Libraries Update – June 2025
Councillor John Hacking and Councillor Garry Bridges shared the stage at an event this month marking Manchester’s designations as a UNESCO City of Literature & a UNESCO City of Learning – a great way to celebrate the Festival of Libraries.
Festival of Libraries – Taking Enterprise on the Road
This June, the Build a Business team hit the road as part of the Festival of Libraries, bringing the message of free business support to communities across Manchester.
First stop: North City Library – the team hosted a two-hour drop-in session where we connected with library visitors and introduced them to the wealth of free resources available through Manchester Libraries. They shared how our core workshops can help aspiring entrepreneurs take their first steps toward business success.
Next stop: Forum Library – the team joined forces with library staff and community activators for a lively Family Fun Day. It was a fantastic opportunity to engage with local residents, many of whom were surprised to learn just how much support is available for start-ups through their local library.
In the weeks that followed, staff were thrilled to see some familiar faces from these events attending our workshops across Greater Manchester. It’s a powerful reminder of how accessible, community-based outreach can spark real journeys into entrepreneurship.
Festival of Libraries – Central Library
During the first week of June, Central Library joined in the celebrations for Festival of Libraries, an annual event sponsored by Manchester City of Literature to spotlight the incredible work Greater Manchester Libraries do in their local communities. Alongside events such as Embassy of Utopia and Inspired by Libraries with Shaun Keaveny and Guy Garvey, we offered a rich programme of family activities, including Plastic Not So Fantastic, a workshop delivered by Equans where children learned to make mini greenhouses out of plastic bottles.
The Festival was also the perfect opportunity to inaugurate our VR week at Central Library as part of the Digital Spaces project supported by Arts Council England. Hundreds of people visiting the library to try VR for free as part of a project promoted by Digital Spaces! Finally the Festival closed with a special Sunday Funday, with 700 people coming through our doors to join craft workshops delivered by Mandy Cleveland and Emma Martin and very engaging storytelling sessions with Simon Sullivan!
Festival of Libraries Fun Day – Forum Library
As part of the Festival of Libraries celebrations, staff at Forum Library hosted a fantastic Fun Day full of creativity and community spirit. Visitors took part in a variety of exciting craft activities, including making magnificent Wythenshawe Garden-City hats with Mandy, exploring amazing clay modelling with Lydia, and creating funky 3D donuts with Lulu. Biffa also joined the event, offering information, games, and a fun craft session where children decorated food caddies.
The atmosphere throughout the day was warm and welcoming, and the event was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone—from families and children to the activity providers and library staff. It was a joy to see so many smiling faces and wonderful creations, especially the children proudly wearing their fabulous handmade hats.
A heartfelt thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make the day so special!
Creative Space – Forum Library
Forum Library’s Creative Space has delivered an exciting and diverse programme of events, embracing new technologies and offering innovative educational workshops. A highlight in June was the arrival of VR headsets as part of the Digital Spaces project supported by Arts Council England, giving the community a unique opportunity to explore virtual reality. It was a real treat and added an extra spark to our tech-themed activities.
While culture and creativity drive the teams programming, youth engagement in any form is always encouraged. With that in mind, the team partnered with the MCC Public Health team and our regular collaborators Media Cubs who brought in pupils from Manchester Enterprise Academy into the Creative Space. The premise of the workshops was around promoting vaping awareness and the inherent dangers posed to young people.
The team are thrilled to share that the recent VR headset sessions were met with overwhelmingly positive feedback! Over the course of three days, 61 participants ranging from the young to the young at heart, immersed themselves in captivating virtual experiences. Highlights included the mesmerizing Monolith, the serene Lark Ascending, and the ever-popular Wallace and Gromit adventure. These VR experiences offered not only entertainment but also meaningful therapeutic and wellbeing benefits.
Discover more about the Creative Space at the Wythenshawe Forum website!
Empathy Day 2025
This month Manchester Libraries spread the message about the power of “jumping into someone else’s story” by taking part in Empathy Lab’s 10 day nationwide Empathy Day Festival. 1056 children in total across Manchester attended school visits, online author sessions, empathy-themed storytimes, craft activities and more – all aimed at inspiring children to learn about empathy, develop key empathy skills and put them into action. To kick off the celebrations, Central Library held Empathy crafts and activities linked to Empathy Lab’s Read for Empathy Collection.
“The links with refugee week really helped the older children to think about the experiences of others.” – Broad Oak Primary
780 Manchester primary school students virtually attended an author session with Rashmi Sirdeshpande, author of We’ve Got This!: Six Steps to Build your Empathy Superpower. Rashmi explained what empathy is and why it’s so important, helping build understanding so that pupils could engage more with other empathy-themed activities.
