New Morrab Library Website

The Morrab Library has a new website which now incorporates a blog. This is the last post on our Blogspot blog.

For future updates and library news please visit our main website at http://www.morrablibrary.org.uk/

Morrab Library Book and Postcard Fair 2013

DATE FOR YOUR DIARY: Morrab Library Book & Postcard Fair, Sat 21st September, St John's Hall Penzance

Temporary Library Closure: Tuesday 13th and Wednesday 14th August 2013

The library will be closed from 1pm on Tuesday 13th August and will remain closed all day Wednesday 14th August whilst the ground in front of the the library is laid with new tarmac. We hope to re-open on Thursday 15th August but please call ahead of your visit to avoid a wasted journey.
Apologies for any inconvenience.

Morrab Library Summer Fair 2013

MORRAB LIBRARY SUMMER FAIR 2013

Saturday 22nd June, 10 - 3

Come along to our annual Summer Fair this Saturday for books, bric-a-brac, cakes, plants and lots more. The Friends of Morrab Gardens will also be holding their fete on Saturday so there'll be lots to see and do in the gardens!

The extension is coming on very well but building work is still being carried out so we are still somewhat in turmoil and as yet without a completion date!

PLEASE BE AWARE THAT THE LIBRARY WILL BE CLOSED ON TUESDAY 25TH JUNE FOR ESSENTIAL ELECTRICAL WORKS TO BE UNDERTAKEN.

Apologies for any inconvenience

NEW BOOKS!

The book selection committee met last week and decided to focus on fiction. We've ordered lots of new titles, and they're coming in from the book shop as we speak. Here's a selection from the latest batch... Reading the blurbs, we want to borrow all of these. They're brand-spanking-new (fabulous new book smell) so come in and be the first to borrow these before Annabelle + I get our hands on them!

PLEASE NOTE! CLOSING DATES + TIMES!

The library will close at: 
4pm on Friday 14th December
and re-open at:
10am on Wednesday 2nd January

We are closing a little earlier than planned, as the builders anticipate that they will be joining up the new and old buildings during this time. We apologise for any inconvenience caused, and thank you for your patience.

Please note that members are welcome to borrow up to 12 books (rather than the usual 6) to tide you over during our closure.

Building Update # 4

We have a wall!

We didn't have lights upstairs (we tripped them), but now we do! (Scaffolding had to go up in order to reach the fuse box - thank you Rob).

We have a French drain! (Not sure what that is, but it takes the water away from the back of the wall so that's good).

We will have a ground floor on the carpark within two weeks!

We are still open!

Lots of huge vehicles and bits of machinery have been in and out of the gardens and amazing us with their workings!

On a more serious note, we are still operational, despite circumstances. The rooms which are open are useable, but a bit of a squeeze, so if you don't mind cosying down between the various piles of books then please do keep visiting us! We are missing the buzz of the Winter Lecture Series and all our other weekly lecture groups, which have unfortuntaely had to be cancelled. But we are still here. If members would like to borrow more than their usual six books, they are welcome to, as we know it's difficult to get in and out at the moment.

We still have no official word on a completion date, or on the period when we may have to close (while the builders join up roofs and connect new to old), but with an unpredictable job like this it is understandable. As soon as we know we will pass on the dates and details to you. In the meantime, if you have questions about if we're able to accommodate you or if we can put something by then just get in touch and we'll do our best. Thank you all again for your patience.

Index

Meg has been working away over the past few months to create a digital copy of our Archive index. We'd like to say a huge thank you to her, for all her hard work to make this information available. You'll now be able to look at and download the Archive Index on the blog here, just click on the 'Archive Index' tab under the banner at the top of this page and you'll find the link to the Archive index PDF. Thanks again Meg.

EXHIBITION!

Glyn and Alan have been toiling away to put together a fantastic exhibition to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the voyage of the Rosebud to Westminster in 1937.

The crew of the Rosebud carried a petition from the people of Newlyn Town, in an atempt to save fishermens' cottages from wholesale demolition by the Penzance Council under their interpretation of the Housing Acts 1925 - 1935. You can find out a little more about this history here, but for a more insightful look, come and see the exhibition in the library, featuring photographs, a bit of the keel, and a model of the Rosebud.

The exhibition runs between 17th and 27th October in the Reading Room at the library.
We look forward to seeing you here!

