Not a single book was taken out of a pop-up library in a YEAR

A pop-up library has not had a single book checked out of it by residents in a whole year.

The 18 books loaned from the library in Barrow Island Primary School in Cumbria were IT staff testing the system. 

It can be revealed that Tracey Ingham, area manager for Barrow in Furness, wrote a guest blog for the Government’s Libraries Taskforce just last year on Cumbria’s new library model.

The Barrow Island Library Link is only open from Monday to Wednesday from 9am to 12.30pm, just three and a half hours a day. 

Children from the primary school cannot visit the library before or after school because of the library’s opening times. 

It is closed for the rest of the week and does not open on weekends.

Yet the Barrow in Furness area manager, Tracey Ingham, wrote a guest blog on the Government’s website entitled: ‘Reshaping the delivery model in Cumbria’ just last year.

The Barrow Island Library Link is only open from Monday to Wednesday from 9am to 12.30pm, just three and a half hours a day [File photo]

She wrote that the library structure in Cumbria was changed in 2015 from a centralised service to a model consisting of six community services managers.

She said the community services managers are responsible for the running of the libraries in their district areas.

She wrote: ‘Have we got it completely right? I would say no; there is always room for improvement and development, but we have created a much more flexible integrated service that not only reflects the county in which we work, but also is really shaped around the communities in which we operate. 

‘This hopefully is a strong platform for us to continue to deliver our services from well into the future’.

At a council meeting of Barrow’s Local Committee this week, Ingham said: ‘The proposal is to move away from the static library in the school and do more outreach.’ 

She also told the committee a different approach was needed. 

Library staff will ‘engage children’ through story and rhyme times, craft or computer sessions instead of books.

Conservative councillor Sol Wielkopolski said children ‘got more out of interactive events’.

Children from the primary school cannot visit the library before or after school because of the library’s opening times. It is closed for the rest of the week and does not open on weekends [File photo]

The library was opened by the council at the end of 2014 by Cumbria County Council.  

The Libraries Taskforce blog notes that views expressed in the blog posts do not necessarily represent the views of DCMS or the Libraries Taskforce.

MailOnline has contacted Cumbria County Council for comment.

MailOnline has also contacted the Libraries Taskforce for comment.