Devon County Council and Libraries Unlimited awarded grant to upgrade its tech, from government’s Libraries Improvement Funding.
Libraries across Devon are due a tech upgrade to help extend opening hours and make them more accessible.
The Hayridge library in Cullompton, photo courtesy of Devon County Council
The £200,000 grant is coming from the £6.3m Libraries Improvement Funding (LIF), one of three funds comprising the wider Arts Everywhere Fund administered and delivered by Arts Council England on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. (The Arts Everywhere Fund also comprises the Creative Foundations Fund and Museum Estate and Development Fund.)
Devon is one of 28 library services to receive LIF funding with which they can upgrade buildings and technology.
In Devon, the money will be invested in the ‘Open Plus’ system that enable people to access their local library outside of regular staffed hours.
Open Plus means people can use the library an hour before opening times from Monday to Saturday, as well as an extra two hours and 45 minutes on weeknights, and a further three hours and 45 minutes on Saturday afternoons, after staffed hours. It also enables use on Sundays from 10am until 2pm.
To access these extended opening times, library members aged 18 or over simply need to register as an Open Plus user, and undergo a brief induction on how to use the system.
The technology is already being piloted at the Hayridge library in the Devonshire town of Cullompton. The new funding will enable the expansion of the scheme. Exact details of how many Devon libraries, and which ones, is still to be decided and will be announced in due course.
Cllr Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, Cabinet Member for Rural Affairs at Devon County Council, says: ‘I am really pleased that our funding bid has been successful. This is a fantastic opportunity to make our libraries even more accessible for the communities they serve. This technology has been used successfully for many years, both across the UK and internationally, and it will allow people to use their local library beyond traditional staffed hours – whether that’s to read, study, meet, or take part in community activities.
‘By extending opening times, we are giving residents and community groups greater choice and flexibility to visit at times that suit them. The trial already under way in Cullompton will help us refine the system, and just as importantly, we will use feedback from our recent library consultation to ensure it is introduced first in those libraries where local communities have told us they would value it most.’
Alex Kittow, Chief Executive Officer at Libraries Unlimited, adds: ‘We are constantly striving to increase usage of the libraries, to make them accessible to everyone, and Open Plus allows us to do that. It offers an extra, on top of staffed hours allowing more people to access the library. Sunday opening for example could allow working parents to come along with their children and borrow books. Our goal is to get the county reading and the more people who have access to free books, the better. We are pleased that the Government has recognised this need and is funding investment in our libraries.’
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