Rob Froud retires as county librarian (From Somerset County Gazette)

Rob Froud retires as county librarian

9:00pm Tuesday 9th March 2010

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ROB Froud, who was awarded the OBE in the New Year’s Honours List in 2009, is retiring as County Librarian of Somerset.

Mr Froud has headed up the Libraries and Arts Services in Somerset County Council since 1996.

During his time in Somerset, Rob has overseen the opening of new libraries at Chard, Dulverton, Glastonbury, Langport, Porlock, Somerton, Taunton and Williton, along with refurbishment projects at Bridgwater, Shepton Mallet and Street libraries.

One of his most significant achievements has been the development of the LibrariesWest Consortium, a cooperative body which brings together library services in Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North Somerset, Somerset and South Gloucestershire.

Rob’s vision for this has been that sharing resources would bring benefits to library users which a single authority would struggle to provide and LibrariesWest now offers access to about two million items.

Somerset has been the lead authority in the Consortium since it started in 1997 under Mr Froud’s chairmanship.

In 2009, he was awarded the OBE in 2009 for services to public libraries.

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