About Calibre
We hope you have enjoyed reading about our services elsewhere on this website (if you want to know what we offer click here). These pages tell you more about the organisation and the people behind the service. You can read about ‘who’s who’, find out about our history, download our annual report, or take a tour ‘behind the scenes’ to find out how the service works.
Annual reports - click here for the current annual report as a PDF.
Who we are and what we do
Calibre Audio Library is a registered UK charity, set up in 1974 as Calibre Cassette Library. We feel passionately that having poor sight or other difficulties should not act as barriers to the pleasures of reading. Our formal statement of purpose expresses our role like this:
"Calibre Audio Library improves the quality of life for people who have sight problems or other disabilities, by bringing them the pleasure of reading through a free nationwide postal service of recorded books."
A national charity, we lend audio books to around 20,000 members across the UK, the Republic of Ireland and other EU countries. Our members range in age from five to 105 and we pride ourselves in offering a wide choice of unabridged books for all ages and all tastes.
One of our guiding principles has always been to supply books in a format that can be played on ordinary household equipment. This means that members can select a machine that suits their needs. For example they can listen to our audio books on portable equipment (like a Walkman), so that they can take books into the garden, on holiday or on long journeys.
In addition to providing our lending service we also campaign with other charities to press the government to do more to end discrimination against people who have a sight problem or other disability. We are members of the Right to Read Alliance.
Many people are shocked to learn that 95 per cent of all books, magazines and other publications are never made available in other formats such as audio, large print and braille.
Who's who
Martin Findlay, Chairman
Calibre is governed by a Council of Management (Board of Trustees) who are:
Chairman - Martin Findlay
Hon Treasurer - Ian Yeoman
Stephanie Johnson
Sir Andrew Hugh Smith
Hugh Mellor
Peter Gurney
Jacky Atkinson
Our patrons are all distinguished authors - Simon Brett, Anne Fine, Gervase Phinn and E V Thompson.
The day-to-day running of the charity is the responsibility of our staff team.
Director - Michael Lewington (from 3 September 2007)
Deputy Director - Linda Downey
Other staff you may need to contact include:
Personnel and Administration Manager - David Pipkin
Publicity and Fundraising Manager - Elizabeth Twining
Membership Services Manager - Trevor Collis
Cataloguing and Acquisitions Editor - Christine Ronaldson
IT Manager - Mike Beales
Finance Manager - Jane Major
Our staff are ably supported by a team of volunteers, including the voice professionals who read our books.
If you would like to know how the service works, click here for a tour behind the scenes.
About this website
Calibre would like to thank:
- Oxford Information Labs for design and engineering of the website - see www.oxil.co.uk
- Mike Pinches, Martin Poole and the Bucks Herald for the use of their photographs
- Calibre members and volunteers whose photos or stories appear on the website.
We welcome your comments on this website. Please click here for the website comments form.
Environmental Policy
Calibre Audio Library recognizes that its business operations have an impact on the local, regional and global environment and are striving to take appropriate measures, and adopt practices to reduce this impact. We wish the Charity to make a positive contribution to the environmental well being of the planet. For further information please click here for our Environmental Policy Statement.
Privacy policy, data protection and legal disclaimer
All the information we have about members and supporters is controlled by the Data Protection Act 1998. We are only allowed to keep the information we need to supply our service, and for our financial records. It is all kept securely and access to it is strictly controlled. When members leave Calibre we destroy the information about use of the library, and keep other information only as long as necessary for accounting and audit purposes. We never pass members’ details to other individuals or organisations. For further details please refer to the following documents.
Data Protection Policy Privacy Statement
Registered charity number 286614
A company limited by guarantee registered number 1701585