The School Library Association, working with DEMCO, created these exciting new awards in 2010. The award will be made annually to the school library that shows innovation, creativity and resourcefulness in its library design. What matters is not how big the school library is, but what it has achieved with the available resources and the challenges it faces.

The award is open to any school library whatever; there is no requirement to belong to the School Library Association or to have used DEMCO products. Libraries need to have been built or refurbished within the previous year, although in this, the first year of the award, applications from the last two years are welcome.

• Press Release issued 5 October 2010 (Adobe PDF, 1.3 MB)

Launch of the Awards: Happy Days for Demco

Andy Parker, Director of Sales and Marketing, Demco Interiors and Sue Smart, Director of Marketing, Demco Europe are pictured here with Henry Winkler, The Fonz, on the Demco stand at this year’s SLA Conference.

25 years after ending Happy Days, Henry Winkler is on a tour of UK schools as part of the Government’s My Way campaign. He spoke at the Conference about the series of books he has written which follow a young dyslexic child called Hank Zipzer which is based on his own experience with the condition.

While at the Conference, Andy Parker launched the SLA Library Design Award which is sponsored by Demco Interiors and aims to raise awareness of the importance of good school library design in helping young people tune into reading and learning. He said: "To highlight the innovation, commitment, flair and foresight being found in school libraries across the UK and to set future standards for the recognition of excellence in school library design, I am delighted to announce the launch of The SLA School Library Design Award. The award will be awarded to the school library that shows innovation, creativity and resourcefulness in its design. What matters is not how big the school, school library or budget is, but what is achieved with available resources and the challenges that are faced." Further details, eligibility and application details for the award can be seen at www.sla.org.uk and www.demcointeriors.co.uk.

Design Award slideshow

BETT 2012 SLDA Presentation

PowerPoint presentation, 3 MB (Requires Microsoft PowerPoint 97 or later)

Powerpoint slideshow from a talk presented by Anne-Marie Tarter and Geoff Dubber at BETT 2012, exploring issues about library design.

Full details of the Library Design Awards