We have long felt that we needed to communicate more regularly and effectively with our Friends and supporters. Last autumn we launched our quarterly newsletter Shelf Life which is now being sent to all Friends, trade unions, sections of the media, arts and library organisations as well as libraries and museums around Britain. We have produced three issues to date and believe that the newsletter fulfils our aim of keeping people better informed about developments at the library and raising the profile of the library. Each issue has four pages and contains a news section, a summary of new acquisitions and an interview with one of our volunteers. Particular thanks go to Peter Carter for interviewing the volunteers and Patrick Ward for his help with the photographs and design. So far we have used a straightforward format in order to get the newsletter off the ground but we expect to modify and improve the design and look of Shelf Life over the next twelve months, time and finances permitting. We are currently producing 750 copies of each issue.

The production and success of Shelf Life led to the Trustees to reconsider the role of the Library Bulletin, which has been coming out annually for fourteen years and is currently sent to all Friends as part of their annual subscription. It was felt that Shelf Life was now fulfilling some of the reasons for producing the Bulletin, that the format of the Bulletin needed revamping to appeal to a wider audience and that the costs were excessive as the last issue of 400 copies had cost over £1,400, excluding postage.

After considerable discussion it was agreed to discontinue the Bulletin in its present format. Instead we will produce occasional publications based on the library's resources, with possible topics to include Socialist Sunday Schools/Labour Church in 2005 and the General Strike in 2006. We will look to produce these in a new format and actively seek sponsorship, grants and advertising to cover the costs as well as selling them. We will also actively seek to market and sell them to the public. Friends of the library will no longer receive these publications as part of their subscription but instead be offered the opportunity to purchase them at a discount.

We are blessed indeed with a committed and dedicated band of Volunteers, who come into building week in and week out and carry out work for which the only word is invaluable. The work they perform in sorting, listing and cataloguing the collection and in maintaining and developing the website and catalogue means that the rich resources of the library are increasingly being made better known to the public and thus increase the likelihood of their being used.

The OC has long been conscious of the fact that we needed to show our appreciation for the efforts of the Volunteers and thus at long last on 21 March we held an afternoon social. In the first part the Volunteers talked about what they did in the library, followed by a general discussion on ways in which we could better support their work. Amongst the suggestions that came out of this was a Volunteers room where people could work together, dedicated computers that they could use, a section about the Volunteers on the library website and also a Volunteers board in the entrance hall.

In the second part of the afternoon we all enjoyed some of Ruth's excellent buns, Coop Free Trade chocolate cake and tea and coffee. We hope to hold these gatherings every six months. The OC is working at present to implement the suggestions that came out the afternoon.

John Crumpton, chair of the BECTU NW Freelance branch, is an active supporter of the library. He is carrying out a training needs exercise with Volunteers which involves the completion of a questionnaire. We believe that this exercise will lead to a better appreciation of the needs of Volunteers, which can then be addressed by the Management Committee. Our thanks to John for his work on this.

John Crumpton is also making a video about the library which will be used to publicise the collection. A great deal of filming has been done over the past six months by John, including interviews with Ruth Frow, library staff, Trustees, Volunteers, visitors and readers. It has been shot on digital film. To complete the video to professional standard will take an estimated £3,500. Unfortunately an application to the Barry Amiel Trust for a grant was unsuccessful. Further work is therefore needed to raise the money to complete the video which will be a very valuable asset in our publicity and fundraising activities. Our thanks to John for all his work so far on this project.

The Management Committee wishes to apply to the Heritage Lottery Fund for funding for an audience development worker. Following contacts made by our Treasurer Denis Maginn with The University of Salford grants unit, we agreed that we would engage the unit to make an application on our behalf with the costs being meet out of the grant if successful. The remit of the worker would be to carry out research on how we can extend and develop the audience for the resources of the library.

