Devon library chief’s honour
CIARA EASTELL, Chief Executive of Libraries Unlimited, received her OBE honour from Prince William during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
Named in the New Year’s Honours list in December 2016, the award is for her national contribution to public libraries as the President of the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL).
During her tenure she was a member of the National Leadership for Libraries Taskforce; a member of the British Library’s Advisory Council and led SCL’s work on developing the Universal Offers.
Ciara has worked in the libraries sector for 20 years. She said: “I have met some fantastic people who are devoted to the service and ensuring that libraries meet the needs of their communities. This award is a recog- nition of the dedication of all of those people and those who have supported me along the way. I feel very lucky to have been able to play a role in the future of libraries and am extremely positive about the future.” Ciara has led Devon’s library service for nine years and in 2016 headed the process that formed Libraries Unlimited, a staff and community owned charity and social enterprise now responsible for the county’s library service. Libraries Unlimited is now set to become an Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation from April 2018.
She said: “Here in Devon we are trialling exciting new projects and services and I very much look forward to working with my colleagues both locally and nationally to ensure libraries continue to flourish.”
Community team picks up customer service award
A LONDON library’s community team has been handed a national award for its customer service – beating more than 21,000 other nominees at this year’s Wow! Awards. The team from Hackney Council picked up the award after being nominated by a satisfied customer. In this case it was a volunteer at a local hospice who describes how one resident had been full of praise for the team and the work they do to reach local communities.
December-January 2017/18
The volunteer at St Joseph’s Hospice said: ‘I visited a lady who told me she receives visits from Hackney Council’s Community Library
the residents of Hackney but also to the patients within St Joseph’s Hospice.” The customer service-focused awards
Service and that
they deliver to her house 40 books every four weeks. Now she is in the hospice the team from the mobile library still deliver books to her in her room on the wards. Last week she was asleep when the staff visited and she awoke to find a new stack of books waiting for her to read. I believe this is an outstanding service not only to
saw Hackney make a shortlist of 64 finalists, with just 14 winning an award. Councillor Jon Burke, who is in charge of the customer service at Hackney Council, said: “I am delighted that the Wow! Awards have recognised the work of Hackney’s Community Library Service, which provides so much more than books to some of the most isolated people in our borough.”
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