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The Gibson Library
2 King Street
Saffron Walden
Essex CB10 1ES
Telephone: 0345 6037628
(Switchboard – ask for Saffron Walden Gibson Library)
Email: society@gibsonlibrary.org.uk
About the Gibson Library Society
The Gibson Library Society manages the Gibson Library. It contributes to the cost of rebinding many of the older books in the Library’s collection and its team of volunteers researches and maintains the collection. We work with Essex County Council, the trustee of the Gibson Library, to ensure that the Library’s unique cultural heritage is preserved for future generations.
Our overriding aim is to raise awareness of the Gibson Library and its rich collections amongst local people – both within the immediate Saffron Walden area and more widely in Essex and the East of England – and also academic and local/family history researchers worldwide.
The Society raises funds for items such as dehumidifiers to preserve the books, additional shelving, and promotion; it organises a regular programme of free talks and events for the community and arranges visits for members to other libraries and literary venues.
The Society has just been awarded a major grant of £139,000 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to support our DigitalDiscovery Project which aims to provide the Library with a strong online presence. Find out more here.
The Society is a membership organisation which is run by an executive committee of 12 trustees all of whom are volunteers. It has no paid staff, all the activities are undertaken by volunteers.
Some of the activities undertaken by the committee members and other volunteers include:
- Organising a programme of talks and outings for members and the general public
- Exhibitions and displays
- Welcoming visitors and researchers to the Library and assisting with reader enquiries
- Book conservation
- Cataloguing new acquisitions, stack management
- Repair of books
- Administration
- Promotion of the Gibson Library through a PR programme including social media
- Fund-raisingfor specific projects, for example commissioning the new history of the Library, ‘The Library Book’ by Clare Mulley
The Gibson Library Society is a Registered Charity in England and Wales No.1084210