“We long for the return of the buzz of busyness: the tip tap of laptops, the barely audible turn of pages, full reading rooms, discussions over shared food or drinks in front of a roaring fire.”
These are the words of Peter Francis, Warden and Director at Gladstone’s Library, to mark the launch of their ‘Sponsor a Shelf’ Covid recovery fund to help the library reopen next Spring.
ICG has been working with the team at the library for many years and as part of our festive ‘Give Back Fridays’, we have sponsored a shelf and are helping promote the fundraising.
Britain’s only Prime Ministerial library closed its doors in March in response to the global pandemic and had to make staff redundancies.
It is hoping to raise £100,000 by asking people to sponsor a shelf.
The number of shelves in the main Reading Room is 1,001 and the names of donors will be recorded in two ‘books of thanks’. We are looking forward to seeing ICG’s shelf!
The campaign is vital to the survival of Gladstone’s Library in North Wales which was founded by the great Victorian statesman and is a residential library that encourages people to read, write, relax and become inspired.
It is popular with students, researchers, theologians and clergy, historians, academics and award-winning novelists, scriptwriters, poets and playwrights.
To find out more about Gladstone’s Library Covid Recovery Fund visit https://www.gladstoneslibrary.org/covid-recovery-fund
