library, rather than taking it home, which, when I go back 40 years, that didn’t happen. People came in, they borrowed, they left. Whereas now, people are actually spending quality time in a space because they feel it’s their space, and there’s nothing more joyous. I was in one of our branch libraries last week, and there is nothing more joyous than walking around and seeing people just sitting there, enjoying their space, enjoying their book.”
A
Neil MacInnes, head of libraries, galleries and culture at Manchester City Council
L-R: Dapo Adeola, Maisie Chan and Nathan Bryon at a See Myself in Books event
more than 4,600 children became new members over the course of the campaign. Once people are in the space, MacInnes continues, that is only the beginning. “What we try and do in Manchester is not just do things in Central Library, but make sure that it’s actually impacting on neighborhoods and communities across the city,” he explains. “The book trail was just phenomenal. What we’re doing, what my team are now looking at, is an outreach and engagement programme that actually gets outside the building and showcases what the library offer is today and encourages people to come into the building. That’s our key priority at this moment in time.” The Badge Trail connected 13 cultural venues
across Manchester and Salford, encouraging families to explore the spaces, with 20,000 trail maps distributed. Each badge featured a book from the Blue Peter Book Club and the trail map led families to discover more books and reading in non-library venues across the city. Data collected from Badge Trail participants showed that 94% of respondents widened their knowl- edge of free cultural activities for children around the city. This idea of discovering reading in unexpected
places, and the curiosity and exploration this fosters, is part of what drives the service: its 2023 partnership with charity World Book Day, Transport for Greater Manchester, the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and Manchester City Council saw thousands of free reads placed on tram seats. “It was a nice way of saying: just try something. It was a beautiful project,” MacInnes says. “Working with publishers and organisations like NLT just opens different doors.” MacInnes also says that it is about finding “library allies”. He explains: “I think the key is actually having different voices promoting libraries. I always tell
a story that, years ago, someone said to me when I promote libraries: ‘Well, you would say that.’ And it’s really good to get those external voices and actually identifying who your library allies are. And that’s sometimes more important in a room than me as a librarian, speaking about librar- ies. Libraries reach the heart of communities that other organisations can’t reach. There’s a huge advocacy role that needs to be expanded on.” The service is ambitious when it comes to
the different potential collaborations on the horizon and the city-wide scope of the service’s programmes and projects – which include a See Myself in Books Festival to promote diverse and inclusive books; romance books festival Love Stories Etc; the Black British Book Festival; and upcoming Non-Fiction November, where “we’ll be shining a spotlight on non-fiction books through our collaborations with publish- ers, bringing great non-fiction authors and their books to pupils”, explains Cheryl Pridgeon, service development specialist and Read Manchester hub manager. The foundation of this cultural programme,
however, is the service’s spaces: “What we’re now looking at, what we’ve been concentrating [on] for a number of years, is making sure that our venues are fit for purpose,” MacInnes says. “One of the things we’ve done in Manchester is most of our libraries are now glass-fronted, and the reason we did that was so that people could see themselves in the library,” a move that dovetails with the See Myself in Books initiative. “What we’ve found is that since the pandemic,
what was really important was the amount of people that actually wanted to read more. Because digital had become too much for them. So they wanted a bit of time off the screen. What I love when I go around our libraries now is – and our lending figures are good – is [that] people are actually staying because we’ve created quality spaces for them. Community living rooms. And they’re actually quite happy to spend a couple of hours in the library, reading the book in the
n area of focus currently is creat- ing cool, and warm, spaces. “We’re doing this stuff just now, nationally, [where] we’re looking at warm spaces and cool spaces.
So it’s basically saying to people: the library’s here, it’s heated, you can get a free cup of coffee, sit and enjoy it, read a book. And likewise, we’re on, is it the fourth heatwave now? So there are cool spaces as well, if you just want to come in from the hot weather and enjoy it.” Ultimately, it is about getting people through
the door in the first place, without pressure or expectation, MacInnes says, and empowering people to “try something”. “I think the thing I’m most proud of is actually
our entire cultural programming; there’s tons of stuff going on to draw people in through the doors. So there’s almost [an] element of seren- dipity that you then discover something you didn’t really know about, or a new world. And that’s the bit that I’m most excited about. And I think it’s just about continuing to build that and expand that. We’ve just reopened a new refurbished library in Chorlton in the south of the city, which is our oldest operational library. I think being able to celebrate the continual investment in libraries, for me, is really important. We’re not hiding away. We’re not shy. That’s what we want to do with that engagement programme.” After 20 years in the job, MacInnes says:
“What we’ve managed to do in Manchester is almost reinvent the library service – or reposi- tion it is probably a better word – and actually ensure that we’ve got the political support for libraries, which is so important. And advocacy is my middle name, but it’s about ensuring that people understand the value that libraries make. I’d say we’re not the solution, but part of the solution. I think we’ve actually rejuvenated staff as well into understanding what we’re looking to do. And I think our staff completely get it. So I think it’s been a really exciting time [and] we’re in a really good place where I’m confident on how we can move forward.” On rejuvenating staff, it is clear hearing
MacInnes speak that the ethos of empowerment and encouragement to try new things is carried through to staff. “Nothing’s not possible,” MacInnes says. “I’ve got a bit of a phrase: fail fast and fail cheap. Just try it. And if it doesn’t work, it doesn’t matter. You just need to try.”
The British Book Awards Library of the Year was sponsored by DK and supported by The Reading Agency
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MARK WAUGH
Library Focus Company Spotlight
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