The library is still intent on achieving provisional Museum Registration which enable us to access funding at national level. In order to achieve this the library has to put in place a series of policies and professional working practices that demonstrate to the outside world that we are functioning in a proper manner. Because of pressure of work the issue has been left in abeyance for a while but work has now recommenced on this in partnership with Salford City Council.

The creation of CD-Roms is one of the most exciting developments to take place in the work of the library for many years. They are one answer to a number of problems that have been preoccupying the OC for sometime ie how to make better use of the marvellous resources of the library and how to reach out to new audiences such as schools. The CD-Rom enables us to combine text, images, music, spoken word and song in a format which can be used at home or in the classroom.

Our first CD-Rom is Children of The Revolution , an account of conditions for children in the nineteenth century which draws heavily on the resources of the library. It includes contemporary accounts, songs and poems. Its production has been funded by AGMA, the Coop Foundation, UNISON and the Trust. The process of research and production has been very much a learning curve for our worker Danny Crosby and ourselves. However despite some ups and downs on the journey we are confident that w e have something we can be proud of

Our second CD-Rom is on the role of working people in British society and its production has been funded by UNISON. At the outset we engaged the services of a consultant Aidan Jolly for one day which proved very helpful in clarifying the process and costs of production. We anticipate that it will be completed in the autumn.

We intend to organise a major launch of Children of the Revolution . It has already been agreed to send a free copy to every school in Salford. Our key task then will be to organise proper publicity in order to sell as many as possible. Our thanks to Danny Crosby for his hard work and long-term commitment to the project.

The website was originally set up primarily to host the on-line book catalogue. Since then it has developed into a key library resource in its own right. The site now contains listings of both catalogued and uncatalogued material to be found in the library, enabling researchers to obtain a much clearer view of what the holdings are. Some of our Volunteers have played a key role in preparing material for the website. In particular our thanks are due to Mike Weaver and Patrick Ward for their work on the website in the past year. A new version of the site was put together by Mike Weaver and Patrick Ward and was launched in May. It has been extensively revised and much new information added derived on the work of our Volunteers. Kenneth Wynne has begun the Herculean task of adding new books onto the on-line catalogue from the backlog of several thousand volumes.

The OC endeavours to organise regular events at the library as part of our programme of developing activities linked to the collection. In October 2003 the library's celebrated the centenary of the founding of the WSPU and booked Mikron Theatre who presented their play about the suffragettes, A Woman's Place. This was very well attended and enjoyed by all. On 9th May of this year Mikron returned with a new show Pedal Power , written by Richard Povall (who had previously appeared in the Annexe with his show Our Victor about Victor Grayson). Pedal Power tells the story of the Clarion Cyclists over the past century. This was a world premiere no less! A packed Annexe thoroughly approved of this humorous and heart-warming story.

We would like to put on more events at the library. We have a marvellous resource in the Annexe, which is ideally suited to small events attracting an audience of 50 or so, and we will look into ways of attracting funding for future events.

In the past we have organised several Open Days each year at which we have opened up the library to the general public and taken people on tours around the collection and provided light refreshments. This programme has been curtailed in the past 12 months due to the volume of work taken on by the OC. We hope in the next year to hold two such days, possibly in the autumn to coincide with National Heritage week and in the spring.

The Trust has continued to sell duplicate copies of books on the internet via Abe Books. These books are drawn from collections donated to the library where we already have a good copy and there is no need for second copy. The proceeds from the sales are being used for two purposes - to rebind delicate volumes and to purchase new books.

Dennis Maginn has worked very hard to produce a business plan which is now at the centre of our thinking and plans on how the library should go forward over the next decade. This essential document will be used as part of our fundraising efforts. Dennis is also working on a new publicity leaflet for the library, assisted by a student on placement.

As Trustees were made aware of at our last meeting Salford Council has imposed an annual reduction of £10, 000 in its financial contribution to the library for the next five years, a total of £50,000. In response to this the OC have adopted a two-fold strategy.

Total £70,000 to be in place by September 2005.