BRAUNTON LIBRARY WINS SOUTH-WEST ENGLAND LIBRARY OF THE YEAR

Devon Library selected in The British Book Awards 2025

Braunton Library has been selected as a Regional & Country winner for Library of the Year in the South-West England region. This means the Devon library is now in the running for Library of the Year at The British Book Awards 2025.

In the South-West category, Braunton was one of four finalists, three of them all Devon libraries! Bideford and Exeter Libraries were also finalists. All are run by Libraries Unlimited, the charity that runs the libraries in Devon and Torbay.

The British Book Awards, also known as ‘The Nibbies’, is run by The Bookseller magazine. It aims to champion the world of reading, showcasing authors and illustrators and everyone behind the scenes that bring them to readers.

Karen Napier, chief executive of The Reading Agency, said: “This year’s applications for Library of the Year have been exceptional, showcasing the ingenuity and innovation that libraries harness every day to reach new audiences. However, the regional and country winners stood out for their creativity and impact. From large-scale authority-wide events, programming with diverse local partners, to careful and targeted initiatives like a book club for adults with Down syndrome, these winners exemplify the power of libraries to engage communities in meaningful ways.”

Braunton library is alive with regular groups such as children’s Saturday Lego club, Mini Readers, Stay and Play, Art Box’s, Knit and Natter, Coffee and Crochet, Creative Writing, plus extra children’s craft sessions in the holidays. The library also holds author visits, live music, IT sessions, reading groups for adults as well as schemes like Libraries Unlimited’s Secret Book Quest and Libro’s Friends. It has 1,589 members and receives around 24,500 visits per year. It hosts around 300 events, with an attendance of around 3,000 per year.

One major project in the last year really made it stand out. ‘The Gatherers’ project celebrated the importance of the natural world to people’s mental health, wellbeing and sense of belonging. It invited people from all parts of the community to collect flowers from their gardens, allotments and hedgerows, demonstrating how connections between plants and people are powerful conduits for community cohesion.

Braunton Library is close to the world-renowned Braunton Burrows complex sand dune system which is designated as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and within the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The project celebrated this through connecting with the landscape.

The project also specifically reached out to the families from Afghanistan to get them involved. Eighteen Afghan families who worked with British Forces during the Afghan war, and who cannot return to their country, have been relocated to Braunton through the Afghan Resettlement Assistance Policy (ARAP) and are now living in the former RAF Chivenor.

The families were encouraged to join wellbeing walks, organised by Live Well Braunton, along with local residents to explore the rural community, collecting flowers as they walked. Everyone was then invited into the library to press the gathered flowers using old library books. The Afghan women made the pressed flowers into beautiful bookmarks which were distributed as unexpected gifts tucked into books that went out on loan from the library.

The project was chosen by the European Cultural Foundation as one of 50 from 24 countries as partners for The Europe Challenge 2024 which is funded by the funded by The European Cultural Foundation and Arts Council England. This annual programme brings together teams from libraries and communities to address social isolation, inequality, disinformation, climate crisis, and other local challenges.

Library staff commented: “The staff at Braunton Library are absolutely thrilled to have won the South-West Library of the Year!  We took part in The Gatherers, an exciting project which aimed to connect people with nature by using pressed flowers to make beautiful bookmarks which were then distributed for free to our users. We worked alongside a group of resettled Afghan women which proved to be a valuable relationship on both sides, breaking down language and cultural barriers. The project was part of a wider European initiative working alongside local libraries. Huge thanks to the individuals and organisations who organised and supported the project especially Amy Shelton from Honeyscribe, the Pickwell Foundation and the Braunton Countryside Centre. Special mention must go to our former Library Supervisor Sarah Bushell who worked so hard to make the project such a success.”

‘The Gatherers’ is part of a series of events being rolled out by Libraries Unlimited with the help of money from Arts Council England (ACE). North Devon was identified as one of ACE’s Priority Places to bring more cultural activity and engagement to the area.

The British Book Awards will take place at Grosvenor House, London on Monday 12th May and overall Library of the Year will be announced then.