libraries offer to graze the landscape of the word, six books at a  time.

We recommend the article to our readers.


Original text: In the Spring of 2015 the Adam Smith Institute published an article entitled ‘The End of Local Authority Libraries‘. As the economic ice age of Osbornian austerity descended upon us, the Press was full of cultural turbulence about the closure and operational rigidity of our national literacy assets.

Although the general  Press attention has diminished, it is telling that the dilution of the library service has continued unabated, albeit with increasingly diminished media currency, as we have been further overwhelmed by matters of political moment in and about Europe, perhaps.

View, print or download the full report here…pdf

Central government, arguably, remains enthusiastic and espouses a positive vison for the library service. The recent report Libraries Deliver: Ambition for Public Libraries in England 2016-2021 from the Libraries Taskforce, is almost entirely upbeat about the half decade ahead. They offer a vision of a multiplicity of supported delivery systems for a local library in section 6.3 of the report.

The website Public Libraries News, in July, declared that now ‘there are at least five hundred libraries that are staffed, if not entirely run by volunteers’. On the one hand, this is a sign, we would argue, that there is profound suport for the local library at grassroots level. But it is also a sign, looking at the plethora of continual changes and negative reviews of library services across the country on the website, that there is no clear, effective and equally profound form of new governance emerging for libraries.

One that, at once taps into localism, yet satisfies the need for an eclectic and near universal access to knowledge and leisure, free at the point of delivery for those who need it most.

The trade union Unison are to hold a National SOS Day on the 19th of October, 2017. Save our Services is designed to show that ‘...libraries are a hub and a haven in our communities. They offer a place for people to work, relax, discover and think.They are a source of local knowledge and history and give everyone access to books, DVDs, music and more, for free or at a very low cost.

But libraries also do a lot more than lend books. Many hold events, anything from story time for children to yoga classes for adults. Library workers help people look for work, advise on using IT, organise talks by authors and so much more‘.

Source: https://www.unison.org.uk/blogs/2017/08/sos-day-17/

The debate, then, continues to have currency. The Adam Smith Institute argued, in its article by Eamonn Butler, that the free market was the solution to the ‘library deficit’ issue, as to be expected. That exemplars of library innovation, in the shape of American organisations such as Library Systems and Services, were to be the saviours of a moribund library market.

However, research shows that the accession of LSSI to the pinnacle of library stewardship has not been entirely successful in the USA. An earlier article in the New York Times shows how both library staff and users, even in the more affluent cities where LSSI has obtained contracts, have been happy to lead protests. Dissenting voices to the ending of  unionised services, diminution of book stocks and antagonism towards the ethics of ‘libraries for profit’.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/27/business/27libraries.html

The City Library, Birmingham

The Butler argument, from the Adam Smith Institute, saw the then new Birmingham City Library building as an example of ossification of service. The £188 million building began to operate on a ‘self-funded’ basis for events, for example, in the context of author events or arts activity. Both previously seen as draws to footfall for the library service. Indeed key activities in a wider cultural obligation for libraries, we would argue.

However, debate about the capital cost of a building in austere times is one thing, but the Institute author’s position somewhat fails to recognise that it is free market policies which have led to the very fiscal landscape that has so diminished the library service.

If a library is battered by exogenous fiscal policy upheaval, it is somewhat unfair to blame the librarian for lack of service, or diversity in activity, surely?

Is there hope for change? We think so.

We were pleased to see that there is widening acceptance by Councils that the community should have control of libraries as a community resource. At the beginning of August, for example, Derby City Council declared for the cessation of control of ten libraries, which will see ‘…the loss of at least 39 library assistants’ jobs and two library managers, of almost 100 staff who work for the authority. Community groups will get £17,500 a year each to fund their own managed libraries until 2022…’

Source: http://www.derbytelegraph.co.uk/news/derby-news/attempt-stop-biggest-ever-shake-265614

What is concerning, in this case, is the timetable and the level of grant in aid ceded to the community organisations in the City, to effectively manage the transfer and creation of a new community organisation to deliver the service.

More positively again, Bury Council this month have approved a new community asset transfer plan. ‘The new policy means applications from groups to buy community assets from the council will be considered against ‘key tests’ designed to ensure a deal which is best for the council and residents‘. The landscape of community opportunity grows!

