The first Bradford District library to move from council control into the hands of local volunteers is asking members of the community how they would like services to develop in future.

Addingham Community Library Association now has around 40 volunteers staffing the library, on Main Street, and is distributing a questionnaire asking what services villagers would like to see.

Addingham Library was one of five earmarked for closure by Bradford Council earlier this year.

Villagers quickly got together to form a charitable association to manage and staff the library for the benefit of the community, still making use of some library services provided by the district authority.

The day-to-day running of the library has proved a success so far, and the association feels it is time to look at how services and facilities could move forward.

A questionnaire is about to be distributed to homes around the village, asking which facilities and services people want from their local library, what types of books they would like to see on the shelves, and consulting on access to refreshments and popular visiting times.

The survey also asks what community training prog-rammes villagers would be most likely to attend – such as food hygiene, IT and business courses – and how they would consider using the public meeting room.

Association chairman, ward councillor Adrian Naylor (Con, Craven), said: “We’ve already run some story times, which have proved increasingly popular, and we’ve also run an event for tots doing some craft work.

“I think we’ve been very successful in what we’ve got so far. We’re now looking at moving away from the training phase into trying to develop what the people of the village want.”

The Old School building, which houses the library, is owned by Addingham Parish Council. This gave Addingham a head start in setting up the first community library in the district, in November.

The handover from Bradford Council is expected to be complete by the end of this month, when the authority withdraws staff who are currently providing support and training to the village volunteers.