Friends of Caldicot Library

11am Saturday 12.4.14

Caldicot Library

Attendees / Bernard John, Fiona Ashley, Paula Taylor, Marie Crowley, Mandy Powell, Jan Morgan and Peter Strong
1 Apologies: / Nuala Butler, Jacquie Ellis, Jackie Strong, Liz Gardiner and Angela King
2 / Matters arising from the minutes of previous meeting 15th March
The Town Team are having a meeting on 29th April at 6.00pm in the Choir Hall. It is important for as many Friends as possible attend and express the opinion that the library should stay in its current building, as the Town team say they want to consult the public.
Debra Hill-Howells is now head of the ‘Community Led’ department of MCC which includes the library service for Monmouthshire.
3 / Adult Learners Week
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6 / On Tuesday 17th June (2.30 – 3.30pm) the Knit and Natter group will hold their session out in the library and give advice and inspiration to any knitters who want to join them. In the evening Peter Strong will be doing a talk – The Murder of Kymin Bet: Adventures with My Library Card - from 6.30 – 7.30pm.
On Wednesday 18th June (10 – 11am) the Writers group will be available to offer advice to any aspiring authors.
On Thursday 19th June there will be an IT and cake session (for people new to computers) at 2.15pm.
On Friday 20thJune there will be an introductory family history session at 2.15pm.
World Book Night
On Tuesday 22nd April from 11-12 we will give out books and publicise the event in the market square. On Wednesday 23rd at 7pm the book night event will take place with talks about some of the books being given away.
‘Love Where You Live’ Grant
All the library beds have been acquired by ASDA therefore we have a lot of money to spend on planters and plants for them. Five new self-watering barrels have been ordered.
ASDA will not be planting up the beds just yet so MCC will give us flower seeds so we can sow them and have a good display for the Summer. Mandy and Paula volunteered to dig over the beds and sow the seed on Friday 25th April. The new planters should have arrived and can also be planted up on that day.
We have £552.33 left from the grant after having bought the extra barrels.
Update on Events and Activities
‘Vintage Vision’ are prepared to do a talk and show a range of their clothes and accessories. They don’t charge as they are a not-for-profit social enterprise. Fiona will book them to do a talk.
Mandy will try to get some publicity for the library and its events on local radio.
It was suggested that Friends might do some guest posts on the Caldicot library blog.
Alistair would like to start a ‘Minecraft’ (like online Lego) club for 10 and 11 year olds. A company called ‘Mi Little Pad’ have been doing sessions at Abergavenny Leisure Centre and could do sessions in Caldicot but there will be a charge.
It is hoped that a Lego club could be run for younger children. A letter has been written to ASDA to ask for funding for this. Perhaps ASDA might also fund the ‘Minecraft’ club.
The recent session to help people download e-books and audio books worked well although only a few attended. More of these sessions will be held and it was agreed that it is very important to publicise what is available online from the library. There was also a social media session, though again only a few attended but more sessions will take place.
On 10th June from 10am-3pm the Community Education art class will be holding an exhibition with the theme of World War 1.
Peter has been preparing readings for the World War 1 centenary and he has some artefacts with which he would like hold a touch and tell session. Perhaps this could also take place on 10th June.
Mandy has applied for some display boards for the WW1 information. It was suggested that Caldicot Castle might have some artefacts which they could lend to the library.
7 / AOB:
Mandy went to a session about fundraising and has a list of groups who would welcome applications for fundraising from Wales.
Liz is looking into getting funding from the Arts Council Wales.
8 / Next meeting:
Saturday 10th May at 11am.