The next Lit & Phil Annual General Meeting will take place on Tuesday 27 July 2021.  Our Annual General Meeting is open to all Ordinary and Named Family members. Would you like to attend? Email us or phone 0191 232 0192 Agenda  

We are very pleased to let you know that, while we do remain cautious, we are now in a position to loosen most of the restrictions that we have had to impose on our service to you and the wider world since 20 March 2020.

From Monday 19 July, advance booking to use the library will no longer be required, but members and visitors must sign in on arrival or use the NHS QR code with their NHS Covid-19 App. From this date we will also allow members of the public to visit once again.

Staff will continue to wear face coverings and although we cannot enforce this, members and visitors will be requested to wear these whilst in the building.

Some additional seating will be available in the main library and the committee room, but not to full capacity so that some social distancing can be maintained.

The one way system will be removed and the children’s library put back in position. Hand sanitising stations will remain indefinitely, and the cleaning regime throughout the day will continue.

Our opening hours will remain the same but will be reviewed by the beginning of September. The library’s opening hours are:

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 10am-4pm.
Wednesday 10am-7pm.
Saturdays 10am -1pm (August 7 and 21 only).

We anticipate that the hatch will reopen in September but in the meantime the self-service coffee/tea machine is available.

Our live events programme will be gradually re-established, and we're looking forward to an autumn of lectures, concerts, tours and other events to celebrate our reopening, although audience numbers may be limited. Our Zoom talks and readings have proved very popular and we will continue to offer online activities in the future.

Please check our events page for details of what is coming up. Most events are free but if you are able to do so, please do donate what you can to help us continue our valuable educational work. Recordings are also available on our YouTube Channel.

Members may also still request our home delivery / collection service, run by volunteers, or that books are sent by post.

Please be assured that our aim is to keep staff, members and visitors as safe as possible, whether browsing in the library, reading at tables or attending events.  We will therefore keep all our activities under close review.

I would like to thank you on behalf of the Board and the staff for your patience and loyalty over the last 16 months or so. We all look forward to seeing more members and visitors in the library very soon.

Kay Easson
Librarian

Please be reassured of the following:

We have relaxed all our loan periods, and do not feel you need to post books back to us. Do hold onto them as long as you need to while this situation is upon us (and as you already know we never charge fines).  

We are committed to working through this together in the most responsible and compassionate way we can, just as you would expect us to.  While uncertainty abounds, please know that our commitment and loyalty to you, our valued members, visitors and supporters remains as steadfast as ever.

Take care, stay strong and keep reading!

NHS ADVICE