Source: http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/15439093.New_policy_hopes_to_make_it_easier_for_groups_to_take_ownership_of_council_buildings/

However, it is entirely possible, we would argue, to imagine the creation of community libraries as Social Enterprises, where the not for profit governance model delivers a mix of volunteer and employee led services, bolstered by an admixture of social business services to support and maintain the core library provision.

A community cafe, a learning centre, a gardening or horticultural project…the list could easily be imaginatively extended by a dynamic, active community. The whole focused upon the creation of ‘…a place for people to work, relax, discover and think‘, to remind us of the Unison observation.

If the trade union are having an SOS Day, why do we not start a new think-tank movement, LASER – Libraries as Social Enterprise Renewal.

Write to conversationsEAST if you are interested in social enterprise, passionate about libraries and learning and keen to develop governance-sound, community led, not for profit library buildings.

We’ll publish a web site, host a meeting and give the idea traction?


Additional narrative – 20.08.2017

Read more here…

We have just come across a recent article in Wired by Susan Crawford, where she argues for a resurgence in phiilanthropy to revitalise the library service.

In the text, in response to a recent tweet by Jeff Bezos asking for suggestions about a new shape for his giving, she argues for an Amazon/Bezos programme of giving to libraries.

Developing Jeff Bezos’s current long term view of his ‘social investments’ towards, arguably, a philanthropic delivery that would cater for the short and the long term. Mr. Bezos describes his search for a new intitiative ‘…to help people in the here and now’. Our new library programme, as described, would do that, but also cater for the long term too.

Namely a series of Amazon Memorial Libraries, or Bezos Community Cultural Centres, would benefit the communities they were placed in, but they would also create new readers and enhance human capital in the hinterland of their sites, as well as delivering a major philosophical boost to the image of Amazon as a socially beneficial company.

You can read Susan Crawford’s piece on the pages of Wired here.

We understand Jeff Bezos reads every email sent directly to him. We’ll write to Mr. Bezos and make a suggestion supporting a new philanthropic venture into the British library landscape, and explore the models that might be created.

We would argue that history has been kind to the Carnegie model of library establishment, why should not future generations look as kindly upon Jeff Bezos?

Watch this space for an update, even if we don’t get a reply!


Useful links to accompany this article:

Library over-watch!

http://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/

Use it or lose it! – The Guardian

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/aug/16/library-use-in-england-fell-dramatically-over-last-decade-figures-show

City Library Birmingham: Image by Gareth Williams - Creative Commons

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Discover JDRF here…

To Ipswich on Saturday 27th June, 2015 with the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).

A Type 1 Discovery Day.

JDRF, as a registered charity No: 295716, delivered a day of great science and support to parents, carers and children whose lives have been touched by Type 1 Diabetes.

The event was held in the Waterfront Building at UCS in Ipswich, with the visitors able to get to understand Type 1 better, but also to meet the enthusiastic, caring and knowledgeable team from JDRF.

The younger children were catered for in a separate area of the University, just down the corridor in an adjacent room. They were entertained, energised and informed by the team from Mad Science. A great way, in a superb learning setting, to free parents and carers to concentrate on the business of the day in the University auditorium. (A great idea we thought – Ed.)

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Keynote speakers on the day:

Dr. Martin Tauschmann of Addenbrookes Hospital was in attendance to give the audience up to date news and information on the Artificial Pancreas Project.

A key part of Dr. Tauschmann’s exposition was that ‘…the closed loop is on its way’. He went on to illustrate the changes in technology and equipment which has, in very short time revolutionised both take up and delivery of insulin to patients in an automatic or semi-automatic fashion.

Five years of intense clinical research has resulted in test equipment which makes decisions for the patient every 12 minutes, adapting and measuring doseage to suit the persons ongoing status.

Research, like that funded across the JDRF spectrum of activity has several aims. They are ‘…to achieve, for the person concerned, reassurance, peace of mind, confidence, safety, better control and the ability to feel much better in the first half of the day’.

Dr. Tauschmann stressed how important funding from JDRF was, given the long lead times from pure research to delivery of a finished product, in terms of new pumps and e-control mechanisms for them. Each study taking some five months to appraise, with another six to twelve months for completion and publication.

