Lincolnshire Co-op opens doors to Spilsby's new library

The Lincolnshire Co-op is starting a new chapter in Post Office Lane when it opens the doors on its new facility tomorrow (Thursday).

An area of the store which was previously used as warehouse space has been transformed into the library through the £30,000 project, which includes a self-service machine, a stock of thousands of books including fiction, non-fiction and large print titles, a children’s section, a seating area and two People’s Network computers.

Lincolnshire County Council handed over the responsibly of running 30 libraries to the community last year. The previous library in Spilsby in West End Villas closed in the autumn.

After tomorrow’s official opening at 2.30pm, the library will be open from 9am until 5pm from Monday to Friday and from 9am until 1pm on Saturdays.

A team of 14 volunteers – including clients and staff from Linkage, which is also celebrating its 40th anniversary on Thursday – will support the library.

If they need help, library users can call a dedicated helpline to Lincolnshire County Council’s customer services team if volunteers aren’t available.

Lincolnshire Co-op also runs community libraries in Holbeach and in Waddington, near Lincoln, where the facility shares space with the Society’s pharmacy and post office.

Chief executive Ursula Lidbetter said: “Education and access to information has been part of our ethos since we started out back in 1861. In fact, we opened Lincoln’s first reading room before there was a municipal library in the city.

“Libraries are important to our members and their communities so we’re proud to do our bit to help sustain such services in Lincolnshire with the three facilities we run, including in Spilsby.”

Lincolnshire Co-op is working with the county-based charity Linkage on the project and some of the library volunteers will be staff and clients from the organisation.

Linkage, which will celebrate its 40th anniversary on the day of the library opening, provides high-quality specialist education, care and employment services for people with learning disabilities.

Lincolnshire Co-op’s volunteer co-ordinator Rachel Sampher said: “We’re delighted to have recruited a team of 14 volunteers who will help support the library, including those from Linkage.

“We’re really grateful to them all for giving up their time. And if anyone else is interested in volunteering for a couple of hours a week, we’d love to hear from them.”

To register your interest in volunteering, call Rachel Sampher on (01522) 785 299 or email [email protected]