1. Colin Bray, Service Development Manager
Bringing ideas, imagination, information and knowledge to people’s lives and communities.
Today I will talk briefly about:
What Libraries Unlimited is, and how it relates to libraries in Devon
The nature of the challenge
Address ways libraries and reading make a difference or have potential to make a difference
Colin Bray, Service Development Manager
Please note the content of Colin’s speech is actually on the notes pages
Thanks

2. Our Purposes Promoting and encouraging a love of reading
Providing free access to information to help people in their everyday lives
Inspiring people of all ages to learn, imagine, create, succeed and realise their potential
Guiding and supporting people to explore and connect to the wider world
Offering a welcoming space to meet, socialise, learn, read and enjoy new experiences
Supporting the health and wellbeing of individuals and local communities.

3. How busy were libraries in Devon last year…?
115,358 people borrowed 2,202,135 items
2,841,568 library visitors
118,040 people attended library events
8,731 volunteer hours
238,883 hours spent using library computers
4,331 individual room bookings in libraries

4. Loneliness and Libraries
Four characteristics of loneliness:
If is a condition of absence – human beings are naturally social
Outcome of a complex set of reasons and causes
Individual and unique to each person
Subjective reality. Loneliness is experiential.
Wrapped around that is the universality of the loneliness experience.
Principles that build the preconditions for less loneliness are reflected in the purposes of Libraries Unlimited.

5. Loneliness and Libraries – Reading
Promoting and encouraging a love of reading
You are never alone with a book. With a book we can be alone without being alone.
Books and stories are powerful agents for encouraging empathy and the ability to see the world from another point of view.
Reading can be social too – Libraries Unlimited supports over 350 reading groups across the county.
Learning outcomes obtained from borrowed library books across the south west - some of which have a direct or indirect impact on loneliness:
81.4% of books borrowed entertained the reader
50.2% of books borrowed resulted in new insight
49.8% of books borrowed helped learn new facts
28.7% of books borrowed inspired the reader
19.6% of books borrowed challenged attitudes
14.9% of books borrowed helped develop skills
13.2% of books borrowed changed opinions
4.2% of books borrowed changed the lives of those that
borrowed them.

6. Loneliness and Libraries - Information
Providing free access to information to help people in their everyday lives
The consequences of an information society – the responsibility to make personal choices and the impact of not knowing where to turn.
Libraries as connection points, brokers for information. Sometimes loneliness is a practical issue – how do we enable people to find and navigate information that reduces the risk factors?
Returning to the project obtaining learning outcomes from library books – here were the outcomes related to borrowed health books only:
82.7% of books borrowed helped learn new facts
63.1% of books borrowed inspired the reader
55.3% of books borrowed resulted in new insight
54.7% of books borrowed helped develop skills
36.1% of books borrowed entertained the reader
34.5% of books borrowed challenged attitudes
29.7% of books borrowed changed opinions
27.6% of books borrowed changed the lives of those that
borrowed them

7. Loneliness and Libraries – Inspiring and Learning
Inspiring people of all ages to learn, imagine, create, succeed and realise their potential
Loneliness - inspiring, learning and creativity.
Loneliness is intangible and requires expression to be understood and mediated by the individual.
Arts and creativity can be powerful tools to address this self and shared mediation.
Libraries in general and Libraries Unlimited in particular are personalising services to achieve it including:
- Arts engagement – i.e. Tangible Memories
Volunteering and Friends Groups including young volunteers
Arts engagement and creativity – Unlimited Potential and NPO; writing groups etc.
Fab Labs
Active Life Active Mind (more on this later)
Summer Reading Challenge

8. Loneliness and Libraries – Explore and Connect
Guiding and supporting people to explore and connect to the wider world
People do this in various ways.
For some people coming to the library is in itself is a way of exploring a world larger than their own home. Perhaps it is enough to be around other people
For others the connection is through the books. Or eBooks. Or audiobooks. Or library computers or Wi-Fi.
For others it is volunteering or using the library to find out more about their local community.
Perhaps it is through Home Library service book deliveries made by Royal Voluntary Service volunteers.
The reasons and outcomes are as numerous and varied as the number of people using our services.

9. Libraries and Loneliness – Welcoming Spaces
Offering a welcoming space to meet, socialise, learn, read and enjoy new experiences
Libraries are open spaces.
Open in the sense anyone can come in.
Open in the sense nobody will ask why you are there. For instance, people are not defined as ‘patients’ or ‘students’ when they use a library.
Open in the sense they are free to use.
Open in the sense the enable imagination and creativity , explore notions of identity.

10. Libraries and Loneliness – Health and Wellbeing
Supporting the health and wellbeing of individuals and local communities
Active Life Active Mind takes place each year in libraries across Devon.
The purposes of Active Life Active Life Active Mind:
Deliver library activities enjoyed by and benefitting people across Devon
Celebrate how libraries contribute to health, wellbeing and resilient communities
Pilot new library activities and promote existing activities across the county
Develop strategic and local partnerships
The programme of activities is evaluated against the Five Ways to Wellbeing:
Connect
Keep Learning
Be Active
Take Notice
Give
Top rating %
I enjoyed meeting new people
64%
55%
I enjoyed sharing my experiences
48%
The physical activity was appropriate for me
40%
35%
I want to become more active as a result of this event
32%
26%
I’ve learnt something new
61%
60%
My confidence increased in doing…
41%
31%
I enjoyed the challenge of…
45%
36%
Did you assist somebody or share your skills?
19%
Interested in volunteering/being a Friend
11%
24%
Do this activity again?
80%
74%

11. Libraries and Loneliness – Principles
Whole person approach
Non-clinical
The power of prevention
The idea of place
Meeting people where they are

12. “Libraries are medicine for the soul.”
In conclusion…
“Libraries are medicine for the soul.”
An inscription on the Library of Thebes
I don’t wish to claim that libraries are the only places you can find company. Or support. Or equity.
But I do believe that libraries are unique in offering the combination of principles and services that they do. We have come a long way in the past 10 years while (hopefully) not sacrificing the values that originally made us an institution.
Could we do more? Absolutely. That is the nature of an open-ended service. For instance we need to know more about our impact on individuals and communities, how the observations and narratives given here can be stitched into a wider story about what works for people in their everyday lives.
To that end we are currently working with the University of Exeter and other partners to better understand our social impact. If anybody here would like to find out more about that project or would like to get in touch about anything at all drop me a line .

13. librariesunlimited.org.uk colin.bray@librariesunlimited.org.uk
@librariesunltd