(It was at this point we wanted a representative of the Google Foundation, the Android development team or Apple, to burst into the auditorium to announce a new development partnership with Addenbrookes and JDRF. Using smartphone technology and manufacturing expertise to help close the loop very quickly indeed…Ed?).

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The sun shone on parents, carers, children and Ipswich…

John Hassler-Hurst and Dr. Gerry Rayman of the Ipswich Diabetes Research Team at Ipswich Hosital gave an informative and well illustrated talk on the depth of research, innovatory approaches and inclusions to practice of a national nature which had all been fostered at Ipswich hospital.

In 1985 the Ipswich team were the first to attempt to discover if a dedicated Centre for Diabetes had utility as a resource. A self evident truth held by all now. The team at Ipswich are part of a research energy which exceeds any other District General Hospital in the UK.

They have broken ground in several key areas of care and research we were told. ‘In technology, education, kidney function and eye disease’.

Jahn Hassler-Hunt, the lead Paediatric Research Nurse for the Ipswich team completed the presentation by giving the audience a very detailed analysis of the most recent and current research areas.

From the effect of Interleukin 2, to the enhanced clinical outcomes which can now be expected, how very young children can be included in research methodologies and how Centres, such as Ipswich, can offer seamless access to research and care provision right through to adulthood.  A very important part of process for children and young people on their health journey.

The event was rounded off by a JDRF volunteer, Kevin Black, who is a public speaker of some proficiency and humour. Kevin gave us details of not only his own contribution to the work of JDRF and how this has supported his own family, but also illustrated forthcoming JDRF events which everyone can take part in. (We offer details of some below…) We enjoyed his talk and it left us uplifted.


 

Forthcoming JDRF events:

London Bridges – One Walk  Sunday 27th September, 2015.   See more here…

Cambridge Coffee Morning  Girton College  Friday 2nd October 2015 at 10.30am  See more details here…


This was a stimulating and informative event, for those attending and those with an interest in finding out more about how to support the work of JDRF.

If you have someone in your life touched by Type 1 then getting involved with the charity as a volunteer or a donor is a great way to support the work, the research and quality outcomes for children and young people.

phoneIconYou can make contact with JDRF in the East of England here on their web pages.

phoneIconYou can donate on-line anytime here.


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The Cambridgeshire Timebanking Partnership are keen to ensure the sustainability of their Timebanks by diversifying their funding.

The Partnership have  decided on a development programme to institute a major raffle and an Auction of Promises. The Partnership  are looking to develop this ambitious campaign which can be run on an annual basis.

What is needed is someone with the skills and knowledge to act as a ‘raffle’ project mentor.

Ideally, the Partnership is looking for someone who has successfully run a major raffle in the past, who has knowledge of the process, paperwork and also advice on attracting prize donations and increasing ticket sales.

To provide support to the Partnership Project Manager, with an initial meeting for key development advice, and then the sharing of documents or telephone support if required.

If you are in the Fellowship network in the East of England, do you have ‘raffle’ expertise and the time to support The Partnership in this interesting funding development project?

The short video below gives you a flavour of the activities the Timebanking Partnership have been able to facilitate…

If you can help please contact Wendy Lansdown of the Community Engagement Team of Cambridgeshire County Council – see it on-line here on 0345 045 5200.

If you do help – thank you.

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This month’s conversationsEAST sponsored Coffee with My Councillor session will be held in Chelmsford. It is an opportunity for Fellows to meet and talk directly with their Fellowship Councillor in the East of England.

Tim reports that conversations he has had, so far, have fallen on stony ground in his search for female Fellows to champion a new Female Fellows group in our region.

Why not come along to the Ideas Hub, a great open and friendly venue, see below, on the 18th and explore the starting of this new group. Designed to support and promote female Fellow led research, social and community business projects or to lobby for family friendly services at our meetings, conferences and get-togethers.

He’ll also have his camera and keyboard to hand, if we can help you complete your Fellowship profile on the new RSA web pages. Read more about the rolling Coffee with my Councillor programme here.

Saturday 18th April -10.30 to 13.00 Chelmsford in Essex

The Ideas Hub, 1-4 Market Square,
High Chelmer, Chelmsford, Essex, CM1 1 1XF

  • The beginning of an Otrera Group, supporting female Fellows in the region
  • Working alongside the new Public Services and Communities RSA thematic initiative
  • A Fellow, a keyboard, a camera – completing your Fellowship profile on the new RSA web pages.

