5th September 2025
Focus
Finding ‘library allies’ key for Nibbies winner Manchester Libraries
Neil MacInnes, head of libraries, galleries and culture at Manchester City Libraries, talks to The Bookseller about what drives the award-winning service. Lauren Brown reports
W 24
hat impressed The British Book Awards judges about Manchester Libraries’ entry to the Library of the Year award 2025, revived after
eight years, was the innovation, collaboration and wide reach of its Blue Peter Book Club Live programme, which made use of the Blue Peter brand to bring children and families into contact with libraries and reading. Its “takeover” at the city’s Central Library was
“the busiest day we’ve ever had”, Neil MacInnes, head of libraries, galleries and culture at Manchester City Libraries, says. Overall, the multi-strand project – which fanned out across the city via a Blue Peter Book Club Badge Trail that connected 13 libraries and other cultural spaces – resulted in a 33% increase in children’s library membership; “a remarkable achievement,” says Karen Napier, CEO of The Reading Agency.
As a project, it combined a number of the
service’s objectives: bringing in library advocates from outside of the service; collaboration; expand- ing out of Central Library into the community; making sure the buildings – 24 libraries comprise the service – are up to date and welcoming. “It was such a great partnership, a true partnership,” MacInnes says. “I’d be keen on having a conversa- tion, on the back of winning the award, about whether there’s more stuff we can be doing together. With the BBC being at MediaCity, there are more opportunities that we could look at.” For MacInnes, first and foremost, it is about
getting people through the door. “Once you’re in the space, you then get to see what else is there. The Blue Peter Book Club project, the weekend we had at Central Library, was the busiest day we’ve ever had [there], which is pretty amazing.” The takeover doubled the library’s average Saturday visitor numbers, and
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