2024

*denotes winner

Children's Promise

Hertfordshire Libraries

• Margaret Street, Early Years Librarian (job share)
• Izzy Martin, Early Years Librarian (job share)

Showing dedication and tireless effort in promoting the importance of library membership, the love of books and book sharing from the earliest age to families and wider Early Years partnerships across Hertfordshire.

Hillingdon Library Service

• Gemma Mccaffery, Area Manager Library Services*
• Franka Aichour, Assistant Branch Manager, Botwell Green Library*

Improving services for young people and subsequently reducing the Anti-Social Behaviour in Hayes. This included engaging with focus groups to plan and facilitate a World Café and a participatory budgeting event.

Suffolk Libraries

• James Powell, Communications Manager
• Alex Downing, Fundraising and Partnerships Manager

Supporting a BBC Radio Suffolk campaign to donate new toys for children using the network of 45 libraries to receive toys and organising onward donations in time for Christmas, making a difference to many families and children across Suffolk, and raising awareness of Suffolk Libraries' community impact and wider wellbeing offer.

Manchester Libraries

• Suzi Wild, Service Development Officer
• Amanda Haran, Neighbourhood Engagement and Delivery Officer
• Thomas Ley, Neighbourhood Engagement and Delivery OfficerCheryl Pridgeon, Service Development Specialist: Children and Access and Read Manchester Hub Manager (job share)
• Margaret Duff, Service Development Specialist: Children and Access and Read Manchester Hub Manager (job share)

Working tirelessly to deliver an amazing service, targeting some of the most deprived communities in Manchester, including book gifting to communities, work with schools and new initiatives such as ECO/Climate change events, and gifting books for Play Streets events.

Newham Libraries

• Deborah Peck

Promoting the life-changing benefits for children who read for pleasure and striving to ensure this happens through her work, in particular the development of the year-round LEAP (Libraries Engagement And Participation) programme with local primary schools.

Inspire: Culture, Learning and Libraries (Nottinghamshire)

• Libraries and Culture Team

Showing great resilience and ingenuity to deliver the Little Creatives Early Years programme, that stretched through the Covid crisis and creating resources and a legacy that continues to expand in the 23-26 programmes.

Culture and Creativity

Swansea Library Service

• Bethan Lee, Principal Librarian
• Jennifer Dorrian, Programme and Events officer
• Zoe Thomas, Library Assistant

Showing initiative to create new activities and develop resources to enable Swansea Central Library to demonstrate that it is a library of sanctuary and welcoming to new people who find themselves settling in and near Swansea.

North Yorkshire Libraries

• Alison Wheat, Outreach Librarian, Harrogate Library
• Library supervisors, library Assistants and library volunteers

Being a forward-thinking, ambitious team, passionate about providing impactful library services to their local community. Alongside partner organisations, they commemorated 100 years of Harrogate's War Memorial by producing the multimedia immersive exhibition ‘More Than a Name on a Memorial’.

London Borough of Waltham Forest

• Salma Chand, Library Customer Services Adviser*

Showing a commitment to inclusivity, creativity, and supporting networks reflecting a desire to foster community resilience and growth through library services and diverse engagement opportunities. Her ongoing efforts to implement PEEPS (Parent-Child Early Education Program) and collaborate with local artists exemplify her continuous commitment to community and cultural enrichment.

Hertfordshire Libraries

• St. Albans Central Library team, led by Marco Peveri, Customer Services Supervisor (to November 2023) and Library Manager (from December 2023)

Being highly proactive and working together with a can-do attitude to exploit to the full the resources in the library to support culture, creativity and wellbeing for all residents in the local community, including those at risk of being socially excluded.

