A proposal from East Finchley Library Users Group for the Big Lottery Fund's Community Libraries initiative
A proposal from East Finchley Library Users Group
for London Borough of Barnet's submission
to the Big Lottery Fund's Community Libraries initiative
This outlines a community-developed suggestion for London Borough of Barnet Library Service's proposed submission to the Big Lottery Fund's current Community Libraries initiative (closing for applications on 30 March 2007). It has been drafted by East Finchley Library Users Group (EFLUG) following extensive consultation (including open public meetings) with a broad range of individuals and groups within our local community, in particular those involved with voluntary activity around East Finchley. It is intended to convey the concept and overall approach - a variety of other documents (e.g. preliminary architectural drawings) underpin it and are available separately.
A New Dimension for the Multimedia Age
The heart of our proposal is to develop a new dimension to East Finchley Library which points a way forward for libraries across our borough, serves as beacon practice and can be rolled out to other Barnet branches - and beyond. The service development (described in this section and the two which follow) is intimately linked to building development (described in the Capital Expenditure section) which would improve the accessibility and DDA compliance of the library, thereby making the most of this valuable community asset and providing (in a very cost-effective manner given the pressures on Barnet's capital programme) an on-going structural legacy.
The root of libraries, as a service and indeed the word itself (derived from 'liber' - book), is in books and the written word. As the world moves at great speed into a networked, multimedia culture with huge implications for and impact on the literary, we propose to develop a complementary dimension to the library's reading and textual heritage - the visual and spoken dimension, factors critical in the modern multimedia environment with its new kinds of literacy and learning.
Eyebrary
Libraries have traditionally been quiet places. Driving forward this proposal is the opposite. The word 'dyslexia' comes from legein - to speak. We propose to set up a new space on the currently under-used and not properly accessible first floor of East Finchley Library, a specialist centre for dyslexia - a condition which affects some 10% of the UK population, that's well over 33,000 in Barnet. Where better to address reading and writing difficulties than in a library?
The dyslexia centre, the Eyebrary, on the first floor would be visually-oriented as people affected by dyslexia typically have a compensatory strength in visual and creative disciplines. It could include:
· a space for dyslexia support group meetings
· a ready supply of the latest information on dyslexia both as hard copy and online (dedicated terminals with all the key websites bookmarked)
· space for use by dyslexia specialists/practitioners (many of whom live in our neighbourhood) for one-to-one/two meetings [a system of easily movable partitions would create maximum flexibility of the available space]
· visual and artistic displays by people with dyslexia
· performances by artists specialising in dyslexia issues like Benedict Phillips (www.thebenedict.net)
Around this specialism in dyslexia support, a broad range of other complementary community-driven activity would be based, linked by the themes of The Visual and Learning.
A Community Hub
Once revitalised in this way, the upstairs space would be able to take its proper place as a cultural and learning hub of our community, located as it is on the northern edge of East Finchley Village Centre, in very close proximity to two of the primary schools and most of the social housing), as well as enhancing the role of East Finchley Library as a destination for citizens in East Finchley and further afield.
With its visual orientation it would be the natural home of East Finchley Open, the now well established open art exhibition thriving in East Finchley village, composed of a judicious blend of amateur, part-time and professional artists. (East Finchley Open, as well as other voluntary community groups mentioned in this document have taken an active part and expressed strong interest in this scheme.)
The learning activities which currently find a home on the first floor of East Finchley Library such as Kumon maths classes would be extended to include mother and child groups, for example, liberated from the constraints of the quietness downstairs - providing a dynamic, energetic complement to the peace and studiousness of the lower floor. Other learning-related uses which have been suggested from our open meetings include serving as a meeting place for home tutors (and their charges) in the catchment area, to help overcome the isolation that can overshadow home schooling, as well as homework clubs.
Professor Stephen Heppell, the man behind the highly successful DfES-backed Notschool initiative for excluded students (www.notschool.net), would input on productive uses of the space for marginalised/disadvantaged students. Local schools would be encouraged to make use of the space for CPD activities where the teaching staff being away from school premises is helpful. Effective partnership with local schools and the Education department would be vital to this initiative.
The (Hampstead Garden Suburb) Institute are keen to make use of this proposed first floor facility to enhance their life-long learning activities within their new home community (their headquarters has recently re-located to East Finchley). By serving as a space for a range of adult learning activities from book clubs and film & television (media literacy) clubs [in association with the National Institution of Adult Continuing Education, Channel 4 Education and Ofcom] to University of the 3rd Age activities.
