Last month library president Sarah Maindonald revealed its dire circumstances to the Oamaru Mail, saying it did not have enough money to keep the doors open for more than two months.
Following publication of the article, a donor stepped forward and gave the Oamaru-based organisation $6000, which Ms Maindonald said would cover 11 months of rent.
"It’s been so much better knowing that big weight of rent is off our shoulders."
The large donation exceeded her expectations.
It was a morale booster, but it did not help solve the other problem, which was a shortage of volunteers.
Three members of the committee, including herself, were stepping down at the annual general meeting in July.
If the library did not find a secretary, treasurer and a president it would be forced to close.
"We nearly closed last year because we had no treasurer."
Fortunately a committee member managed to convince a friend to join and it could remain open, Ms Maindonald said.
She acknowledged the library needed to improve its marketing, as most of its outreach was through social media, but it was a hard thing to advertise for.
Volunteers had stepped forward for other things.
The library functioned mostly on grant money, but there was a lack of manpower to complete the lengthy and complicated application processes.
Now somebody had offered to help make applications, which would hopefully allow more money to come in and for the waged staff member to be covered.
Two new people had volunteered to run the library once a month.
Although the volunteers were helping, it was disappointing to see how many people had offered to help, then backed out or not responded.
She had organised meetings with potential volunteers who never showed up.
