St Austell Library Support Association is calling for volunteers to join its merry band. 

SALSA, as it is affectionately known, meets once a month at the library for tea and cake, and hosts a varied programme of community events.  

The group was born on 2011, to tackle the wasteland that was the library’s back garden. A committee of 12 volunteers has worked tirelessly to transform the derelict space into the prize-winning community garden you see today.  

The key is that as a charity, SALSA can apply for grant funding which the library cannot. Having succeeded in prettying up its surroundings, SALSA moved onto providing fun and informative activities for townsfolk.  

These include dementia workshops, dance lessons for unpaid carers, children’s events, craft fayres, Cornish cultural and history talks, concerts, community awareness days, cheese and wine parties, and First World War commemoration events.  

The library also hosts regular groups like Knit & Stitch (makers can hire the craft cabinet to sell their wares), reading and writing groups, computer classes and drop-in sessions for local organisations. 

The St Austell Carers support group meets here on a monthly basis, and the Royal Voluntary Service is also based here, running a hospital car service from the back office. 

Storytime, sing and shake sessions and Lego club are very popular with children, as well as visitors of the four-legged, winged and finned variety: Newquay Zoo and Plymouth National Aquarium have both sent staff to give talks, and a shire horse, small pony, alpacas, dogs, bats and creepy-crawlies are just a few of the creatures that have come through the doors.   

St Austell Town Council now runs and maintains the library, which is open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, and from 10am to 1pm on Saturdays. Daily footfall averages 250, but in busy times like the school summer holidays, can reach 400. 

It issues an impressive 15,000 books a month from stock supplied by a Cornwall Council partnership. Children are allowed to borrow 18 items, adults 12 – books, naturally, but also talking books, DVDs, musical scores, sheet music, plays and pantomimes. Membership also entitles you to use a computer, make photocopies or send a fax. 

You can also download stories to electronic devices free of charge from Borrowbox, and read online daily newspapers and magazines. A Home Library service sees volunteers delivering and collecting books to the housebound at home.  

Encouraging children to read is an important role for the library, and it supports 16 primary schools and four secondary schools with class visits and work experience. 

Through the school summer holidays, it runs the Summer Reading Challenge – a countrywide initiative by the Reading Agency to encourage children to read during the six-week school break.   

The children are given small incentives to read six books, a medal for finishing and presented with a certificate during their school assembly. The 2023 theme was sporty, entitled Ready Set, Read – 908 children signed up, with 612 completing the challenge.  

It also supported the launch of the inaugural St Austell Festival of Children’s Literature, a one-day event in June for children to attend workshops with Cornish children’s authors at various venues around the town. It was hugely successful, and anticipated to return in 2024.