A number of voluntary groups based at the nearby East Finchley Neighbourhood Centre (which is not DDA accessible) have expressed interest. These include Neighbourhood Contact, a good neighbour scheme for local people in need, many of whom are elderly and disabled. Contact have told us that the library Community Hub would be an ideal space for running workshops to assist groups trying to access benefits. Other local groups who have expressed an interest in the space include staff at the Green Man community centre (in the Strawberry Vale housing estate).
Capital Expenditure
To make the first floor space properly accessible it would be necessary to incorporate a lift into the building. EFLUG has done extensive research in this regard - it has architects and specialist lift engineers among its members. It has definitively established both that a lift could be added to the building within the terms of its Grade 2 listing and that the cost is viable (this may be contrary to some initial investigation by the Council, but we have cross-checked both the regulations and the economics). This would be the main capital expenditure of this proposed approach. In addition, it would be preferable to remodel the toilet facilities to include a disabled toilet. We would also suggest adding more substantial café facilities.
Human Resources
A part-time community development worker would be part of the package, to help co-ordinate and focus the wealth of volunteer know-how and energy in our very resourceful community, in particular retired teachers who we would make an especial focus of our volunteer recruitment.
Marketing
Libraries have a habit of being somewhat retiring within communities. The visually-driven Eyebrary would set great store by marketing strongly right across the community. From clear, creative, colourful signage; through harnessing the evident goodwill of the local media; to exploiting the new kinds of online, viral marketing now available through the broadband internet, we would make very sure the full diversity of people across the community and borough - current library users and non/potential users alike - know what is made available through a winning BLF bid and why it may be of interest or use or enjoyment to them.
Beacon of Best Practice
The project would produce regular reports to capture the good practice and outputs of the scheme, with a view to making it replicable in a sister library on the other side of the borough, as well as offering it as a paradigm for progressive approaches to contemporary community libraries UK-wide. In this way, the proposed approach offers an opportunity for Barnet to capitalise on its track-record in library provision and education by serving as a beacon of best practice as library services across the country move into a challenging yet exciting new phase.
Contact Information
East Finchley Library Users Group
Adam Gee
Chairman
Polly Napper
Secretary
for London Borough of Barnet's submission
to the Big Lottery Fund's Community Libraries initiative
This outlines a community-developed suggestion for London Borough of Barnet Library Service's proposed submission to the Big Lottery Fund's current Community Libraries initiative (closing for applications on 30 March 2007). It has been drafted by East Finchley Library Users Group (EFLUG) following extensive consultation (including open public meetings) with a broad range of individuals and groups within our local community, in particular those involved with voluntary activity around East Finchley. It is intended to convey the concept and overall approach - a variety of other documents (e.g. preliminary architectural drawings) underpin it and are available separately.
A New Dimension for the Multimedia Age
The heart of our proposal is to develop a new dimension to East Finchley Library which points a way forward for libraries across our borough, serves as beacon practice and can be rolled out to other Barnet branches - and beyond. The service development (described in this section and the two which follow) is intimately linked to building development (described in the Capital Expenditure section) which would improve the accessibility and DDA compliance of the library, thereby making the most of this valuable community asset and providing (in a very cost-effective manner given the pressures on Barnet's capital programme) an on-going structural legacy.
The root of libraries, as a service and indeed the word itself (derived from 'liber' - book), is in books and the written word. As the world moves at great speed into a networked, multimedia culture with huge implications for and impact on the literary, we propose to develop a complementary dimension to the library's reading and textual heritage - the visual and spoken dimension, factors critical in the modern multimedia environment with its new kinds of literacy and learning.
Eyebrary
Libraries have traditionally been quiet places. Driving forward this proposal is the opposite. The word 'dyslexia' comes from legein - to speak. We propose to set up a new space on the currently under-used and not properly accessible first floor of East Finchley Library, a specialist centre for dyslexia - a condition which affects some 10% of the UK population, that's well over 33,000 in Barnet. Where better to address reading and writing difficulties than in a library?
