A SCHEME has been launched in Bishop Auckland to give people access to free books.

The Global Educational Trust has opened up premises in the former PDSA charity shop, in Newgate Street, to provide a place for the books.

People are invited to take, lend or just spend time in the GET Free Books shop reading without having to pay or sign up to anything.

Volunteers are being sought to help run the project, which launched at the start of this month and is currently open Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.

With more help, lead volunteer June Brown hopes GET Free Books can act as a community hub six-days-a-week.

“The Global Educational Trust is big on education,” she said. “It has a passion to see people able to read and write and it doesn’t want any books to end up in landfill.

“We are fully open but we are trying to establish the shop and its presence on the high street. We are always looking for more books and shelves so if anyone can donate any we would be very grateful.

“We want it to be a community hub. People don’t need to bring books to get books from here or even bring them back. People say what is the catch but there isn’t one.

“We do have a donations box but there is certainly no pressure to put anything in it.

“A lady came in the other day, took a book and just sat and read and I thought this is what it is all about.”

The success of the scheme hinges on having reliable volunteers. Mrs Brown is ideal looking for people to commit to half or full days but if people can only do a couple of hours she will not turn them down.

She added: “There is a GET Free Books shop in Redcar, which has been going since October, and it is fabulous but they have about 15 volunteers and that makes a big difference.

“We want to open for at least part of Saturday when Kynren starts but it will all depend if we have the volunteers to help.

“If we get more help it would be nice to serve tea and coffee but we can’t do that at the moment.”

The premises still has the former PDSA sign above the door but it is hoped this will be removed soon.

  • Anyone wishing to volunteer or donate books or book shelves can contact Mrs Brown on 07982-060007 or email junymsspoony@yahoo.com
  • For more details about the scheme visit globaleducationaltrust.org or visit GET Books Bishop Auck on Facebook.