Love Our Library Day

Saturday the 17th of September is Ainsdale's Love Our Library Day!

On offer will be a children's quiz, games, a cake stall, chess, puzzles plus a display illustrating the services on offer including dvd availability, reading groups, free internet access, games nights and computer courses.  

Please come and support us for a half-hour in the morning and bring family and friends! We need as many people to visit the Library as possible on that morning.

If you can help on the day with the children’s quiz, making refreshments or selling cakes, etc please contact pollycollier@fsmail.net

See you there!

e-Petition in support of libraries

The government's e-petitions website has a petition asking for the continuation of support for local libraries from Whitehall. The wording is as follows:

I, the undersigned, believe that libraries are an essential local educational and information resource yet with many libraries under threat, the future of the library service is at risk. I want to see the value of libraries recognised at both local and national levels and I am calling on the Government to honour both its commitment to act as a champion of the library service, and its duty of oversight to ensure that a comprehensive and efficient library service is provided.

It's got 1,456 signatures at time of writing - let's help get it higher.

Games nights are back!

Ainsdale Library will be hosting games nights again, every Tuesday from 5-7pm. Children of all ages are welcome to come along to learn or improve on their skills in chess, backgammon and a host of other games and puzzles.

Drop by, and brush up on your dad-beating strategies!

FOAL Summer newsletter

You can find the summer newsletter with information about the group and the library here and in an easy-to-print PDF format here.

If you work in Sefton, you might like to print a few copies to put on noticeboards - Ainsdale Library is going to need all the help it can get in the coming year.

Formby High pupils bake for books!

FOAL would like to offer deepest thanks to five Formby High School pupils for their superb, community-centred cake making exploits to raise funds for FOAL.

Year 7 students Eve Rogers, Abi Gray, Milli McCollah, Robyn Jennings and Chloe Chung raised the princely sum of £42 by organising and holding a cake sale at school.  This is a truly inspiring effort and deserving of high praise and admiration.

To have such a community spirit at Year 7 is indeed highly commendable and a marvellous example to all students.

We would also like to express our thanks to all those staff and students who bought the so sought-after delicacies and thus contributed to the support of FOAL.

May we wish all staff and students at Formby High School a very happy summer holiday

Art exhibition at Ainsdale Library

Ainsdale Library is proud to be hosting an art exhibition from 15th July to 12th August 2011.

Maria Tavares

All of the work on display is from classes held at Ainsdale Methodist Church, under the tutelage of Portuguese artist Maria Tavares.

Maria has been teaching art for seventeen years, ten of which have been in Merseyside, and has been holding classes in the Ainsdale Methodist Church every Thursday from 10.00 to 12.00 am.

Classes involve a variety of media such as acrylics, watercolours, oils, pastels etc and a range of subjects will be covered. Maria looks forward to welcoming you at the classes whatever your level of experience.
Below is some of the work that will be on show:

Library remixes of wartime posters

I was reading an entry on Phil Bradley's excellent library-related blog today, where he mentioned some posters that he's 'remixed' (modified). What he's done is take a selection of iconic and instantly recognisable wartime posters, and changed aspects of them to give a 'support your library' theme. I've posted my favourites below, and you can find the rest here - they're worth a look. It might even be an idea to print one or two off and put them up around your workplace or school - any way to spread the word!

Summer activities

Here are some additions to Ainsdale library's programme of summer events for children:

• Mobile Zoo for children of all ages - Tuesday 26th July, 2.30pm, ticket price £2.50
• Summer craft for children of age 4-12 years - Wednesday 3rd August 10.30am, ticket price £2.50  
• Drop-in craft, everyone welcome - Tuesday 9th August starts 2.30pm - all afternoon/free activity.
• Summer craft for children age 4-12 Wednesday 17th August 10.30am, ticket price £2.50
• Mobile Zoo for children of all ages, Tuesday 23rd August 2.30pm, ticket price £2.50  

You can also find these on our calendar here. Please note that it's advisable to book early for many of these events, as they're very popular and places are often limited.

Ainsdale Show 2011

Many local residents will have seen the FOAL stall at the Ainsdale Show today, and a lot of you will have spoken to us or joined the group. We're still adding up the new memberships but the response from the village was overwhelming. It's obvious that the library is a very highly-valued resource in our community, and the support we received today was fantastic.