The Balcony and Navy Inn at Newlyn Town, demolished by Penzance Borough Council in 1939

We would like to say a big "THANK YOU!" to everyone who came along to our annual Book and Postcard Fair at St John's Hall last week. You all helped to raise £1580 for the library, for which we and all our members are really grateful.

It was an early start for the first team on site - 7:45am - Annabelle, Mike and Alan were outside St. John's hall ready to start unloading, preparing, directing stallholders, dishing out floats and all else the day entails. As well as the stallholders and the excellent team of willing volunteers (thank you all), we had over 450 visitors, who shopped, browsed, and partook of the raffle in the hall, and ate & drank in the cafe. The event was busy all day, with Jenni sat stoically in the entrance hall collecting donations (which were up on last years by a pretty penny).  Thank you all once again for a brilliant day - hall is booked again for the same time next year! Thanks for the photographs Maike.

Annual Book Fair

Come one come all! The Morrab Library Book + Postcard fair 2012 is this Saturday. There'll be books galore: Old + new, from cheap paperbacks to collectable first editions. There will also be food + drink, a raffle and lots of vintage and collectable postcards. Pass the details on to all your pals and anyone you think will be interested. See you Saturday!

P L E A S E   C A N   Y O U   H E L P ?

On Saturday 22^nd September, we’re holding our annual book & postcard fair at St John’s Hall. This event raises money for the library, through renting stalls and selling books, and is a good opportunity for us to encourage new members to join. We also rasie funds by selling refreshments on the day.

F O O D

Can you help by supplying us with some sweet or savoury snacks? We have the sandwiches covered, but anything else would be much appreciated. If you are able to help out, please pop in to the library and let us know or comment on this post telling us your name and what sort of dish you are bringing. Then just bring it in to St John's Hall on Saturday morning (22nd Setember.) Thank you very much.

H E L P

We’re also keen to recruit any volunteers to help on the day – if you could spare an hour to do a bit of washing up or serving then we’d be very grateful. Please see Annabelle or Alex at the desk for details on this. Thank you!

Building update # 03

It's been a while, so we thought we'd better update everyone on progress with the building work... 

From our position on this side of the fence, it appears there's just a massive hole. There is a massive hole, but it's what's going on inside the hole (the bits we can't see) that is of great importance, and where work has really been moving on. We had a meeting with the council and the contractors yesterday, and heard all about the tricky, risky, dangerous and hugely important business of underpinning the existing building. According to TEC, this part of the work has been challenging - I won't go into the technical details as they were plentiful and extensive - suffice to say: It's complicated, but it's also 'well in hand'. The TEC team have been friendly, accommodating professional and willing to make every effort to work with the library and we are very grateful. It appears that after a slight delay, things are forging ahead, and that the team should soon be able to move out into the 'new' area, which will mean much faster and easier working conditions. 

We have been given a timetable, but for the next fortnight (while the underpinning next to the building is still ongoing) it is in flux. After this time, we should know more about timings and things will become a lot more predictable. In the meantime, we know for certain that the library will have to close to members for approximately four weeks (an incredibly short time really considering what's planned) at some point while the old and new buildings are 'connected up', but we don't know precisely when this four week closure will be. (Currently looking like some time in November but we aren't making promises). We will also, unfortunately need to cancel many of our regular autumn and winter events, as until the new building is complete, we will be running on limited capacity, movement between areas of the library, and access. But we will update you with details of this as soon as they're all worked out. Once again, we apologise for any inconvenience caused, but hope you understand and share our 'short-term pain for long-term gain' outlook. 

Also of note: The builders found a secret tunnel! A corridor running all the way around the building, thought perhaps to have been installed to keep the building dry and free from damp, but we think a smuggling tunnel sounds more exciting. See picture below.

Acquisitions

While the Archive is out of action due to extension work, John Simmonds (archivist supreme) has joined Annabelle in cataloguing donations + new purchases for the collection. Double man/woman power on this task means we've all been one big cataloguing machine for the past couple of weeks, adding no less than one hundred and thirteen books into stock (and completing all the date labelling, spine labelling, card typing etc. that goes with it). Thus the acquisitions list for July is a long one...

