Shaping Surrey Performing Arts Library

Overview

Continued cuts to funding, rising costs and increasing demand for key services means that the need for Surrey County Council to find savings has reached unprecedented levels. This year alone we need to make savings of more than £100m.

We are determined to meet our responsibilities and will continue to support our residents as effectively as we can, but despite having achieved £450m worth of savings since 2010, changes to services are still needed to deliver the required savings.

Surrey Performing Arts Library is part of the public library network run by Surrey County Council. It helps support the cultural life of the county by bringing together a wide range of material on all aspects of the performing arts. Material can be borrowed and returned either directly from/to Surrey Performing Arts Library or through any Surrey/West Sussex library. The stock is made up of:

• Multiple copy sets available to representatives of music/drama groups only (e.g. 50 copies of “The Messiah” or 9 copies of “Hedda Gabler”).
• Single copy material available to individuals - books (e.g. “1st World War in popular cinema”), single scores, CDs and DVDs.

We would like to continue offering a performing arts service to the community, but we need to make Surrey Performing Arts Library cost neutral by 1st April 2018 – a saving of at least £180,000.

As an active borrower of Surrey Performing Arts Library we would like you to be involved in considering options for its future.

Current options being considered are:

1. The library service continues to provide written and recorded material relating to the performing arts by re-locating the stock and delivering the services as follows:

a) Separating the multiple sets into music and play sets and re-locating each in an existing library. The service operates by a mix of Surrey County Council library staff and volunteers. Groups retain: facility to reserve material for a booking fee; hire sets for a fixed charge; access to a member of staff for support; access to drop-off and collection point; collection and delivery via a local Surrey/West Sussex library.

b) All single copy items become part of the general library stock and are distributed throughout the Surrey library network. Existing facilities are retained: reservations, CD hire and DVD hire for the standard charge, collection and delivery via a local Surrey library.

2. The transfer of ownership, either in part or full, to a community or other organisation on the understanding that the stock continues to be available to the public. Interested parties might include an educational institute, community group, not for profit organisation or charity.

3. If neither of the above options can deliver the required savings, then close the service and signpost to the nearest alternative services.

What happens next

Your views will be taken into account when the final proposals are considered by Surrey County Council in autumn 2017.