To ask you for your money-raising ideas for libraries?

We have art exhibitions, the top of book shelves are a great place to display art and we get a percentage of any sales.

Our local library is mostly staffed with volunteers and is also sometimes just self service - it’s just the way of the world I suppose, but the self service machine does everything I would need a library assistant to do 90+% of the time.

I’m not sure about some of these events personally but I think it would be really important (if you haven’t already) to get the word out via local schools, local Facebook groups, any Scouts or WI groups or anything like that, that the library is at risk and asking people to visit and check out books.

I use libraries a lot with my DC and always need to remind myself before we leave to actually check out a book or two (it’s all very good sitting ready with DC for an hour but if I don’t take out a book, it doesn’t really help!)

The OP's post is interesting as financing our village library to re-open after closure was something I was heavily involved with in our "save our library" group to re-open it as a community hub.

We had loads of ideas, many of which were adopted and the library re-opened and has been self financing for several years now.

Vending machines for hot & cold drinks, snacks etc.

Full range of "secretarial" services such as photocopying (A3 and A4), colour and B&W plus printing (again up to A3 size, colour), scanning, photo printing, thermal binding, etc.

Renting out side room/office to local groups, clubs and societies and also local businesses as a meeting room.

Selling goods of local small businesses, such as locally written/printed books, gifts, as well as locally relevant items such as local walking/cycling maps, village local history books, etc., displaying artworks on the walls from local artists where the library gets a commission on any sales.

Acting as commission agents for a few local amenities such as selling tickets for the local town's theatre productions, selling tickets for local coach trips and sightseeing trips, etc.

Commission on sales of other local business products, such as balloon displays for parties etc, photos printed onto plates, photo blocks, photo calendars etc.

It had a small car park, so now sell "permits" to locals to park in it's car park as the village has little "unrestricted" parking so locals struggle, whereas library users, who will only be there an hour or two, have no problem parking on the roads outside (with 2 hour restriction).

It also had quite a large "plot" it was sat in that had previously just been grass, so we marked it out and now rent out small plots for locals to rent an allotment, which also means we don't have to pay for grass cutting costs anymore nor other maintenance as the plot holders now fence off themselves and prune trees/shrubs that are within their plot!

The profits from all those "incidental" activities is enough to cover the running/overhead costs of the library such as rent, utilities, telecoms, insurance, etc. Thankfully, the local council still provide the books and were happy to continue doing so as long as they don't have to contribute to the running/overhead costs.

@socialdilemmawhattodo it would be quite outing to link to my own library, but this is a good discussion piece https://www.publiclibrariesnews.com/about-public-libraries-news/unstaffed-libraries

i imagine they have a very detailed risk assessment for it. It is only certain hours, they have very good cctv and policies to keep everyone safe. No abuse I’ve seen or concerns raised about it.

Do they not have an issue with unauthorised access? Also what does the risk assessment look like? I know it is not lone working, but quasi it could be?

Book signings / author talks / an evening with… where you sell tickets for the events.

One of our libraries runs their own melody maker type sessions, two or three age groups, small fees and lots of social media advertising.

Holiday programmes with lots of activities for kids to come in and do.

Escape room evenings, like tabletop murder mysteries would also work well.

A plant sale. Grow bulbs on Autumn for people to buy for Xmas.
Ask for volunteers to listen to PE we ho struggle to read and people who want to learn to read better. It is surprising how many poor adult readers there are about. Sell hot chocolate with mini marshmallows and squirty cream on these nights.
Story time with fruit. Offer under 5's stories with slices of apple, grapes cut up, easy peelers etc to nibble on as they listen to story charge £1 per child. Sell tea/coffee to parents for £1 a cup.

@Ted27 I'm not far from Earlsdon- south side of city, area beginning with F! I support our library as much as I can because its a charity now- I'm a childminder and use it regularly- and have used it since I was a child.
Earlsdon library are doing brilliantly, it's a great place! Unfortunately our library is a fair bit smaller so doesn't have the space for a lot of bigger events. I'd be devastated if it closed!

Ours has a Warm Welcome group that runs all year round- £1 each for a cuppa and cake- and one of these sitting down chair exercise groups that is really popular- small charge including a cuppa.
Anything for children is always a hit!

Our libraries now have a lot of unmanned hours where you can get access using your library card and a pin. I’m sure that’s saved a lot of money.

Do you have anywhere you could project dvds of films based on books and do a monthly film night with refreshment stand? (Possibly licencing costs would be prohibitive though)

Home ed classes for KS2 which are a 40 min session (30mins of content) led by a librarian covering literacy concepts such as how to use a dictionary, index, glossary, features of different kinds of texts and advocating for the range of services available in a library. These types of things tend to either be a weekly terms' programme which then repeats two or three times a year, or an endless fortnightly slot - if you do it less than fortnightly for this age group it will get swamped out by people booking in weekly things as there is loads on.

Also a monthly KS3 home ed book club facilitated by a librarian (as they are old enough to be dropped off for 40 mins and don't want their Mum with them). I'd suggest 30mins talking about the set book and a chance to discuss/recommend other books to each other.

This sort of thing could charge ~£3.50 a head, though you might either only get small numbers to begin with or only be able to accommodate small numbers - ideally get people to book and pay in advance or a lot of people will flake!

We didn’t charge a lot as didn’t want to price ourselves out and it was more for the community but we’re not a county with struggling libraries so didn’t have to make a huge profit sounds like you do though so maybe you could charge more?

Borh sold out though so there was definitely the demand! We did bring your own bottle for both so didn’t have to worry about licenses and stuff!

Our local library does a few things. One is inviting local authors to come and do book signings, I don’t know for sure but imagine the author has to pay? They also invite children’s authors to do sessions with children from local schools and it’s the same idea I’d guess since the children can buy the books and have them signed.

They have craft fairs where locals can sell their homemade items.

They have a coffee/tea/hot chocolate machine which is popular with the elderly who gather there or parents with their children.

They also put on theatre productions with local companies, the ticket fees are nominal and they’re always sold out. Same for things like wildlife experiences where they’ll bring some birds in for children to hold/stroke etc.

A creative writing competition. You could have a theme (ghosts, water etc) and have a child category and an adult category. Each entry has a charge: £2.50 for children and £5.00 for adults. Perhaps ask local businesses to donate the prizes.

Our central library has run events like Harry Potter ones after hours, with an additional cost.
Fairly regularly they host The History Wardrobe which always sells out:
https://www.historywardrobe.com/
Probably depends on what space you have whether you would make money from that.

I work in a library our paid for events this year have been a murder mystery evening and quiz with takeaway pizza both were popular but we don’t make that much money to be honest! Have you rooms you can rent out for meetings or other services like community midwives/nurses?

If you have the facilities selling refreshments is your best bet, undercutting commercial establishments

Our library service have a few theatrical members of staff - they put on murder mystery evenings, charge for tickets and we get a temporary liquor license and offer a cash bar. It is an awful lot of hard work and staff working out if hours though.
we always have a donations tin out - but rarely get any donations (my library is in a very affluent area...and the customers notoriously have very short arms and deep pockets) sadly

We collected second hand books from public
Sold them at car boot sales or locally
Sold online to World Books
Money raised went back into the library

My local library did not have a permanent building, had to pay for the library & staff to visit once a week.

Had to pay for hire of the building

Despite hosting other things like crafts

Despite doing various things to fund raise

The council closed the library