Do book donations still wind up going into the London-wide collection (and possibly back to FHL) or do they now stay within FHL?
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Hi Andy,
Any donations that are given to FHL are assessed by Senior Library Assistants, who will either issue them to the library system, with FHL as their ‘Home’ library, or they will be rejected (for a whole number of reasons). Any that we get that are not added to the collection will be sold to raise money for the library. Even those that are unsaleable, due to too much damage for example, will be collected, pulped and recycled, for which the library also gets a small fee.
Any books that end up in the FHL collection are the property of Lewisham Libraries and so, unless they are reference, can be requested by any other library in Lewisham or the consortium, however, their home library will remain FHL, so once they have been issued and returned in Newham, Bromley, Luton or wherever, they then come home to Forest Hill again within a couple of days.
Any other questions, or if anything is unclear, please do ask.
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That, @Simon, is the best of both worlds, as far as I’m concerned. I like the idea of books being donated to one library then having that as their ‘home’ library, but being available more widely than that.
My (mis?)understanding previously was that books donated to FHL could wind up in Deptford, for example. Nothing against Deptford, but it’s not quite as dear to my heart!
Glad to know FHL will benefit one way or another from anything donated, especially if it’s of value to the community readership.
Thanks for the fulsome explanation!
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That is useful to know as a lot of charity shops are turning down book donations at the moment - I think a lot of people have been doing post-Christmas clear outs! I was in the Aldlife charity shop yesterday and they weren’t taking books or any donations. Lately I have taken to leaving unwanted books outside my house for people to help themselves. I was worried about giving them to the library in case they weren’t suitable, as didn’t want to feel I had ‘dumped’ them.
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What a shame that that’s their approach. They might be better off taking your books and dumping the ones they currently have on the shelves.
I had a conversation yesterday with one of the local charities and they have over 12,000 books (after they have filtered out the duff ones) that are just sitting waiting for shelf space, so it is no wonder they are turning them away now.
We are going to try and work with them going forward to reduce their stock and put the books to good use.
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Is there any way that, say, us locals could offer some storage space for books? I really hate to think that even one brilliant, life-changing book could end up being binned because of lack of space to store it.
I would happily store a couple of boxes of books, until they are needed on the shelves.
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That is very kind of you, and it may yet come to that, but at the moment we still have some capacity to take some of their books at the library and store them in the basement area. We hope to avoid any having to be destroyed! We’re working on a permanent solution.
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Hey Simon 
Okie dokie, that is great and understandable.
The offer is there that, should you need “a couple of boxes of books” 
looked after, then, I could help.
Regards
Sue
PS also whilst here, are you desperate for anyone to help out in the library either later on Saturday or Sunday? They would be my best availability times 
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Thanks Sue, that would be brilliant!
We have a group that would probably be interested in an NHS talk/discussion, would you be up for that work permitting? Xx
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Hi Pauline,
OMG do not get me started on Jeremy Jackal and the black and white Zebra show and “THE ZOO” … his stories of “IT” NOT being true to life! (how many thousands a year would be saved without having to “feed HIM” for example?!
Will look into legalities regarding a talk. If that would not be permissible, then, me spending a few hours helping the library would, Sat & Sun being my options, as I work Mon through Friday full time
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Pop in for a chat Mrs please when you can xx
Hi Sue, thanks for the offer of help. We are still quite desperate for volunteers on some days. We don’t open very late on the weekend, closing at 5pm on Saturday and 4pm on Sunday, but we do tend to need people, especially on Saturdays between 1pm and 5pm. If that suits then by all means drop me an email at rota@FHLibrary.co.uk
That goes for anyone else who ever feels like volunteering - especially evening shifts between 5pm and 7.30pm Tuesday to Friday, when we have regular problems getting enough reliable people!
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