The company (CIC), Friends of Frome Library, supports and advocates for our town’s public library. Since becoming a constituted group in January 2025 we have focused on listening to the concerns and suggestions of the both the librarians who work in the library, and those members of the public who use the library services, as such we embarked on a number of awareness events during Jan 2025 – Jan 2026, to help start conversations about the library and to generate funds for special library events, resources and equipment. We started the year by asking members of the public to vote on our logo. The response was fantastic, and was a great way to launch the group and generate publicity. In addition to this we also took part in radio and newspaper interviews to make people aware of the services the library offers, and the potential difficulties they face. One of the first issues that was brought to our attention was the cancellation of daily newspaper deliveries to the library – a much missed resource which hugely benefited those older patrons of the library, who used the newspaper corner as a daily social activity. After discussing with the librarians and the Friends of Frome Library committee, we therefore agreed to make reinstating the newspapers are first goal for the group. Through stalls and quizzes, we were able to generate enough funds to purchase at least one daily newspaper for the library, much to the appreciation of the older regular visitors of the library. Additionally, later in the year, the librarians made us aware of some issues with their lego equipment and supplies, and so approached us to source a new safer trolley and additional lego playboards. The youngsters who attend the regular Saturday Lego club were overjoyed by the improvements, and have had great fun building bigger and better models! We ended this period by creating a website to further amplify the services and voice of the library, and will be using it to showcase not only the library, but also the local community groups who use the library as their base.

The company stakeholders are the staff, volunteers and committee members of Friends of Frome Library. In addition to our AGM, and 6 monthly meetings, we also liaise with the library staff once a week, and organise monthly library volunteer meetings to share ideas. More recently we have also been able to produce a quarterly newsletter which we send to our 'Friends', and we regularly use Frome Library's social media channel to run polls.

No remuneration was received

No transfer of assets other than for full consideration