Hands off Redditch Library

03/02/2026

We love it when someone discovers the absolute GEM that is our favourite library! ❤️

26/11/2025

The Leader of Redditch Borough Council has written to the Leader of Worcestershire County Council to express concern about ‘Libraries Unlocked’. There are some good points in this letter and we look forward to seeing a thorough response from Cllr Monk.

18/11/2025

⚠️ Watch out! Worcestershire County Council has posted on the Redditch Library page and we don’t think they’re telling it quite like it is…

18/11/2025

This was posted today. Note the word ‘upgrade’ here. In actual fact, 13 hours of staffed time are being lost. Some of these hours are actually within the ‘core staffed hours’ mentioned in this post!

This post hasn’t been written by one of the Redditch librarians. It has been posted by someone at County Council.

From November 24th, new technology will allow customers with Libraries Unlocked membership to enter the library using their library card outside core staffed opening hours and to use library services independently when staff are not present. Customers who complete a brief induction and upgrade to free libraries unlocked membership will be able to access the library from 8:00am to 8:00pm Monday to Saturday as of November 24th.

To upgrade your membership, speak to a librarian today.

13/11/2025

Something looked a bit ‘off’ here so we fixed it. 🛠️🧰

Worcestershire County Council published a chart today (pink and white) showing the new ‘Libraries Unlocked’ hours at Redditch Library. At first glance it looks as if they are adding huge chunks of time in the mornings, and that the ‘Unlocked’ hours are double that of the staffed hours.

We thought we’d fix it to show a more accurate representation of timings (red and green). See also our previous post about loss of staffed hours. (Spoiler alert: it’s bad news!)

13/11/2025

⚠️ There will be a LOSS of 13 staffed hours per week at Redditch Library from 24th November.

This is due to ‘Libraries Unlocked’. Yet another downgrading of our library service, disguised (poorly) as an ‘upgrade’.

01/10/2025

📚New opening hours at WOODROW from 20th October 2025📚

Woodrow Library will NOT be part of the ‘Libraries Unlocked’ scheme. However, the opening hours are changing as a result of ‘Libraries Unlocked’ at Redditch Library.

We are pleased to see that the number of open hours at Woodrow is unchanged, and we’d love to know what users of this library think of the new schedule: is this better or worse for you?

‘Unlocked’ hours at REDDITCH Library will soon be released. We will keep a close eye on this as many Worcestershire libraries have suffered from significantly reduced staffed hours since the rolling out of this scheme. We have received information indicating a slight reduction in staffed hours at Redditch. We’ll be watching very closely to make sure that WCC doesn’t continue to chip away at staff hours in the coming months and years (as has been the case with the number of staff).

Do let us know your thoughts. We will, of course, post a ‘before and after’ comparison of Redditch Library staffed hours when they are released.

16/09/2025

We knew it wouldn’t be too long before we had to fight for our library service again. 😢 We need to ask the important question: WILL THE STAFFED HOURS AT REDDITCH LIBRARY BE REDUCED by Worcestershire County Council?

04/09/2025

The importance of libraries! ❤️📚

21/02/2025

Good afternoon, Redditch! If you haven't been in the library in a while, you might not know everything that's on offer. So let's take a deep breath and have a go at squeezing as much of it as we can into a single Facebook post! 😊

• Think printed books are old hat? No worries! Access thousands of free ebooks, audiobooks, magazines and newspapers on your phone with your library membership. Ask us about BorrowBox and PressReader.
• Think everything is online nowadays? Well, you can be too! We have free public computers and WiFi access.
• Printer packed up? Come and use our printers, scanners, and photocopiers.
• Need a bus pass, blue badge, or just a hand to do something on the computer? Book in for 1-to-1 tutoring or help with anything computer-based.
• Just had a baby? We have safe, welcoming baby groups.
• Retired and looking to take up a new hobby? Try our groups for knitting, writing, reading, walking, and our free social film club or consider volunteering. Or you could join one of our fantastic Adult Learning classes!
• Starting a business? Get incredible free resources and business advice through BIPC Worcestershire.
• Looking for work? Get free CV and job-seeking advice at our Job Club, or upskill yourself with a huge range of non-fiction books. Everything you want to learn is in a book somewhere.
• Researching your family tree? Access Ancestry.com for free through library computers, dig into over 100 years of newspaper archives, and consult our expert volunteer archivists.
• If you're having a hard time, we're here for you with books on physical and mental health and lots of welcoming social groups to meet new friends. Our fantastic Library Service At Home will deliver a box of books to you each month if you're not able to make it into town.

That's not everything, but we could be here all day. We didn't even mention the 50, 000 books and access to another 250, 000 through our county catalogue. Libraries, you just couldn't make them up! 😊

14/02/2025

Join the discussion by clicking on the original post and commenting there. This way the BBC producer can read your comment too. 📚

07/03/2024

Let’s talk about ‘LIBRARIES UNLOCKED’ - the new ‘gift’ for library-users of Worcestershire 📚

On the left (with yellow heading):
Opening hours of St John’s Library, Worcester, before ‘Libraries Unlocked’.

On the right (in pink):
The new UNSTAFFED ‘Libraries Unlocked’ opening hours of the same library.

Now compare the white bits on the right with the hours on the left to find out how many hours of STAFFED time are being cut.

It’s all part of the Town Hall hub plans for Redditch Library too!

_____________________________

N.B. To make matters sneakier, they avoid redundancies by playing the long-game. When vacancies come up in library roles, they simply don’t bother to fill them. There are currently vacancies at Redditch Library which WCC is stalling on until they’re all but forgotten about. They will then simply strike those roles off the system when they introduce ’Libraries Unlocked.’ It’s happening across Worcestershire as we speak. And it’s been happening for years - dwindling the library work-force down to a small percentage of what it was say, 15 years ago.