County council launches a 12-week public consultation on shaping the future of Devon’s library service.
“Having a positive impact on local people, bringing them together, making them smile and laugh, or expanding their knowledge or understanding in some way.” [Libraries Unlimited chief executive Alex Kittow]
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Devon’s libraries are facing another challenge this year, as discussions open over the £7m libraries budget from the county council, which is looking at ways of reducing its annual grant to the Libraries Unlimited charity which runs Devon’s fifty libraries.
The council has launched a 12-week public consultation on shaping the future of Devon’s library service, considering options such as more volunteer involvement, improved use of technology and ‘self-access’ to go into unstaffed libraries – all to try and cut costs.
As the cabinet member for culture Cheryl Cottle-Hunkin, told the BBC, there are a range of options on the table:“We really want to go out to consultation to find out what is important to people in their local communities and what they would like to see from their libraries and how we can do things differently.”
The Exeter Observer provides an excellent analysis, as it looks at how Devon County Council funding cuts are set to reduce core library opening hours by 30%: Alongside physical and digital media borrowing services, Devon libraries provide computer, printer and internet access as well as places to meet, socialise and keep warm. They received a total of 2.3 million visits in 2024-25 and hosted 12,000 events which drew over 218,000 attendees. They also offer a range of children’s activities among other things.
The same point is made in the BBC piece by Libraries Unlimited chief executive Alex Kittow. Libraries are now “community hubs” rather than just places to borrow books: “You aren’t told to be quiet when you enter a library any more – in fact, we have singing in the Bounce and Rhyme event in the kids’ area, we’ve got Knit and Natter groups, and all sorts of activities going on.”
With just one example of those activities shown here:
In a full statement on the consultation opening on the future of the library service in Devon Alex Kittow makes this point very clear:
“We’re incredibly proud of what Libraries Unlimited has achieved since it was set up in 2016. We’ve seen hundreds of thousands of people come through our doors, millions of books have been borrowed, and we’ve held thousands of events – all of which have been designed to have a positive impact on local people, bringing them together, making them smile and laugh, or expanding their knowledge or understanding in some way.”
Alex Kittow urges us to contribute to the consultation:
We know that libraries are still an incredibly valuable part of people’s lives here in Devon (with over 2.6 million visits through our doors for example in 2024/25), and the Council recognises this too. Please do take a few minutes of your time to take part in the consultation, and to have your say.
You can access the consultation document online and complete the survey by visiting https://devon.cc/your-libraries . And if you don’t have your own device to do this, public PCs in libraries can be used to complete the survey.
Our local teams in libraries will be supporting the consultation as best they can, but as this is a DCC consultation, and if you have specific questions you’d like to ask, please get in touch with the Devon County Council Consultation Team at: communitiesconsultation@devon.gov.uk
But to finish, here’s a fabulous piece on Sidmouth Library’s Instagram from a couple of weeks ago, if you can tolerate the carols…
If you think the library is a place where we’ll tell you to shush and you have to whisper… think again!
On Saturday Sidmouth Library was filled with joyful song as the Sidmouth Community Choir came and gave us a wonderful carol performance. We think it sounded amazing and certainly put all of us in a festive mood!
If you haven’t visited us in a while and you think of libraries as quiet, stuffy places – pop in sometime and let us prove you wrong. This is what a #LibrariesUnlimited library really is – filled with joy and community spirit. 🥰🎄📖
(Ding Dong Merrily on High arranged by Rosa Rebecka)
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