Number of loans recorded since April 2019
Number of items available to borrow
Opening Times
Thursday’s 3 – 5pm
Saturday’s 9 – 11am
We need a minimum split of 20/80, Active Members to Not.
We currently have less than 10%
How good is our library! We knew last year that our philanthropic funding was running out and we needed more members to help deliver our service so we doubled the membership fee for people who can’t voluteer 3 hours a fortnight but that didn’t work!
We are busier than ever (checkout the graph below that shows our loans compared to other share libraries around the country) and have too few Active Members to cover enough bases. So we have stopped opening on Tuesdays and have stopped accepting new memberships online. Please use the contact form to apply for membership. Priority is given to households that can commit to covering one of the roles we urgently need filled. Descriptions of these are detailed below, scroll down:)
Beyond busy!
The graph above is from the Australian Library of Things Network (ALOT) first survey of Australian share libraries. It was published earlier this year. It’s easy to see why most others are still comfortable operating with just 5-10 dedicated volunteers. We need to move away from a typical volunteer run operation where a few do the work for many to a co operative model of operation where many do the work to support themselves and a generous share of others who need exta assistance for short to long periods of time.
The benefit to community in good times and bad of a store of shared assets is yet to be fully explored. With a generous team of willing hands and big brains we believe our share library will grow to become a major contributor to the health and wellbeing of our community at large and be able to continue to support other organisations taking on roles of asset managers and sharers – our team is currently working to support Resilient Lismore and Resilient Uki.
At 5000 loans a year we require one person, a Library Manager, to oversee the entire operation. A person who attends most sessions and takes care of the frequent curly issues so the Active Members can stick to their tasks. At the moment Sasha is performing this role as a volunteer on top of being a fortnightly Sat Librarian and a Thursday Library Assistant and the Behind the Scenes leader. At the end of 2024 Sasha wants to wind back to just be a regular Active Member. Until we can reopen memberships and scale to a position where revenue can cover this Library Manager part time wage, we will be presenting our plan to the Byron Shire Council’s Climate Change & Resource Recovery Advisory Committee with a request for short term funding. Philanthropic donations are of course always welcome and a tax deductible receipt can be provided. Our operation is radically supporting our community during this time of extreme cost of living pressures. It reduces waste and carbon emissions. It is inclusive and supportive. A community service of the future. Thanks for caring legends. Sharing is caring:)
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