This website is moving...

Our new web home is www.friendsofsummertownlibrary.org

Our new email address is mail@friendsofsummertownlibrary.org (but we'll still check the old address)

We look forward to seeing you at the meeting on 2nd February!

Public Meeting

We're holding a public meeting on Wednesday 2nd February, at 7:30pm, the Main Hall of St Edward's School.  (Thanks to the school for providing this venue.)
Entry to the hall is via the Woodstock Road entrance to the main St Edward's site.  It is marked 21 on the map here.  Disabled parking only.

The meeting will include:
* providing more information on the state of the campaign and the future of the library
* giving the opportunity for everyone to share their ideas
* establishing a Friends of Summertown Library group to organise things...

It will be chaired by Councillor John Goddard (who is supportive of Summertown Library), and will also be attended by Councillor Judith Heathcoat, County Council Cabinet member responsible for libraries.

Please let your friends, neighbours, colleagues etc know!  We look forward to seeing you there.

In the meantime, if you can't come to the meeting, please have your say by emailing savesummertownlibrary@gmail.com, and/or by adding your comments below.

If you want a poster to advertise the meeting, please email us.

Update: You can now follow us on Twitter, too, at FoSummertownLib

Petitions, petitions...

Try to sign the petition at the County Council website here before it closes on 13th January. However, remember that this is on the County Council's website, so to keep in touch with this campaign you need to email (or keep checking back to this site).  We'll continue collecting petitions on paper until the end of January/beginning of February, so get in contact if you'd like a copy of the form for friends/neighbours/colleagues to sign.  Even if you get just half a dozen signatures, they are adding up quickly...

The campaign continues...

Happy new year!  Thank you for all your support.  A update on the campaign to so far to save Summertown Library...

1. At a meeting of this North Area Committee this evening (6th January), a hall packed with local residents were unanimous in their support for Summertown Library.  (That might sound like some sort of Soviet-era propaganda, but they really were unanimous!)  Among the speakers was popular local author Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse novels.  The officer from the County Council sent along to try to explain the county administration's thinking was left in no doubt that Summertown Library is a cherished community facility.

2. At a meeting of Oxfordshire County Council's Cabinet in December, a Summertown Reader explained how much the library is valued, and asked that the Council's leadership be more creative than simply closing the library.  (See the Oxford Times report here).

3.  Colin Dexter isn't the only well-known Oxford author to protest against the library closures, Philip Pullman, has been defending Oxfordshire's libraries (see the report here.)

4. An online version of the petition to save Summertown Library is hosted at the County Council website until 13th January, so sign here soon.  (Or you can email for a paper petition form to print out.)

5.  More things are brewing, so if you want to be updated on the campaign, please email savesummertownlibrary@gmail.com.  And if you have ideas, time, energy to share in the campaign, then that is even better!

6.  There's a public meeting against library cuts across Oxfordshire, at Oxford Town Hall on Thursday 20th January, at 7:30pm.