IN DEPTH ‘‘
Rob Mackinlay is a journalist for Information Professional.
Libraries are not working alone, we are part of a national network, working collaboratively with schools, prisons, early years, and tackling a decline in reading and literacy that negatively affects society as a whole. – PMLG Committee
Exploring the National Year of Reading resources
The National Year of Reading wants readers to follow their passions. With the help of CILIP’s Public and Mobile Library Group (PMLG) Committee Rob Mackinlay takes a look at what resources are on offer to public libraries to help achieve this.
THE National Year of Reading (NYR) aims to reverse the decline in reading enjoyment among children, young people and adults. It includes the year-long campaign, called ‘Go all in’ which aims to attract readers by showing them how to use reading to explore their existing passions, saying that “by starting with passions, not pressure, we can create a stronger, more connected reading culture across the UK”.
https://tinyurl.com/NLT-NYR2026 Organised by the National Literacy Trust (NLT), the Reading Agency and the government, the NYR message to public libraries is: “Libraries have the power to turn this around… during the National Year of Reading, your work will be central to helping peo- ple rediscover reading on their own terms.” Organ- isers add that it is simple to join in and point to free resources, including ready-to-run ideas and support. Here the committee of CILIP’s Public and Mobile Library Group (
https://tinyurl.com/PMLGcommittee) share their experience so far.
Resources
The NYR resources we focus on in this article are ‘Why reading matters: a toolkit for local authorities’
https://tinyurl.com/NYRLAtoolkit and the NYR public librar- ies toolkit
https://tinyurl.com/NYRPLtoolkit. These are two of the key resources to help public librarians understand their roles in NYR. The local authority toolkit helps libraries interact with their own authorities and other organisations to support fundraising and advocacy. Developed by
30 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL
the National Literacy Trust with support from Arts Council England, it provides language and tools to show how reading delivers against key local authority priorities.
National to local
The toolkit helps public librarians make an evi- dence-based case for reading, one that supports the local agenda and, where possible, uses local data. The NYR is a national campaign with national data but recognises the stories in local areas will vary. The toolkit “provides specific statistics positioning the positive impact of reading on local authority priorities” and these “can be used alongside local evidence to support conversations with local Council and community partners”.
After finding the local data story librarians will also need to adjust the evidence on who they are talk- ing to: “For education partners: Talk about school readiness, attainment, transitions. For businesses: Talk about skills, productivity, workforce develop- ment. For health partners: Talk about health literacy, prevention, reduced demand.”
Local comms
The diversity of local authority structures in the UK means they all have different relationships with their public library services. The PMLG committee said that huge variations in size of authorities and the numbers of libraries under their control came with other key differences – for instance, being staff or
February-March 2026
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54
