Warwickshire Mobile Libraries in livery award
Warwickshire County Council’s new fleet of mobile libraries has received a double accolade in a prestigious national meeting of mobile and branch libraries.
The council’s new fleet of mobile libraries has taken the award for best livery design whilst receiving recognition in the category of delegates’ choice of best mobile at the annual Branch and Mobile Libraries Group awards.
Warwickshire came in first ahead of over 40 other entrants who attended the presentation at Aintree Racecourse and had come from as far afield as the Shetland Isles.
The design, created by the council’s own in-house team, depicts scenes from five of Shakespeare’s plays with Romeo and Juliet representing the council. Other plays shown on the vehicles include Hamlet, Othelklo, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Antony and Cleopatra.
The new fleet of vehicles was named by the Warwickshire public after characters from Shakespeare’s plays. It makes approximately 50,000 visits each year to rural communities and sheltered housing across Warwickshire delivering annually nearly 300,000 books, audio books, cassettes and other items to elderly people living in sheltered housing and those in rural villages.
In line with Warwickshire County Council’s commitment to caring for older people, loan periods will now last three weeks as opposed to four as was the case when the previous fleet attended sheltered housing.
The design of the new vehicles has taken into account the needs of its user group with the installation of a ramp at the rear of the buses and air conditioning for hot summer days.
And, although many modifications have been made to enable older people to use the buses, the County Council has recognised that younger users, whom the fleet visits in more secluded areas of the county, will also use the buses and have provided a range of books for under fives.
Warwickshire County Council’s leader, Cllr Alan Farnell spoke of his delight at the county council winning two prizes at a prestigious award scheme for libraries.
Cllr Farnell said: “One of the county’s most famous sons once said “Neither a lender nor a borrower be,”. For once, I beg to differ with the great man. The county lends over three million items each year, many through the mobile library service, and I know that it is a source of great pleasure for many of our residents.
“The livery was designed by our own in-house team and the service is staffed by a team of dedicated professionals who improve the quality of life for many of the county’s older residents or those in remote areas. I am delighted that staff across the council have seen their work receive national recognition.”