(Our apologies that due to an internal communication failure this article was accidentally omitted from our August issue).

Earlsdon Carnegie Community Library would like to thank all of their library members for bearing with them during their recent closure and the subsequent lockdown period.

They’re still awaiting guidance from Coventry City Council as to when they will be allowed to open the doors again – as you can appreciate, there’s a huge amount of work that will need to be done to ensure that they are able to safely begin lending books again. However, they have shared their current plans for “Unfolding The Library”.

Initially, they will be able to offer a “Select and Collect” scheme, where library members can state which books they would like to borrow from Earlsdon library’s stock (either digitally or using a paper based form) and a time will be arranged for them to pick them up. They have been in contact with other libraries who are successfully delivering this service to ensure that it works as smoothly as possible and are currently finessing the details of how this will work in practice.

They would love to be able to show you the refurbishment in person – this is certainly not the grand reopening that they had in mind – so they are also working on an innovative way to showcase the gorgeous new Reading Room whilst respecting current social distancing measures.

They know that it’s frustrating that the library is still closed when so many other establishments have already reopened so thank you again for your patience. Hopefully you won’t have much longer to wait!

They have had a lot of enquiries from people wanting to donate books to the library, but at the moment they are not allowed in the building to accept them. It would be great if people could hang on to their books for the time being and they will update everyone as soon as possible about when they can start collecting donations again.

To keep up to date with the library’s latest news, please visit their website www.earlsdonlibrary.org.uk, find them on Facebook @EarlsdonCommunityLibrary and follow them on Twitter @EarlsdonL.