New Quay library is celebrating its 10th anniversary after being taken over by local volunteers.

When Ceredigion County Council was looking to make budget cuts for 2014, the closure of New Quay and Tregaron Libraries were identified as a way to save money.

New Quay was due to be closed and replaced with a mobile library.

However, the community came together to oppose the closure and 600 people signed the petition opposing the closure of library which was presented to the council.

The publicity around the closure resulted in 25 volunteers coming forward to help run the library.

New Quay Town Council was pivotal in securing the future of the library.

The volunteers took over the running of the library 1 June 2014.

There was a lot of history in the original Library with the land being gifted by Mrs Anderson and money was donated by the community to help get the library built.

They raised £545 of the £605 that the building cost.

It opened in February 1952.

In recent years, it became clear that the library building was deteriorating fast and was no longer fit for purpose with books getting damp, library users struggling to get up the slope to access the building, and the building being often too hot or freezing cold. The problems came to a head during covid when the Library couldn’t safely reopen due to the lack of running water.

After discussions with the hall, it was decided that the Library should move there. Marie Spackman, trustee of the library explained: "We moved on to Room 4 downstairs in the hall.

"We now have a light, bright, warm environment with running water and toilets – and most importantly, wheelchair and pushchair access.

"We have been very lucky with an amazing army of volunteers over the years, and we are very grateful to all of them for their dedication.

"However, we desperately need more people to keep the library open and also to enable us to improve our service.

"We would love to open more hours each week, and with a bigger group of volunteers, we are hoping to open when other groups are using the Hall – such as a Friday morning when the market is there.

"We are celebrating our 10 year anniversary with a small buffet on 30 May, when the library will be open for people to look around and also to view the competition entries from local schools.