The dyslexia centre, the Eyebrary, on the first floor would be visually-oriented as people affected by dyslexia typically have a compensatory strength in visual and creative disciplines. It could include:
· a space for dyslexia support group meetings
· a ready supply of the latest information on dyslexia both as hard copy and online (dedicated terminals with all the key websites bookmarked)
· space for use by dyslexia specialists/practitioners (many of whom live in our neighbourhood) for one-to-one/two meetings [a system of easily movable partitions would create maximum flexibility of the available space]
· visual and artistic displays by people with dyslexia
· performances by artists specialising in dyslexia issues like Benedict Phillips (www.thebenedict.net)
Around this specialism in dyslexia support, a broad range of other complementary community-driven activity would be based, linked by the themes of The Visual and Learning.
A Community Hub
Once revitalised in this way, the upstairs space would be able to take its proper place as a cultural and learning hub of our community, located as it is on the northern edge of East Finchley Village Centre, in very close proximity to two of the primary schools and most of the social housing), as well as enhancing the role of East Finchley Library as a destination for citizens in East Finchley and further afield.
With its visual orientation it would be the natural home of East Finchley Open, the now well established open art exhibition thriving in East Finchley village, composed of a judicious blend of amateur, part-time and professional artists. (East Finchley Open, as well as other voluntary community groups mentioned in this document have taken an active part and expressed strong interest in this scheme.)
The learning activities which currently find a home on the first floor of East Finchley Library such as Kumon maths classes would be extended to include mother and child groups, for example, liberated from the constraints of the quietness downstairs - providing a dynamic, energetic complement to the peace and studiousness of the lower floor. Other learning-related uses which have been suggested from our open meetings include serving as a meeting place for home tutors (and their charges) in the catchment area, to help overcome the isolation that can overshadow home schooling, as well as homework clubs.
Professor Stephen Heppell, the man behind the highly successful DfES-backed Notschool initiative for excluded students (www.notschool.net), would input on productive uses of the space for marginalised/disadvantaged students. Local schools would be encouraged to make use of the space for CPD activities where the teaching staff being away from school premises is helpful. Effective partnership with local schools and the Education department would be vital to this initiative.
The (Hampstead Garden Suburb) Institute are keen to make use of this proposed first floor facility to enhance their life-long learning activities within their new home community (their headquarters has recently re-located to East Finchley). By serving as a space for a range of adult learning activities from book clubs and film & television (media literacy) clubs [in association with the National Institution of Adult Continuing Education, Channel 4 Education and Ofcom] to University of the 3rd Age activities.
A number of voluntary groups based at the nearby East Finchley Neighbourhood Centre (which is not DDA accessible) have expressed interest. These include Neighbourhood Contact, a good neighbour scheme for local people in need, many of whom are elderly and disabled. Contact have told us that the library Community Hub would be an ideal space for running workshops to assist groups trying to access benefits. Other local groups who have expressed an interest in the space include staff at the Green Man community centre (in the Strawberry Vale housing estate).
Capital Expenditure
To make the first floor space properly accessible it would be necessary to incorporate a lift into the building. EFLUG has done extensive research in this regard - it has architects and specialist lift engineers among its members. It has definitively established both that a lift could be added to the building within the terms of its Grade 2 listing and that the cost is viable (this may be contrary to some initial investigation by the Council, but we have cross-checked both the regulations and the economics). This would be the main capital expenditure of this proposed approach. In addition, it would be preferable to remodel the toilet facilities to include a disabled toilet. We would also suggest adding more substantial café facilities.
Human Resources
A part-time community development worker would be part of the package, to help co-ordinate and focus the wealth of volunteer know-how and energy in our very resourceful community, in particular retired teachers who we would make an especial focus of our volunteer recruitment.
Marketing
Libraries have a habit of being somewhat retiring within communities. The visually-driven Eyebrary would set great store by marketing strongly right across the community. From clear, creative, colourful signage; through harnessing the evident goodwill of the local media; to exploiting the new kinds of online, viral marketing now available through the broadband internet, we would make very sure the full diversity of people across the community and borough - current library users and non/potential users alike - know what is made available through a winning BLF bid and why it may be of interest or use or enjoyment to them.
Beacon of Best Practice
The project would produce regular reports to capture the good practice and outputs of the scheme, with a view to making it replicable in a sister library on the other side of the borough, as well as offering it as a paradigm for progressive approaches to contemporary community libraries UK-wide. In this way, the proposed approach offers an opportunity for Barnet to capitalise on its track-record in library provision and education by serving as a beacon of best practice as library services across the country move into a challenging yet exciting new phase.
Contact Information
East Finchley Library Users Group
Adam Gee
Chairman
Polly Napper
Secretary
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