' Stop press! Positive news - The Highways Committee have unanimously agreed to accept the report of the Committee looking at ways of generating income for the Central Library and its recommendations for sponsorship, the cafe and third floor.  Also the Cambridgeshire Collection is retaining the three part time staff whose posts were at risk. However there will be no full time post which is very serious for the future of the Collection.
 Thank you all for your hard work and determination in launching the Friends of Cambridge Central Library. There is still a long way to go and there  will be plenty of opportunities for us to help the library to carry forward new initiatives and continue to build on its strengths as well as give specific support to the Cambridgeshire Collection.'

The Highways Committee have unanimously agreed to accept the report of the Committee looking at ways of generating income for the Central Library and its recommendations for sponsorship, the cafe and third floor.

Just before the Christmas school holidays, all the Cambridge Schools (from Primary to Secondary) were sent information about the Logo Competition, the idea being to create a logo for the Friends to be used on their membership cards and merchandise.

Once the closing date arrived Celia Tyler (who works in the Cambridgeshire Collection at Cambridge Central Library and who is a trained graphic designer) and I (an Art Teacher at a non-Cambridge Secondary School and also a trained designer), got together to judge the entries.

Libraries in the UK are loved, valued and were visited an astonishing 265 million times last year! Libraries are a vitally important public service. Celebrate them on National Libraries Day, Saturday 6 February 2016.

Cambridge Central Library is taking part in National Libraries Day in the morning with a Children's Craft Workshop with Trudi Esberger and in the afternoon the Friends have arranged a talk entitled the '1916 Year of Battles' with one of the founding member of the friends, Dr Sean Lang from Anglia Ruskin University. 

You may not know Sean but you will have heard his voice as he is one of the resident historians on 'The Jeremy Sallis Show' on Radio Cambridgeshire in the afternoon.

You can download the posters by clicking on the links:
Children's Craft Workshop
Dr Sean Lang's talk

Today 30th January 2016, the Friends of the Cambridge Central Library website was born and joined many others on the wonderful world wide web.
With all the proposed cuts to the Cambridgeshire Libraries and Archives services this could not come a moment too soon.