Manchester Libraries has won the ‘Library of the Year’ Award at the prestigious British Book Awards 2025 held in London on Monday 12th May. The revival of the Library of the Year award was given to Manchester Libraries in recognition of its multi-strand and city-wide Blue Peter Book Club Live programme.
According to judges, the programme made ‘superb’ use of the revered Blue Peter brand to bring children and families into contact with libraries and reading. The programme was launched at a special Book Club Live event at Central Library by the Blue Peter presenters and it engaged with people who had never or very rarely visited a library.
The Blue Peter Book Club Live programme launch resulted in an 88% visitor increase compared to a typical Saturday, with 60% of these attendees living in an area of high deprivation. Connecting with readers via local schools, the incentive saw children’s library membership increase by 33% during the campaign compared to the same period in 2023, and 12,308 people become new library members during the campaign period.
The team also created a badge trail to connect 13 cultural venues, distributed 20,000 trail maps and enlisted local partners to act as champions as part of the event programme which spread across the city. Describing the levels of engagement as ‘phenomenal’, the judges also commended the library on the committed team who saw the opportunity to work with Blue Peter and run with it as well as retain visitors afterwards.
Councillor John Hacking, Executive Member for Skills, Employment and Leisure, said: “This is a truly phenomenal win. For Manchester Libraries to be crowned Library of the Year at the British Book Awards is just fantastic news for our libraries team who worked so hard to make these events a resounding success.
“We are privileged in this city not just have the magnificent Manchester Central Library but numerous neighbourhood libraries that serve their communities, providing literary nourishment as well as a huge array of additional benefits to the communities they serve. We took the opportunity to work with Blue Peter and with thanks to them and all our partners, we delivered an exceptional programme of events which has been recognised at the highest levels .”
Philip Jones, editor of The Bookseller and chair of judges, said: “In the Library award’s return year, Manchester Libraries is a truly worthy winner, showing how to use resources, access and breadth to change lives through reading. That it did this at scale, should not be off-putting to other libraries, but rather indicates what can happen when a range of partners pull together. We hope this winner provides a template for others to follow, whatever the size.”
You can discover the full list of winners and finalists for the British Book Awards 2025 here.