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

[LibraryLibrary]

I'm in my local library's consultation group. Our library is under pressure from the council. 1) We need to attract more users.2) We also need to find a way of reducing costs and/or raising funds.
A couple of months ago I asked people on Mumsnet for their ideas for attracting more people to use the library. The responses were very useful. I went through them all and then sent a precis to the library management. They are starting to take some of the suggestions on board. For instance, we have some new activity groups starting.
Can I now please ask you all for any ideas for bringing in money? The library is open to any suggestions - so I'm thinking fun competitions of different types for different age groups, a fashion show, training courses (but what would people be prepared to pay for?), food and drink events, maybe a talent show... What has (or hasn't - that's useful info too) worked for your local library, school or other organisation? We want to provide activities that people are happy to pay for - in exchange for a positive experience. Of course we may need to find volunteers to help run the events. Any suggestion on how to do that and how best to market the events would be very helpful too. Thank you!

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!

@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!

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.

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.

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?

@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.

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.

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!)

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

I would not go in an unstaffed library and a lot of people I know feel the same. There are a lot of unhinged people and no one is going to step in to stop groups of teenagers or adults kicking off about something. The issue I have with ref to paid events is that people expect events to be free and if they have a few kids probably if the event was charged for parents could not afford them. I have never paid for any library event.

How about a seed library? People donate left over seed packets and the library sells them on at a reduced rate?

Minecraft education have Minecraft coding which is free for schools/ clubs etc.
The kids go crazy for it. So maybe charging a few pound for a hour class?

My local library does two book sales per year (summer & winter). They sell off a mix of old stock and donated books for £1 or £2 per item.

Not a library, but a museum local to me offers sleepovers to scout & guide groups. They arrive after tea time, do an activity, have supper, watch a movie & go to bed. The next morning they get up, have breakfast, and leave.

@taxguru Those sound like hardcore changes. Great that you've managed to save your library.

@FurForksSake I've already seen that list of pros and cons for unstaffed libraries. It's very interesting, but personally I prefer the idea of using volunteers, if hours have to be cut. Assuming volunteers can be found.

I didn't realise chair exercise groups were a thing!

The cost of hiring the films is too high, apparently.

Personally, I think things like baby rhyme time and story time should be free, ours asks for donations but I don't give. What I would pay for would be say a weekend event covering say a specific book - story gets read with puppets, sing some related songs, do a related craft activity/face paint. Our local museum run something like this once a month on a Saturday (three time slots, each 1hr) and it's alway sold out. They charge £9.50. It's usually popular books like Smeds and the Smoos, Hairy McClary. The face painting is very basic and they use stencils.

CVs and mock interviews help - maybe joining up with the job centre. Self publishing course / self publishing support? Genealogy support service?

Renting out co-working space? Renting out technology like VR headsets? Renting out a podcast studio?

Author talks? Small film screenings for ND kids? Working with corporates to provide book reading volunteers with kids? Elf on a shelf ....can you find elf on the shelf throughout December 😂. Burns night poetry?

Used book sales?

Community crowdfunding for special projects?

Ooh love the idea of a library sleepover!

Thank you. I'll take a look. I only became aware of lone working regs when my local employer wouldn't let me stay late to work (unpaid). I had always previously worked for large corporations with security staff.

I’d enjoy a quiz with tea and coffee… like a pub quiz for non drinkers. Maybe that’s just me though.

There’s an independent bar near me that does all sorts of quiz nights on themes - friends, the office, Taylor swift.
DD would love to go to an Office themed quiz but can’t take her.
You could do a book themed one.

I recently paid to go to see a poet at a local library. He did readings and then sold signed books.

Maybe a quiz night with bring your own bottle might work.