Family Library at risk of closing after funding ceases

Tynwald funding review delayed due to Covid

The future of the Family Library is in doubt due to funding issues and the impact of Covid-19. 

The organisation has been running as an independent charity since 2012 and needs to secure £250,000 each year to operate.

Half of that has come from a benefactor with the other half provided by the government – however the taxpayer funded support stopped last year.

The charity has been waiting for the Library Select Committee review, and debate in Tynwald, which was due in 2019 but then delayed due to the pandemic.

As a result the charity says it will have to 'consider all options' including the closure of the service.

The Family Library has nearly 2,000 subscribers Island-wide and nine staff.

A statement from the Family Library says: "Our priority has always been our clients.

"All of our staff worked through the lockdowns, supporting our communities with activities online and even calling up our housebound clients on the day they would normally have had a delivery so we maintained continuity, which can be so important to people in these situations.

"We also pushed out nearly two months' worth of books in a week just before the first lockdown to ensure that people had a stock to keep them going. 
 
"We feel a burden of responsibility in the services that we provide and the people to which we provide them. Hence the review to find a way to service the people who need it, even if we are not able to do it anymore."