See the work of the Ideas Hub on-line here.

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Be the Change in Cambridge are holding a community event on Saturday 14th March, 2015. This is an opportunity to help ‘…facilitate the creation of ideas and bring the city together to make Cambridge greater than the sum of its parts‘.

Anglia Ruskin University
East Road
CB1 1PT Cambridge
United Kingdom
Saturday, March 14, 2015 from 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM (GMT)

This short video below helps explain their mission.

vimeoVideoButtonpic-mYou can see the original film on Vimeo here.

eventbriteButtonYou can book your free ticket on-line at Eventbrite here.

 

What Be the Change say about their event…

 

  • ‘This is a project to bring Cambridge’s many communities together to do more than just talk about our city’s future, but to decide what shared actions to take in order to shape it
  • We’re particularly encouraging young people – in particular those in further education – to take part. This is our response to research showing 18-24 year olds are least likely to vote as an age-cohort.
  • We’ll be asking everyone to commit to either a one-off small action, or a small behaviour change as a result of taking part. If dozens of us do that, our impact could be greater than the sum of our parts!’

If you are in the city on Saturday, March 14th this is a great opportunity to get along to Anglia Ruskin and contribute to the debate, to the generation of ideas and to the creation of community change.

See you there?


If you are a Fellow developing or leading a community change event or  project you can send copy, links and editorial contributions to the team at conversationsEAST.

We’ll be happy to feature your work, twitter our followers and generally spread the word.

If formally invited along, we’ll write a review and supporting article too. Tell us at editor (at) conversationseast.org. or use the drop down ‘contact us’ box on any of our web pages.

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Volunteer for Cambridge

Saturday 28th February, 2015 – There is a great day of volunteering opportunities for the Fellowship in Cambridge this weekend. Visit The Guildhall and see!

Members of the regional Fellowship will be abroad, supporting 80 Cambridge based organisations who are ‘…working to create positive social and environmental change through volunteering‘.

Visit the Volunteer for Cambridge event page here...

11am to 4pm, Saturday 28th Feb. – The Guildhall, Market Square, Cambridge.

‘The aims of the fair are to get more people involved in volunteering, bring together organisations with shared aims and to break down the town/gown divide by opening the event up to students and locals alike. Anyone and everyone in Cambridge is welcome to attend!’ The Cambridge Hub

This is a great event that offers many opportunities for Fellows, anybody in fact, to seek out and engage with a broad range of organisations in Cambridge.

Volunteer and donate time and your specialist knowledge to any one of these great organisations. If you are a Fellow in Cambridge, or its hinterland, here is the event to start your journey with a new community.

phoneIconYou can book your free tickets on-line with Eventbrite here.

phoneIconFind the event on Facebook too. Visit the event page here.

By supporting The Hub, you are also helping students at Cambridge support and make a contribution to communities, helping them tackle their social and environmental issues.  Working in a collaborative and supportive way. You can see the story of The Hub here.

Image credit: Painting for the community – picture courtesy of The Cambridge Hub.

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Kingfishers Bridge Wetlands Project
Looking across the project…

A small group of Fellows were this week able to take advantage of an invitation to visit and see the work of the team at Kingfishers Bridge Wetland Project .

Situated close to Wicken Fen, this sanctuary, developed from privately held land, is both a successful conservation area and a test-bed for experimental conservation methodologies.

James Page and Andy Dunn gave fellows a guided tour through the conservation landscape, which was both informative and telling about the efficacy of landscape management of this high order. Some of the insights we gained are offered below.

The Project team manage a wide variety of habitats in a relatively small area. The topography of the site falls away from a limestone ridge, which itself is an ancient coral reef, through chalk grassland areas and peat deposits. There is a plethora of lake-side, dyke margin and reed bed coverage across the site too.

Clay banks are used to prevent site inundation, the area being part of the River Cam flood plain. There is an interesting spoil mound, with a track rising to the summit, where viewing ‘hides’ are to be found and the view from the top offers great views of both the whole of the wetlands project area, but also across the surrounding fen and river network.

