Future delivery of Gobowen library services

We are working with local partners to redesign existing face to face customer focused services such as libraries, to create places where residents can easily access services and get information and advice that both helps them and enables them to help others within their community. This is to help us to create and maintain resilient communities at a time of reducing public service budgets and increasing pressure on services due to the changing demographics of the county.

Important elements to this approach are the creation and development of Community Hubs and the provision of advice, information and signposting at an early and preventative stage that supports the health and well-being of both individuals and communities.

In Shropshire our vision is that traditional face to face services will be delivered through community enterprises or partnerships that are already active within those communities. These enterprises and partnership are best placed to use their links into communities and therefore maximise every contact that is made with them.

This work is also linked to savings, and therefore we are working to ensure that through redesign we find ways to continue to deliver high quality services, at a lower cost, but with a better overall outcome for the individuals and communities.

Over the last year, a group of organisations that work and deliver services in Gobowen has been working alongside Shropshire Councillors, the library service and the Community Enablement Team, to discuss and develop opportunities for increasing the usage of the library building and delivering services alongside the library. These partners include:

• Gobowen and Selattyn Parish Council
• Shropshire Town and Rural Housing (STARH)
• Three Parishes Big Local
• Derwen College
• Gobowen Primary School
• Children's Services
• North Shropshire College

This informal group of interested organisations - Gobowen Library Partnership Group - has looked at data and intelligence on the area and the services that are currently available, as well as taking on board the feedback that has been received from the consultation work that has taken place already. They have identified that there is a need for local services that could make a real difference to local people's lives such as training and employment skills, debt advice and housing advice and that these could be delivered from the library building alongside the library service, which is highly valued by its users.

The library offers the following services:

• Free membership for all
• The lending of adult books, audio books and DVDs
• A children's library area and range of books for children
• A collection of books for teenagers
• A selection of books in large print
• Regular exchange of books with other libraries
• Request service - obtaining books from other libraries requested by customers
• Free access to public computers for library members
• Trained staff to issue and return books, answer enquiries, help people to choose books and use computers
• Online services on the library website for use 24/7
• Regular events such as story-times, Rhyme-Time, Time to Listen

We are now seeking responses to proposals for the future delivery of the library service in Gobowen, including the creation of a Community Hub and financial support for this from local partners. These proposals are detailed on this page.

We want to stress that as no formal decision has yet been made and there is an opportunity for alternative proposals to be made. The information we receive through the consultation will be used to inform any decision making on the future delivery of the library service and the management of the library building.

The potential impact of the proposals on library users, particularly those who might be impacted more by any change is being assessed through the completion of an Equality and Social Inclusion Impact Assessment.

A set of answers to frequently asked questions is also available.

When considering these proposals it will be helpful to bear in mind our vision for Community Hubs and the role of libraries in the future, and also what our statutory duties to deliver libraries are. These are listed below:

Clarification of the council's statutory duties to deliver library services

Section 7 of the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 (“the PLMA”)

Under the provisions of the PLMA, the Council, as a library authority, has a statutory duty (not a discretionary power) to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service for all persons wishing to make use of it.

The PLMA does not define what is meant by “comprehensive and efficient”. However it does provide that the library authority must make facilities for borrowing books and other materials available to people who live, or work, or are undergoing full-time education in Shropshire. It also provides that in fulfilling the duty to provide a comprehensive and efficient library service, it shall in particular have regard to the desirability of:

• Providing facilities for the borrowing of, and reference to, books and other printed matter, pictures, gramophone records, films and other materials in sufficient quantity and quality to meet the general requirements and any special requirement both of adults and children; and
• encouraging adults and children to make full use of the library service, providing advice as to its use, and making available such bibliographical and other information as may be required; and
• securing co-operation between the library authority and others exercising public functions within the county.

The options proposed within this document will meet this statutory duty. Other alternative proposals made as part of the consultation would also have to meet this statutory duty.

Two proposals are included together with the opportunity for you to put forward your own ideas on how the library service in Gobowen could be delivered in the future.