Pictured: Mum Nicky White with Tess and Jack Walker, holding their library cards

Published: 19 April 2012
by PAVAN AMARA

THE first membership cards for the new Keats Community Library were issued this week – and now volunteers want to recruit 1,000 new members.

Heath and Hampstead Society president Lord Hoffman presented the first cards to seven-year-old Tess Walker and her three-year-old brother Jack at the former Heath branch in Keats Grove, Hampstead, on Tuesday.

The opening of the library follows a Camden Council decision last year that it could no longer afford to manage three branches – Heath, Belsize and Chalk Farm.

Instead, it asked readers and friends’ groups to take them on.

Despite fears that managing a busy library independently of the Town Hall would be too much for volunteers, plans are now in place to keep all three libraries open.

The renamed Hampstead library – housed in a wing of the home of Romantic poet John Keats – was saved by a committee made up of Hampstead-based civic groups and library users.

Nearly 370 people – organised into half-day shifts – have volunteered to help run the library.

Library director Steven Bobasch said: “We’ve opted to use an electronic system to memorise data, and then stamp books the old fashioned way to keep things simple.

"We have a wide range of people who will be coming here, and it’s just easier if everybody understands a straightforward system.”

Members browsing the shelves will find a wider choice of books to choose from, he added.

Mr Bobasch stressed that the library would be grateful for donations.

It aims to raise at least £250,000 to set up a foundation, and will need to find £80,000 a year to stay open six days a week.

Heath and Hampstead Society chairman Tony Hillier, one of nine members on the library’s management committee, said: “We’ve had 50 registrations for a library card this morning, and we want to see 1,000 registrations.”