Campaigners in Glasgow are celebrating a new chapter after they successfully won a bid to reopen a library in the south side of the city.
The Couper Institute Library in Cathcart was forced to close due to the pandemic in the spring of 2020.
But the community was shocked to learn that there were no plans in place to help the Glasgow institution reopen once lockdown restrictions eased.
The library, along with the Maryhill Library, was among seven others across the city that remained closed for some 22 months.
Eight months ago determined south side residents decided to take matters into their own hands and set up the Save The Couper campaign.
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Organiser Louisa Madison told Glasgow Live: “We launched the campaign last May, when other libraries started to reopen after lockdown, but there seemed to be no plan for the Couper.
“We decided to do a weekly read-in outside the library as we knew that was happening with other libraries, through the Save Glasgow Libraries campaign.
“We announced the Couper campaign on a Wednesday, and on the Saturday over 80 people turned up for the first read-in! It just shows the strength of local support.”
The dedicated volunteers kept up the weekly read-in from May right through until January.
“We kept it up for eight months, through rain, cold and sleet,” said Louisa. “We did all kinds of activities at our read-ins: we got speakers along including local author Peter Ross, did book swaps and created a wishing tree. We even held a letter-writing day for people to contact their councillors.”
Sadly the group never received any response from the council but they did manage to get the Scottish Government on the same page.
The Scottish Government awarded the south side library short term funding, meaning that the Couper was finally able to open its doors on Monday, January 24.
Louisa said: “We were over the moon to be back in our beloved library.
“There is still much to do: there is no long-term funding plan for the library, and the associated Couper Institute, which was used by many community groups, is still shut.
“But we are delighted that thanks to the amazing efforts of our local community, we can now use our library once again.”
