About the PPL:
Plymouth Proprietary Library, founded in 1810, stands proudly as Plymouth’s longest surviving subscription library.  Today, situated in a former St Barnabas Church building near the city centre it has good public transport links and with its pleasant surroundings, helpful staff and quiet corners it provides a welcome retreat for its members and guests.

The book stock remains wide and varied - from classical writers to contemporary novels, science to philosophy, art to biography, history to horticulture – the books are there on shelves to be read and enjoyed.  Local history, the Maritime Collection and the Simon Curtis Poetry Collection are of special interest.

This is an ideal opportunity for someone who is self-motivated and creative to contribute to the day to day operations of the library and to work with the trustees, members and volunteers to develop a stimulating and inclusive range of activities which will make full use of the library’s resources and facilities and encourage increased membership.

Location: St Barnabas Terrace, Plymouth PL1 5NN

Job Description: Library Manager

Hours: 16 hours per week building to 20 hours over time. Monday to Saturday, hours variable.

(Currently the library is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays for the issue of books. As we come out of Covid restrictions it is hoped to increase the opening hours and the range of events and services we offer.)

Responsible to: Library Trustees

Purpose of Job: The post holder will be responsible for growing the library membership, coordinating events and the smooth day to day running of the library.

Start Date: From January 2022

Click here to view the full job specification and online application form.

Dear Member

I was completely new to Facebook before the first lockdown, but a young member of our Church insisted that I must post daily thoughts and prayers to support people; he taught me how to use it. Subsequently I rarely had fewer that seventy tuning in on weekdays and over twice the number on Sundays. The postings were read well beyond South Devon, even in Syria, something difficult with Zoom where one needs to log in with a code. I do, however, still share some unease about aspects of a company that also owns Instagram and WhatsApp.

The PPL Facebook page, set up for me by the same young man is Facebook.com/PlymouthProprietaryLibrary.

On the site there are a number of book readings that will be added to over time.

If you want to add your own postings you will need your own Facebook account, but if you don't I can post them for you just send your typed contributions to me in docx format and I will post them with your name. Try not exceed a paragraph in each case, otherwise our readers will quickly move on to something else.

In December I can be at the Library with my computer so that members may read literary extracts facing the camera.

Gregory Carpenter

John Bidlake was born in Plymouth, the son of a jeweler, and educated at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he received his BA, MA and DD In the last decade of the 18th century until his death he was the Headmaster of Plymouth Grammar School. He was curate of Plymouth's Stonehouse Chapel from 1785 to 1812. In 1811 he gave the Bampton Lecture: The truth and Consistency of Divine Revelation, With Some Remarks On The Contrary Extremes Of Infidelity And Enthusiasm: In Eight Discourses.

He was a prolific poet, but he drew promiscuously on Thomson, Shenstone, Pye and Poole.  When writing about Nature he was immersed in the parallels between national identity, literature and landscape that was evidenced by the visitors and contributors to Mount Edgcumbe.  His collected poems were published in 1794; he penned Verses written at Mount Edgcumbe portraying a local reaction to the evolving landscape architecture of Mount Edcumbe.

Dear Members

We have had a most successful year.

Just consider what we have achieved. The cataloguing has been completed, the shelving has been finished and no more books are left in crates or boxes. Then the trustees no longer have the unlimited liability that pertained to being an unincorporated charity. We are now officially the Plymouth Proprietary Library Association – a Charitable Incorporated Organisation in which the members and trustees are protected like the directors of a limited company.

Dear Members and Friends,

As Christmas approaches and we are about to embark on 2020, I would like to thank you all, on behalf of the trustees of the PPL, for your generous support of, and interest in, the library in the past year.

After the turmoil of the Great Move from North Hill, the library has adapted well to the new premises and our precious books are once again organised, shelved and ready for you to enjoy. As well as a wide range of contemporary fiction and thrillers, the PPL has dedicated collections of biography and history, plus the Classic Crime Collection, Classic Fiction Collection and poetry, together with a wide range of general non-fiction. This is a living library and new books, both fiction and non-fiction, are regularly added to the stock.

Get into the Christmas Spirit by joining us for this years PPL Festive Supper'

Monday 2nd December between 7.00pm and 9.00pm

There will be food and drink as well as entertainment, a literary quiz, Christmas raffle as well as other surprises.

Tickets are just £10 each and are available from the library.

Welcome to the world of Samuel Johnson, famous author of our first most influential dictionary.

We invite you to come into the Proprietary Library and enjoy complimentary seasonal refreshments, a browse of our interesting reference books and of course a browse of Dr Johnson's two volume dictionary first published in April 1755 and containing many words now obsolete in our everyday speech.

Dr Johnson's dictionary was written in the eighteenth century under challenging circumstances as you will see from the film we will be showing during our opening hours every Thursday, Friday and Saturday between now and Xmas. So relax in one of our armchairs on the first floor and let us take you back to the eighteenth century.