Community

Eve Ashton, Centre Manager, Torbay Libraries

The Totnes Community Bookshop has been a crucial financial support to Totnes Library over the years allowing us to develop our provision and go above and beyond for our community.

Totnes Library is run by Libraries Unlimited, a registered charity running all the libraries across Devon and Torbay. As we are a charity, as well as being partially funded by the council, we must fundraise for other elements within the library space, to ensure we can be an inclusive, innovative and safe space for all groups within the community to utilise. We cannot thank the Totnes Community Bookshop enough for their kindness, generosity and ultimately, the projects their funding has enabled, which have had such an impact on the thousands of people, of all ages and backgrounds who use the library.

Francis and the team are wonderful and entirely dedicated to supporting groups within Totnes. Here’s how they have helped us over the past three years:

Totnes Library

2021 (£1,000)

With our 2021 funding, we purchased an A-frame sign to take along to library outreach events, such as school summer fayres, and to display our library events outside the library. This has generated lots of interest and knowledge around the events that the library runs, ensuring the community knows what the library has to offer.

We also purchased a shelving unit to house separate book displays, placed in the centre of the library to highlight particularly important events throughout the year which we can emphasise through reading material. This has included important displays for Pride Month, Black History Month and Holocaust Memorial Day.

Finally, we also purchased a learning clock for our children’s library, along with stickers and craft supplies.

2022 (£2,500)

We used our 2022 funding to complete a large project, creating a special and dedicated teen area. Teenagers have always been notoriously difficult to encourage to use the library space and enjoy the benefits the library has to offer.

We worked alongside KEVICCs to run focus groups with students to find out exactly what they would want from an exciting new space. Based on this research, we purchased bean bags, egg chairs, new desks and desk chairs, stationery (to be provided to students to use in the library for free), a chalk board wall, and a cosy new rug.

We created this new space, with work experience students from KEVICCs and the impact has been amazing. We now have teenagers within the library every day (prior to the update, we would have been lucky to have one teenager in a week!). They bring along their friends and read, chill out in the area, and complete their studies.

2023 (£2,000)

We have used our most recent funding to transform our workspace within the library to accommodate an increase in library customers utilising our space for longer periods of time. Many people now, particularly over the winter and with the cost-of-living crisis, attend the library from opening to closing to make use of our free Wi-Fi and electricity to charge their devices. This meant we often ran out of seating or table space for people to work and study. With this year’s donation from Castle Books we have purchased four large tables and lots of new, comfy chairs, to create a versatile and welcoming community area, where people can hold meetings and community groups, as well as study and read. We also purchased some board games which were particularly appreciated over the winter by those wanting to shelter from the cold but still have something to do. We also purchased some plants to give the library a cosy and homely feel. These updates have vastly improved our provision and allow us to cater for even more of the community’s needs.