The winners of the 2005 Public Library Buildings Award were announced at the Public Libraries Authorities Conference 2005 on Wednesday 19th October 2005.
The prestigious awards are run by the Public Libraries Group (PLG) of CILIP, the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals. They act as indicators of professional library development, and as benchmarks of public library building facilities, reflecting the major changes in library provision in the 21st century.
The winners by category are:
Partnership, sponsored by 3M.Library Systems
Winner: Jubilee Library, Brighton
Highly Commended: Explore Music at the Sage Centre, Gateshead
Architect meets Practicality,sponsored by Point 8 Interiors and Display Systems
Winner: Hamilton Town House, South Lanarkshire
Council
Highly Commended: Garston Library, Liverpool City Libraries
Interior Design, sponsored by Askews Library Services
Winner: Swiss Cottage, London Borough of Camden
Highly Commended: Gosport Discovery Centre, Hampshire County Council
Highly Commended: Sutton Library, Sutton Libraries
Heart of the Community, sponsored by Demco Interiors and Library Design Consultants
Winner: Waterford City Library, Waterford City Council Highly Commended: Gorbals Library and Learning Centre, Glasgow
Highly Commended: Tubbercurry, County Sligo
The Mary Finch Award for Accessibility, sponsored by BBC Audio Books
Winner: Hamilton Town House, South Lanarkshire Council
Highly Commended: Gosport Discovery Centre, Hampshire County Council
Delegates Choice, sponsored by the Public Library Group
Winner: Jubilee Library, Brighton
The Awards were presented by Peter Beauchamp, specialist judge, and former Senior Library Advisor at DCMS.
Philippa Harper, Co-Chair of the Awards, said “We were tremendously excited by the standard and innovation we saw in the winning libraries, with striking examples of integrated design, bold, innovative architecture architectural statements, the development of customer-focussed retail design principles, ICT innovation, an emerging café culture, and greatly improved access and community consultation.”
For further information, contact Philippa Harper: philippa.harper@hants.gov.uk Tel: 01962 826760 or Adrienne Adair Adrienne.adair@ni-libraries.net
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Notes for editors
1. New categories
To mark the 10th anniversary of the awards, and to reflect changes in public library design, management and use, new categories were introduced this year. The categories no longer simply focus on the size of the library, but areas of key importance in building practice and to users.
Partnership
New or refurbished libraries built in partnership with other agencies including PFI, dual or multi-purpose libraries
Architect meets Practicality
New or refurbished libraries of significant architectural interest which are practical and user friendly
Interior design
New or refurbished libraries which have effectively combined light, space, people movement with colour and design.
Heart of the Community
New or refurbished libraries which have been designed to enhance, regenerate and/pr tackle social inclusion issues in local communities and/or innovative service delivery deriving from the revitalized library facility.
Mary Finch Accessibility Award
A new award to honour the late Mary Finch of BBC Audio Books. The Award is given to the library which, in the opinion of the judges, most addresses access issues from physical through to cultural barriers.
Delegates’ Choice
The library receiving the most votes from delegates attending the PLA Conference and electronic votes from members of the PLG group via our website.
2. Entry criteria
Entry was for new and refurbished libraries across the UK and Republic of Ireland, open to the public from 1st January 2003-31st March 2005 The process was digitised for the first time, with the production of video clips supported by digital application forms.
3. Judging Panel
Philippa Harper, Co- Chair and Discovery Centres Coordinator, HCC
Adrienne Adair, Co-Chair and Deputy Chief Librarian, SEELB Board
Norma McDermott, Director of Irish Library Council
Amanda Poulton, Principal Librarian, Northamptonshire County Council and Winner of the Public Library Group Personal Learning Grant Award
Specialist Judges
Peter Beauchamp, former Senior Library Advisor at DCMS Stephen Hetherington, director of Hetherington Seelig Theatres and independent consultant
Stephen Connolly, Principal Architect, South Eastern Library Board