Libraries Improvement Fund

Nottinghamshire County Council partnering with Inspire has been awarded a grant of £170,000 by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sports, delivered by Arts Council England. Awarded through the Libraries Improvement Fund (LIF) strand of the funding, this award will create six Village Hub Libraries.

The project objective is to create community hubs with vibrant libraries at their centre in six Nottinghamshire villages, Bircotes, Bilsthorpe, Blidworth, Burton Joyce, Langold and Woodthorpe. Five of the library spaces will be reimagined and re-configured to create more flexible library and community spaces with improvements to décor and new furnishings, an increase of an exciting range of books, tea and coffee stations, and easier to navigate shelving arrangements to help create larger spaces for performances and cultural activities. They will benefit from an improved range and quality of library service offer and create centres that can be used by local communities for an improved range of services and activities. The sixth library, Langold will also benefit from an improved range of events, activities and learning opportunities in the existing space.

As a part of the project our Village Hubs Project Worker will be working with members of the public and local stakeholders to ensure that their libraries continue to grow and flourish at the heart of their communities. Alongside the physical library refresh and development, our Village Hubs Project Worker will be consulting with and listening to each community, and assessing the library offer to ensure the libraries provide a needs-based service and are hubs at the heart of their communities.  A big part of this, will be engaging with, and building partnerships in the community, to develop the events and activities we offer in our rural libraries. We are incredibly excited about the impact this will have on these communities and look forward to working with you all over the coming year.

Keep updated on this page as the refurbishments progress and read our news article for more information.