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Libraries Connected, the charity representing public libraries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, has announced the shortlist of nominees for its annual awards.
The Libraries Connected Awards celebrate the achievements of library workers who have had an exceptional impact on their library service, users or local communities. The awards have six categories which reflect the charity’s Universal Library Offers—the core services and programmes that modern library services provide. These are: the Reading Award, the Children’s Award, the Culture and Creativity Award, the Health and Wellbeing Award, the Vision and Print-Impaired People’s Award and the Information and Digital Award.
This year’s nominees include John Carter, Rebecca Palmer and Olly Hellis in the Health and Wellbeing category. They have been jointly nominated for delivering a scheme which enabled the loaning of blood pressure monitoring kits from any library in Somerset. Tracey Williams has been put forward in the Culture and Creativity category for her work with the Young Archaeologist’s Club in Solihull. Marianne Fraser-Hussain is nominated for the Children’s Award for delivering "Stories From Around The World", a project led by Barnsley Libraries in partnership with Feels Like Home, a local group of refugee and asylum seeker families. They join a 35-strong shortlist of nominees from across the UK.
The nominations will now be considered by an expert panel of judges including crime writer Priscilla Masters and children’s author Cathy Cassidy. They will be joined by judges from organisations including Arts Council England, the Reading Agency, BBC Arts and library app developer OverDrive. The winners will be announced in June at a ceremony during the Libraries Connected annual seminar in Bedfordshire.
Isobel Hunter, chief executive of Libraries Connected, said: "Congratulations to everybody who made the shortlist this year in a very competitive field. The Libraries Connected Awards put the spotlight on some of the amazing staff that make the libraries sector so vibrant and inspiring. It’s so important that we recognise the incredible achievements of library workers who show such dedication, creativity and innovation every day."
Nick Forster, regional manager at OverDrive, added: "On behalf of the OverDrive team I want to congratulate all the shortlisted nominees. It’s important to recognise the achievements of library services and their staff because their work is so essential to our communities throughout the country. We’re excited to sponsor the awards again and are looking forward to the ceremony later this year."
The full list of nominees can be found here.