Friends of Ottery Library held their Annual General Meeting on May 13.

One thing that was discussed at the meeting was changing the name: The Friends are no longer FOOLs, the original acronym of Friends of Ottery Library, but just Friends.

But the first point of discussion was to celebrate the work of volunteers at the library, who keep it open six days a week.

Kerry Carr, the Library Supervisor and Annette Siddle, First Library Assistant, said how lucky the library was to have so many volunteers for a relatively small library and presented certificates, including for over 20 years’ service to Liz Potbury and Lesley Yoffey, and to Joy Warner for over 15 years’ service.

Iced cakes were handed out at the meeting, made by Ottery business Sarah’s Creations, labelled for each volunteer and paid for by Libraries Unlimited (LU).

The second point was hearing from Emily Hicks, fundraising officer at LU, who said the charity is constantly raising awareness to correct the perception that Devon’s libraries are still publicly owned.

She reported that Ottery Library was a trailblazer: Kerry Carr’s work on neurodiverse accessibility has been expanded to two other libraries and LU had sent an Impact Report on this to Devon County Council.

Emily Hicks said at the meeting said: "It is sad statistic is that the percentage of adults with a library card in Devon is only 12%."

Next was the launch of Once Upon a Time – Backalong, the history of the Ottery Library, published to coincide with the 50th anniversary of Ottery St Mary Town Council in April 2024 was launched at the meeting.

Written by Martin and Marjorie Stockley, with research by Denise Melhuish, it is a 43-page book discussing the history of the library but of Ottery itself, told against the background of the national negotiation of public reading from books chained to church shelves through subscription, circulation, legislation, acceptance, and austerity, going from Church to Charity in 700 years.

Copies are £5 in the Library or the Curious Otter with all proceeds going to the Friends.