Category Community and social

Easter Holidays Children’s Crafts

Looking for something arty to keep your hands and brains busy over the next school holidays? Check out the following activities in your local libraries… Creative kids can design and…

  • 2 mins

Manchester Central Library Story Times

Two members of staff are sat in two big armchairs in the middle of the children library. They are each holding a copy of the same book, open on the same page, showing the page to children and parents in attendance. A big group of children and parents are lying or sat on the floor, listening to the two members of staff. In the background, the wall of the children library is decorated with a jungle-themed motif.

Get your little ones involved with The National Year of Reading by coming along to one of our free story times. Manchester Central Library offers a welcoming space for families…

  • 2 mins

ASSHETON HISTORY ROADSHOW COMING UP!   

We’re excited to announce the dates of our final events in the Assheton of Middleton history project. Following the purchase in 2023 of this important manorial document collection for the Greater…

  • 2 mins

Festive Book Gifting 2025 with Read Manchester

Read Manchester’s Festive Book Gifting project this year was a huge success, with a total of 12,956 Books gifted across 140 different settings! We worked with a wide variety of different organisations, including: Food Banks…

  • 4 mins

North City Library turned 20!

Birthday display

On January 4th, North City Library turned 20 years old and we celebrated this with a full week of activities from Monday 5th to Saturday 10th January. The main event…

  • 4 mins

Big Garden Birdwatch, Walk & Craft

adult and child with binoculars, birdwatching

The RSPB and Manchester Libraries invite you to join us on Saturday 24th January 2026 to take part in two special Big Garden Birdwatch activities. To celebrate the UK’s biggest garden…

  • 1 mins

Manchester Libraries Launch Youth-Friendly Standards

This year we have been looking at our Youth Friendly Standards, consulting with young people from all over Manchester to obtain their views and feedback to help launch a new…

  • 3 mins

Longsight Library Fun Palace

Longsight Library had another fantastic Fun Palace on the first Saturday of October. Despite the stormy wild weather outside, we had a lovely turn out of folk in the pursuit…

  • 3 mins

Chess clubs – South Libraries

Chorlton Library, Didsbury Library, Forum Library and Withington Library Chorlton, Didsbury, Forum and Withington library all run weekly chess clubs, they have been running for various lengths of time with…

  • 2 mins

Chorlton Library Children’s Reading group

We have started a new children’s reading group at Chorlton library, the first session happened this week, our reading group is on the first Tuesday of each month, 5-6pm, it…

  • 1 mins

Fun Palaces at North City Library

Children cutting out and collaging pictures

Earlier this month we celebrated Fun Palaces at North City Library with a fantastic selection of free activities for families to take part in ranging from crafts to science to…

  • 1 mins

Building Stronger Communities Together

View of the exhibition in front of the library windows

Presented by Afrocats at North City Library The Afrocats Building Stronger Communities Together Exhibition is a celebration of communities in North Manchester, using creativity to create conversation and draw attention…

  • 2 mins

Chorlton Book Festival 2025

Chorlton Book Festival returned this September for its 21 year, we had a fantastic line up and program, so we were excited and expecting good things, and it did not…

  • 3 mins

Library of the Month: New Moston Community Library

Photo of the outside of New Moston Community Library

New Moston Community Library although small in size is a vital part of the local community and provides our library offer to those who need it including the extremely popular…

  • 3 mins

Libraries Update – September 2025

Neil MacInnes, Unison North West LGBT group and Archives+ staff photographed at Central Library

LGBT Histories in Focus – Archives+ Archives+ staff felt honoured to host the Unison North West LGBT group who paid a visit to Manchester Central Library to view the Archives+…

  • 11 mins

Summer Reading Challenge Roadshows in Manchester Parks

Staff from libraries and read manchester speaking to the public at our stall in Alexandra Park.

To celebrate this year’s outdoor themed Summer Reading Challenge, Story Garden, Read Manchester and Manchester libraries visited parks around the city with a ‘Summer Reading Challenge Roadshow’!  Read Manchester/Libraries staff, supported…

  • 3 mins