This surrounding area is typical grass wetland, with some of the tree cover being recently removed, and the new development includes ponds which are linked to the agricultural drainage ditches. The whole water course development is designed to remove straight lines from the landscape. These betray the sites farmland origins, but the additional work also denies predatory birds a clear flight path to their prey.

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Inquisitive buffalo…

One really interesting aspect of the grazing management is the deployment of Konic horses, the Polish primitive horse, as well as a small herd of Water Buffalo. This latter creature is adept at exploring the reed beds across the conservation site, and its dietary habits keep the reed beds appropriately cropped and seasonally refreshed…with appropriate site management control, of course.

As a closed site, water management is a key aspect of managing the rise and fall of levels across the seasons. The setting clay banks and ‘elbow pipe’ systems simply divert water which is drawn from a nearby limestone quarry, a simple system which regulates levels and flow across the reserve.

This aquatic draw down from their neighbour allows Kingfishers Bridge to draw in alkali water, which is nutrient free, stimulating the growth of the site’s invertebrate population. The entire site is surrounded by an impressive electric fence, which serves to keep predators away from the reserve areas.

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Looking through the reed-beds…

It is clear that this thoughtful, well managed approach to conservation across the bio-chain is a significant constituent to the success of the reserve. This ‘sanctuarial’ approach, with a well managed predator control/exclusion programme, see herons nesting on the site and a wide variety of birds, bats and plant life proliferating to interest the invited visitor.

One wonderful example of how this management expertise can transform the landscape is the Water Germanda (Teucrium scordium L.) The Kingfishers Bridge site held the last twelve plants of the species in the East of England. Water management techniques on the site now see, it is currently estimated, over two million specimens growing in the wider landscape.

We understand the site is keen to develop their support of educational visits from schools. it was profoundly satisfying to hear that the conservation team at Kingfishers Bridge actively engage children and young people in site measurement and surveys. A process which enables children to actively contribute real data to the site management process.

To explore educational visit opportunities further you can find the Kingfishers Bridge Contact Us page here – http://www.kingfishersbridge.org/contact-us.html

The adult volunteer and supporter is not left out either. Supporters of the project can gain exclusive access to project services, as well as make their own contribution to site surveys and measurements.

The Project does seek donations to keep the good work going and you can find both work party information and how to donate as a Project Supporter here – http://www.kingfishersbridge.org/how-to-help.html

Specific development projects are dependent upon sponsorship and the ‘Kingfishers’ team would be happy to explore their current opportunities with interested supporters.

Whether as a Fellow with a bio-science specialism, or as a passionate general supporter of eco-conservation projects, there is much to delight and do in concert with the Kingfishers Bridge team. (We really enjoyed our morning in the Fen..Ed).

Kingfishers Bridge Wetland Creation Trust,
Kingfishers Bridge, Wicken, Ely, Cambs. CB7 5XL
Charity No 1078882
Discover the project on-line – http://www.kingfishersbridge.org/


 

 

Fellows in the East of England are able to take part in a range of events and occasions. Visit our pages regularly, subscribe to our newsfeed or bookmark our regional events programme web page here…

http://www.conversationseast.org/regional-events/

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Cambridge Education Initiative

 

A group of Cambridge Fellows is developing an initiative to improve educational outcomes for young people in the City’s deprived areas.

Although, overall, Cambridge is one of the UK’s – and the world’s – most successful cities, it has pockets of deprivation and the educational performance of some of its schools is below the national average. Children who are eligible for free school meals and who have special needs or other challenges, including looked after children and young carers, are at the highest risk of underachieving.

We have been talking to Council officers and plan to meet Headteachers in the autumn term. The emerging features of our initiative are

  • A place in Cambridge where deprivation is accompanied by underachievement. Arbury meets these criteria.
  • A group of RSA fellows prepared to commit time to a targeted intervention to raise achievement, working with the local community and voluntary organisations
  • Alignment with Council priorities
  • Developed by listening to head teachers, young people, the local community/ voluntary organisations
  • Time limited
  • Replicable

We would welcome contributions from other Fellows.

If you live in the Cambridge area, you are very welcome to join our group. Or if elsewhere, please share your ideas and experience.

emailIcon4 Contact   Sam Weller: samandmary_weller@hotmail.com; or Jo Durning: jodurning@btinternet.com

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Image credit:

News Desk image by Markus Winkler, Creative Commons, Unsplash...

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