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Children's author Nick Arnold has helped to save his local library from closure in Appledore, Devon, after a four-year community campaign that raised thousands of pounds to help cover its costs. Arnold believes that the it could act as a blueprint for other communities trying to save their libraries.
Appledore library was earmarked for closure in 2006 but remained open after the community offered to pay for a refurbishment and help towards its day-to-day costs.
Now a review by Devon County Council has recommended that the council should both fund the existing library and investigate relocating the library to larger premises. Arnold said: "It is quite a turnround from where we were in 2006 when the library was top of the list for library closures."
The author believes that key elements of the campaign could be adopted by other communities to save their libraries.
Rather than insisting that local authorities fund the library, Arnold said communities should: "find out the reasons they are giving for closing the library, and then make it harder for them to do so". Setting up a local committee to raise support for the library and forging alliances with groups such as school and parent groups were also important first steps, he added.
While he does not agree with local communities funding libraries, he said: "By offering to refurbish the library and to raise funds to maintain it, we kept the library open. That gave us the time we needed to campaign to save it and to increase footfall by 50%."
Arnold believes the library was eventually saved by increasing library usage, and by the launch of the Appledore Book Festival, which helps attract some £5m of spending into the area at the end of each summer.
Author Alan Gibbons, who heads the Campaign for the Book in support of library services, is launching an initiative later this month to encourage other authors to adopt libraries and school library services. He said: "Many authors are already acting as ambassadors for their local library services and this campaign hopes to galvanise those activities. Authors can often lend celebrity status to community activities and can help raise the profile of local libraries."