A refurbished fishing boat suspended from the ceiling of Buncrana Community Library was one of the features that impressed a panel of judges in a library competition covering Britain and Ireland.
The library, which opened two years ago and has up to 4,000 members from across the Inishowen peninsula, was deemed the best library of its size in the competition, organised by the UK Library Association.
Donegal county librarian Mr Liam Ronayne said the judges were also impressed with the design of the library and the approach taken by architect Mr Peter Cullinane. The main library is housed in a former Presbyterian church and an extension built for a children's library is designed around "a mother and child" theme.
The judges commended the fact that the integrity of the church had been respected and said the new building was designed in harmony with the original.
Mr Ronayne said the library had set out to meet the needs of the local community which had suffered huge job losses at the Fruit of the Loom clothing factories.
"We were very concerned that we had to look at the job needs as well as providing a leisure service," he said.
As a result there was a heavy investment in information technology software and eight public access computers are provided free of charge.