To View the full list click here >>   Morrab Library Acquisitions // July 2012

PZ LIT FEST

Just a short, and slightly overdue post to say how much we all enjoyed hosting events for the Penzance Literary Festival last week. It was super to see the library full of people and the talks and other events we hosted were interesting and inspiring. Thanks to all who came and listened, who delivered talks and showed lovely pictures and who volunteered sitting on the door taking tickets - full round up and requests for feedback available through the lit fest's website: http://penzance-literary-festival.org.uk/

Building Update # 02

We're now in week four of serious work on our extension and things are moving quickly. The right hand side of the building is now fully sealed off on the ground and lower floor, and the former downstairs loo has disappeared completely.  At least five skips have been filled and replaced with empty ones, only to be filled again, (and that's just what we've seen). The railings have been removed, the Camellia and Cannon have been uprooted and moved to new spots in the gardens, and there's a huge hole in front of the building which was concreted on Friday. As you can tell from this 'update' we don't know the ins and outs or techical details of the work, but can only tell you how we're experienceing the build and we're very impressed with the work and workers (especially the skilful and unbelievable lifting of a massive skip-full of granite onto the back of a lorry which we witnessed while having lunch outside on Tuesday). Glyn and Bob have been sneaking in and photographing progress, a glimpse of which can be seen below...

Building work update # 01

Work on our much anticipated extension has been under way for a few weeks now, and so far all seems to be going according to plan. The electricians have been busy and the fenced off construction area now houses a pair of smart site offices. Plenty of other work has been going on, in, under and behind the scenes, and we spent yesterday making preparations to ensure nothing in the present library building comes to harm amidst the construction. Unfortunately, this means that some areas of the library will be out of bounds for a while. We used all the man and woman power we could muster yesterday (thank you to all the helpers) and moved every last book out of the Jenner Room and into safe keeping downstairs. Some much used reference books from this part of the collection have been re-housed in the Reading Room, but the majority of our Cornish collection is now in storage.  So, from now until mid-August, there will be no access to the following rooms: Jenner Room, Newspaper Archive, Archive Room & Duplicate Room. While we understand this is likely to be a potential problem for some of our members and visitors who use these particular parts of the library's collection, we hope you can understand that the few months of disruption will be worth it when the building is complete, and thank you for your patience.  

Jubilee / Bank Holiday Closing

The library will be closed for a time over the Jubilee and June Bank Holiday period. Please note down in your diaries that we'll close at 4pm on Wednesday 30th May and re-open at 10am on Wednesday 6th June. 


We hope you all have fun celebrating the Jubilee and sorry for any inconvenience caused by closure.

Tribute to Mr Denis Myner

Tribute to Mr Denis Myner, by Bob Harrison (Morrab Library Chairman) 

It is with great sadness that we record the death of Denis Myner, retired architect of St Ives who has been associated with the Morrab Library for over forty years. His funeral took place on Wednesday 9th May 2012 at Longstone Chapel, Carbis Bay followed by internment. The library was well represented by trustees, committee, staff and members and afterwards many joined family and friends at the house of Mike and Sharon Higgins, his close friends and neighbours, for refreshments. 

A wreath was laid on his grave with the following message – “In fond memory of a true friend and generous benefactor from the trustees, committee, staff and members of the Morrab Library”. 

Denis’s health had been failing for some time so we were pleased that he was able to visit us at the library on Monday 23rd April to witness the start of the work on the extension and to meet many of the people involved with the project. Thanks to his generosity, and that of his late sister Patricia, he had established the Myner Trust which is funding the extension and securing our financial future for many years to come. Denis first envisioned the need to expand the premises and over the last fifteen years had championed the design of a sensitive extension and, despite a few setbacks, never relented in his quest. 

Note: The actual work on the site is subject to a slight delay due to concern over the underpinning of the existing building. The issue is being addressed and we hope for good news shortly. Once started the work is expected to be completed within six months.

Grand Summer Raffle

There's a hint of summer in the air, and we're once again holding our Grand Summer Raffle. Last year's was a brilliant success, and we're hoping to repeat that triumph with another, to be drawn at our Summer Fete on 16th June. We've again managed to get some fabulous art prizes, the first being an original Kurt Jackson oil painting. Second prize is an oil painting of a local scene by Ann Bull, third a piece of Norman Stuart Clarke Glassware, and fourth is a framed print by Ken Symons. There will also be plenty of other smaller prizes to be announced on the day. All the prizes are currently on display in the library, so do take a look next time you're in, and don't forget to pick up a ticket or two, or more! They're just a pound each, so well worth the small investment. If you'd like to be extra supportive, we'd welcome more ticket sellers, so if you're passing, and think you can sell some, pick up a few raffle books and alert your pals! All money rasied will go to the library.