Observatory Library hopes to become an essential part of the community again. It has been slow progress due to COVID and the library had to literally fight to reopen last year because of it. Unfortunately, due to City budget, many small community libraries are in danger of closing. Including Observatory Library. We want to re-establish ourselves and this requires the help of the community in the following aspects:
– To increase our Library Membership from the community itself.Currently, the library is used by individuals that are not living or have any divested interest in keeping the library open. As the library collection is online, they are able to reserve books from our collection. Thus, they use the drop-and-collect system. The library has received many compliments regarding its diverse collection.
– More community members to make use of the Library, thus, increasing our foot count. This in turn increases our book budget. The library offers various services such as SmartCape Internet, study space, the Observatory Book Club, story time Pram Jam and educational programmes for school students.
– Community members to take an interest in the Library by becoming Friends of the Library. Being a Friend of the Library does not mean you are obligated to take an active role. Silent members are most welcome. Due to COVID and people moving out of Observatory, we have lost many members and many of our programmes supported by the Friends came to a halt. The Friends supported programmes such as The Senior Knitting Ladies Club, the end-of-year story time programme, book sales, raffles, rummage and bake sales (bric-n-brac items donated to raise funds), programmes for the nannies, The Nelson Mandela soup programme amongst others. We also used to host morning tea time for the nannies and coffee time for our regular patrons.
Thank you for your interest and future support. We are most grateful.
Kindest regards
Cleolaine Delmore
Senior Librarian: Observatory Library – Library and Information Services
Community Services and Health, Area North