North Yorkshire Libraries

• Fiona Diaper, Outreach Librarian
• John Frankland, Outreach Librarian
• Christine Holgate, Outreach Librarian
• Sharon Houghton, Outreach Librarian
• Deborah Thornton, Outreach Librarian
• Alison Tutill, Outreach Librarian
• Voirrey Whittaker, Outreach Librarian

Displaying innovation, skills, and resilience in delivering the Ey Up! project. Ey Up! came from a seed of an idea when working with the University of Leeds Dialect for Local and Community History Month 2022 and resulted in libraries making lasting connections with partners, volunteers, funders, artists, film makers and participants from hard-to-reach groups.

Manchester Libraries

• Dorothee Devouge
• Danny Middleton
• Chris Whitfield

Driving the events programme at Manchester Central Library ensuring the bringing together of diverse audiences and a high quality cultural offer that is full of surprises.

Health and Wellbeing

Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage

• Sarah Smith, Library Development Manager
• Kate Elliott, Library Development Officer
• Dhurata Loku, Library Development Officer
• Margherita Haijima, Library Customer Service Assistant
• Diana Manipud, Archives Officer

Devising ‘Dress to Remember: a dementia-friendly project’, a totally new concept, to support people with dementia and their families, particularly after the pandemic.

Halton

• Cathey Dunning, Library Information Assistant

Going beyond what is expected in a remarkable way by identifying a local need for a bereavement support for adults and garnering support and partners to create groups in libraries.

Cumberland

• Rachel Haroulis, Library Outreach Project Officer
• Helen Hay, Library Outreach Project Officer

Showing initiative to deliver a significantly improved outreach service to people in supported living in the local area, using VR headsets to improve wellbeing.

Wiltshire

• Peter Waterman, Access and Volunteer Development Manager

Developing and launched the Warm and Welcome Libraries offer and creating an innovative and wide-reaching health and wellbeing offer.

Cambridgeshire

• Naomi Peel, Area Library Manager
• Jakki Racey, Area Library Manager
• Terri Lewis, Area Library Manager
• Shelley Hale, District Library Manager

Working closely with their local communities in to proactively engage with and welcome refugees and asylum seekers housed in local hotels.

Liverpool

• Alison Cassidy, Team Leader*

Leading on developing health and wellbeing programmes, creating partnership and organising activities including, weekly health information, social prescribing and digital inclusion drop in sessions, and marketplace events to tie in with National Events.

Information and Digital

Oldham

• Kate Smyth, Development Officer
• Anna Homer, Development Officer
• Liam Marland, Digital Support Assistant

Welcoming asylum seekers and helping them access learning, digital, information, and volunteering opportunities at their local library.

East Riding

• Kimberley Harston, Librarian
• Caroline Wilkinson, Librarian

Using technology to widen the reach of public libraries through school engagement and opening up new possibilities for the library service to reach other people and groups within the rural locality.

Lincolnshire Libraries (GLL)

• Georgina Carr, Partnership Marketing Programme Owner, Libraries

Championing online improvements gaining internal support and external funding to enhance the customers experience through upgraded webpages and the integration of innovative ideas, including a bespoke video sharing customer’s library stories, integrated catalogue functions, and room and activity booking facilities within the website.

Cambridgeshire Libraries

• Luke Oakes, Library Development Manager*
• Rosie Veitch, Library Development Officer*
• Ana Silva, Library Development Officer*
• Paul Smith, District Library Assistant*

Responding to urgent digital inclusion needs helping asylum seekers connect with loved ones across the world and spearheading a national conversation about digital, shaping discourse with the view that to deliver digital inclusion you must deliver the digital trinity of connectivity, kit and skills.

West Sussex Library Service

• Jackie Usher, Team Manager Digital Access Team
• Amy Perry, Principal Librarian Digital Access Team
• Michelle Carter, Team Librarian
• Natasha Jones, Team Librarian
• Georgina McLaughlin, Team Librarian

Identifying the digital training needs of library staff and produce 23 training modules and with the support of library managers across the service, to train all 340 library staff in12 months.