If you didn't get a chance to join, please drop in at the library and fill in the form - it only takes a moment and costs 50p for a lifetime membership.

Thanks for all your good wishes and words of support today - the weather was the crowning glory on a day that was the culmination of a lot of hard work by a lot of people. Let's hope the sun comes back for 2012!

Update 03/07/11 - about 200 people signed up for FOAL on Saturday, a fantastic result!

FOAL at the Ainsdale Show

FOAL will have a stall at the Ainsdale Show on Saturday 2nd of July, so if you'd like to come and chat to us about our aims or share any ideas that you may have, please drop by.
The Ainsdale Show is now in its 91st year and is always a popular day out - you can find out more at the Southport Visiter's site here.

Groups and activities at the library

Most people who use Ainsdale Library will know that there's a lot more to it than just books. As a community hub it also hosts a great many activities and groups, which this blog is going to be highlighting. Here are a few of them - keep checking back for more information, and don't forget to join the Facebook page. You can also use the FOALS calendar by following the link on the right.

Rhyme time:

• Tuesday (run by Kings Meadow Sure Start) children age 0 - walking at 10-10.30am, walking - 4 years at 10.45-11.15
• Wednesday: 2.00pm
• Friday: 10.00am

Reading Groups:
Once a month:
Wednesday Morning: 10am: 4 May, 8 June with more dates to follow
Wednesday Evening: 7pm: 20 April, 18 May, 15 June

Crossword Club: Every Monday at 10am

CHAT Group (Coffee Hour And Talk - for people, families and carers suffering from Dementia): 3rd Wednesday of the month at 11-12.

Dominoe Club: For people coping with stroke. Games for adults. Every other Monday at 2pm.

Games Night: family games for all. Every Wednesday evening.

Hopefully coming soon:
Knitting Club - young people taught and helped to knit by adults volunteers

Also:
Fit To Read; Reading scheme - children read 6 books and part take in 4 sporting activities (more details at Library).
Summer Reading Scheme - annual reading scheme with lots of prizes this years theme is the Circus (more details to follow).


There's a lot more going on at the library, so please drop in and ask - and if you know of something that isn't on this list, please email FOALS on friendsofasindalelibrary@gmail.com and tell us!

Minutes and Administration

Minutes from last night's Executive Committee meeting can be found here.

Please note that minutes of meetings as well as other administrative documents can be found by clicking on the 'Minutes and FOALS administration' link to your right.

FOAL AGM: Wednesday 6th April 2011

Just a reminder that the next meeting, the AGM, of FOALS is Wednesday 6th April at the library - remember that it's up to everyone in Ainsdale to show their support for the library, so that we can do our best to ensure its survival.

The proposed agenda can be found here, along with a proposed constitution for FOALS here. The minutes of last month's meeting are here.

Welcome to the Friends of Ainsdale Library blog!

Friends of Ainsdale Library (FOALS) has been set up in Spring 2011 to promote and support the work of Ainsdale Library.

As everyone will be aware, finances for local services throughout the UK are being squeezed ever-tighter and although Ainsdale library is safe for the coming year, its continuing existence is by no means certain. FOALS is the community's chance to put its weight behind this vital local resource.

The library comes under Sefton County Council and is run by Sefton's staff, but FOALS is completely independent of the Council - we're simply enthusiastic library users who want to spread the word of the wonderful work that the library does, and make sure that local residents are informed of all of the services that the library offers.

FOALS has had one meeting so far, which was very well-attended for a first event. The next meeting is at 6:30pm on Wednesday 6th April, at the library (of course!). Here we'll be discussing the remit of the group, a constitution, aims, who's doing what and all of the other details that come with setting up a group like this.

Don't worry if you've never been involved in local community groups before -  a lot of the people who came to the first meeting were first-timers too. Above all, don't leave it to other people - if you use the library, it's your responsibility to make sure that you do what you can to support it. If you don't use the library, why not drop in? There's a lot more than books there, as we hope to emphasise through the work of FOALS.

This blog is going to act as the principle online means of communication for FOALS and will incorporate a calendar of all relevant events, both from FOAL and at the library in general. There's also a Facebook page which provides the opportunity for discussion and, of course, sharing with your friends on Facebook.

It's your library - if it goes, it's gone for good.