The Melbourn Library Access Point has been doing very well over the last few months. At the same time the Cambs County Council has had to withdraw a large part of their Mobile service to the village. We feel there is an opportunity to fill the gap left in the service. In the past the LAP has opened on five days a week for two hours it now intends to open for all six working days for two hours. We have been able to do this as a result of recruiting extra volunteers. We are very fortunate in that our main asset is our dedicated volunteers. We are proud of the service they provide. We like to think that it is more than just a Library but is also a place for local people to meet.
Our opening times from 11th January 2010 will be:
Monday, Tuesday,Wednesday & Friday. 2.30 to 4.30pm.
Thursday. 5.00 to 7.00pm
Saturday. 10.00 to 12.00 Midday
We are also restarting our highly successful Children’s Story Time. This is intended for pre school children to come with their parents and enjoy having stories and rhymes read to them. These sessions last for about half an hour. While providing an enjoyable time for the children it is also a good opportunity for the parents to meet. We hope to provide coffee and biscuits. There is no charge but donations to help with the running expenses will be appreciated.
Story Time Sessions:
Every Thursday including school holidays from Thursday 6th January 2011.
We are looking for even more volunteers to help run the Library and the Story Time Sessions. Ideally volunteers need to live close enough to Melbourn to be able to get to the Library in a few minutes. The normal commitment is for two hours once a week. We always try to have a least two volunteers working together to give each other practical support and to facilitate social interaction. All the team enjoy the work. Ideally you need to be able to operate the computer backed terminals while interacting with the customers. A lot of the customers are old friends. The work is interesting as from time to time problems which add interesting challenges to the work. We have to solve these situations at the time. There are procedures for handling these them but at the end of the day it is up to the Librarian to keep the customers happy.
Our main range of books is Adult Fiction and Children’s books. The Children’s books range from picture books for toddlers through Junior fiction for Primary School Children right up to young Adult books suitable for Senior School Children. We also have several small collections including History, Travel, Cooking and Local Studies.
The local people give us a large amount of support and without them we could not expand the facility. Please give us all the help you can in these difficult time by using the Library as often as possible.
We have just been presented with an award by the Melbourn Parish Council for our services to the village.