David Rowe, 38, of Downs View, Bradford on Avon, has been awarded the British Empire Medal for his services to the community in the South West.

Mr Rowe is the founder of Libraries Hacked, a community project he launched in 2014 to promote the use of open data in libraries.

His work includes publishing data about libraries, as well as using other open datasets to enhance library data.

Mr Rowe said: “I found out about two months ago when I received a letter from the government. It was a nice surprise because I wasn’t expecting it.

“I kept it secret from everyone apart from my partner, Ingrid Frater. It was easy enough because of my work in the public sector.”

Mr Rowe worked as a software developer in the public sector for Bath and North East Somerset Council. He is now working with apetito in Trowbridge.

“I have always been a library user since childhood and this award is a vindication of the work we have been doing over the past eight years.

“Libraries Hacked is a community project that works with libraries throughout the South West getting them to use open data more effectively.

“We run events, work with them on data projects, and run hackathons.

“With that data the goal is then to make interesting and useful software tools that can be used by library services and the public.”