Greenwich, Bromley, Wandsworth (GLL)

• Loretta Awauh, Strategic Business Support Manager

Creating the business support section in Greenwich and delivered the British Library SILL (Start Up in London Libraries) programme, expanding the service to Bromley and Wandsworth libraries, and leading the very successful ‘Start Up Business Week’ across the three boroughs.

Reading

Guille-Alles Library

• Beth Brown, Adult Services Library Assistant

Diversifying the library offers and establishing the Lit with Liberate group, creating a place for the island's LGBTQ+ members to feel safe and comfortable discussing the books.

Kirklees Libraries

• Mazhar Iqbal, Librarian*
• Ambreen Aziz, Librarian*
• Becky Longwood, Librarian*

Running the weekly English Talk time sessions which make genuinely life-changing differences to some of the area’s most isolated residents.

East Riding

• Hayley Nicholson, Librarian

Taking the lead with the Poetry competition, working tirelessly to develop and grow the project, whilst balancing her day-to-day workload.

HMP Northumberland - provided by Northumberland Library Service

• Sarah Sparham, Prison Librarian
• Jill Brown, Prison Library Assistant
• Delia Armstrong, Prison Library Assistant
• Karen Hedley, Prison Library Assistant

Highlighting the value of the library service across the prison estate and embedding reading for all. 

Kent Libraries

• Elizabeth Stanton, Customer Service Development Librarian

Engaging with partners and local teenagers to establish a dedicated Teen area within Dartford Library.

West Sussex Library Service

• Justin Burns, Team Manager Books, Reading and Culture
• Wendy Drust Principal Librarian Books, Reading and Culture
• Jackie Manners, Principal Librarian Wellbeing
• Rebecca Robertson, Team Librarian
• Jo Moeller, Principal Librarian Enquiries, Learning and Enterprise
• Vicki Davey, Principal Librarian Volunteers and Communities
• Marion Goaman, Read On Librarian

Coming together to develop a comprehensive adult literacy offer improving literacy support and providing help for those wanting to learn to read.

Vision and Print Impaired People's Promise (VPIPP)

Guille-Alles Library

• Jackie Burgess, Health & Wellbeing Lead

Pioneering the Stories on USB service for people with sight problems and blindness.

Wiltshire

• Basil Nankivell, Community Library Manager

Constantly going beyond what has been expected through the establishment of a Visually Impaired Person’s Reading Group.

Bromley Libraries (GLL)

• Gill Nutkins, Stock Librarian

Being dedicated to making library services more accessible to people with additional needs.

Bath and North East Somerset

• Kelly Christian, Operations Manager
• Annette Price, Operational Team Leader
• Natasha Hunt, Operational Team Leader
• Samantha Meunier, Development and Outreach Officer
• Sarah Deacon, Business Improvement and Stock Manager

Working with RNIB and library user groups to improve services to people with visual impairments, including staff training, reading groups, and improvements to buildings.

Derby City Library Service

• Mark Eldridge, Learning Systems and Operations Manager*

Improving the offer for blind and partially sighted people throughout Derby City, including setting up one of the first Tech Hubs, specifically for Blind and Partially sighted people in partnership with RNIB in Riverside Library in the Derby Council House.

Leicester City Library Service

• Priten Pancholi, Service Delivery Manager

Working with the RNIB to improve accessibility to the blind and partially sighted community in Leicester City.

President’s Award

• Bethan Hughes, former Principal Librarian at Denbighshire Libraries*

The recipient of the President’s Award is chosen personally by the President of Libraries Connected to recognise an outstanding contribution to the public library sector.

Public Library Champion

• Ann Cleeves, novelist*

The Public Library Champion award has been established to recognise a public figure who has used their platform to promote, celebrate and raise awareness of libraries. Cleeves, who is the author of 37 critically acclaimed crime novels, has been an outspoken advocate for public libraries throughout her career. Most significantly, Cleeves initiated and part-funded her Reading for Wellbeing project with local authorities across the North East.