Read all about it! New library opens

Customers will be able to borrow books as well as buying bags of shopping after the opening of a community library inside a food store in Spilsby.

Lincolnshire County Council has handed over the responsibly of running 30 libraries to the community. One of these is Spilsby Library, which closed in its previous home in West End Villas last autumn, and is now being run by Lincolnshire Co-op.

A new library has been created inside the food store in the town's Post Office Lane. It will be officially opened with a ceremony on Thursday, January 14th at 2.30pm.

An area of the store which was previously used as warehouse space has been transformed into the library. Facilities include a self-service machine, a stock of thousands of books including fiction, non-fiction and large print titles, a children’s section, a seating area and two People’s Network computers.

A team of volunteers will support the library at various times during the week. If they need help, library users can call a dedicated helpline to Lincolnshire County Council’s customer services team if volunteers aren't available.
Lincolnshire Co-op also runs community libraries in Holbeach and in Waddington, near Lincoln, where the facility shares space with the Society’s pharmacy and post office.

Chief Executive Ursula Lidbetter said: “Education and access to information has been part of our ethos since we started out back in 1861. In fact, we opened Lincoln’s first reading room before there was a municipal library in the city.

“Libraries are important to our members and their communities so we’re proud to do our bit to help sustain such services in Lincolnshire with the three facilities we run.”

Lincolnshire Co-op is working with the county-based charity Linkage on the project and some of the library volunteers will be staff and clients from the organisation. Linkage provides high-quality specialist education, care and employment services for people with learning disabilities.

To register your interest in volunteering for Waddington or Spilsby Library, contact Volunteer Co-ordinator Rachel Sampher on (01522) 785 299 or email rsampher@lincolnshire.coop.