On Empathy Day itself, library staff took award-winning author Catherine Bruton to two primary schools. Year 5 and 6 pupils heard how Catherine’s experiences teaching refugee children inspired her books Bird Boy (featured in the 2025 Read for Empathy Collection) and No Ballet Shoes in Syria. Pupils learnt the power of seeing the world through other people’s eyes, decorating Empathy Glasses to activate their empathy superpower. We welcomed the Anne Frank Trust which empowers young people to challenge all forms of prejudice through workshops around antisemitism and gender equality. Several libraries also held craft events, including Hulme High Street, Arcadia and Moss Side Powerhouse and all our library storytimes were themed around Empathy, using the story ‘Best of All.’ Libraries also created displays of books showcasing books promoting empathy, understanding and kindness.
Volunteers Week
We had a wonderful Volunteers Week afternoon on 3 June joining with the Lord Mayor Councillor Carmine Grimshaw in celebrating our amazing volunteers who help us at Manchester Archives+, Libraries, North West Film Archive, Manchester, Lancashire Family History Society (MLFHS) and Read Manchester Literacy Champions. Some of our volunteers have been with us for many years supporting a huge range of activities. Supporting our Archives+ partnership with digitisation and cataloguing of photographs for the new Manchester Local Images website, listing historical theatre archives or the Family History Society members sharing their genealogy expertise offering one-to-one help on the Family History Helpdesk.
In our libraries, running storytimes and homework clubs, helping residents develop digital skills, providing affordable food from libraries and volunteers who run some of our community libraries, helping to develop services in their local community. Our Literacy Champions who help with our Bookgifting service and share the love of reading, most recently through the Festival of Libraries Look for a Book project. They are always friendly, brimming with energy and they love sharing their knowledge. Our Libraries, and indeed our city, would not be the same without this fantastic body of helpers and we are so pleased that they are part of our team – a massive thank you to everyone for your enthusiasm and selfless dedication!
Assheton of Middleton – Archive Collection
Manchester Archives have been hosting an exciting programme inspired by our Assheton of Middleton archive collection. Thanks to generous support from Lottery players and from Manchester Libraries Trust, the future of this rich medieval and early Modern local history document is saved for the communities of Greater Manchester.
Part of the project has involved creating engaging learning opportunities for children and adults across Greater Manchester. This has been wonderful as it has allowed us to connect important documents with living history including the Archer Bond, evidence of Middleton archers in English military history, with a taste of longbow archery for selected schools. Matthew Moss High School in Rochdale recently enjoyed a combined history and archery experience with Archives+ and volunteers from the Rochdale Company of Archers.
Everyone enjoyed this tremendously and the teacher commented that “the children haven’t stopped talking about the archery!”
Inspire. Uplift. Empower – Celebrating National Women’s Enterprise Week
National Women’s Enterprise Week (NWEW) is a nationwide celebration of female entrepreneurship across the UK. Spearheaded by entrepreneur Alison Cork MBE in partnership with the British Library Business & IP Centre National Network. Did you know, women are more likely than men to turn a profit in their first month of trading. Yet, less than 2% of venture capital funding in the UK goes to female founders – and over a third of women start their businesses with just £1,000 or less.*
(*Source: nwew.co.uk)
To mark this important week, the teams from BIPC Greater Manchester, Build a Business, and Generator MCR hosted a special event at Manchester Central Library. The goal? To create a space where women in business could connect, share experiences, and gain valuable insights from seasoned mentors across Greater Manchester. The highlight of the event was a dynamic speed mentoring session featuring seven accomplished mentors. Their advice and encouragement proved invaluable to the entrepreneurs in attendance.
Feedback included:
“I have got all my gold resources here. Thanks.”
“Excellent opportunity to meet other business people and mentors did a great job.”
The Generator – Supporting Businesses
Start-ups gained valuable insights during the Marketing Tax Digital workshop, simplifying financial compliance. We followed with the Sales for Small Businesses workshop, where practical selling techniques were discussed. A highly requested SEO for Small Businesses workshop outlined how to make SEO easy to understand and taught small business owners how to get found on Google. Another workshop included a session about Responsible AI, which covered how to integrate AI purposefully into your workflows for efficient content creation and problem solving. Staff wrapped up the month with another lively Networking evening connecting founders, professionals and new entrepreneurs.
Start-ups gained valuable insights during the Marketing Tax Digital workshop, simplifying financial compliance. We followed with the Sales for Small Businesses workshop, where practical selling techniques were discussed. A highly requested SEO for Small Businesses workshop outlined how to make SEO easy to understand and taught small business owners how to get found on Google. Another workshop included a session about Responsible AI, which covered how to integrate AI purposefully into your workflows for efficient content creation and problem solving. Staff wrapped up the month with another lively Networking evening connecting founders, professionals and new entrepreneurs.
Full Volume: The Manchester Libraries Podcast
‘Full Volume: The Manchester Libraries Podcast’ takes listeners behind the shelves of our city’s much-loved libraries. Presented by the Central Library’s own Alan Lynch, every month the podcast lifts the lid on a treasure trove of insider tips, exclusive interviews, book reviews, and much more.Listen to Episode Six: Kimberly Whittam
Baby Week 2025 – Launch at Central Library
On Monday 16 June, hundreds of buggies, prams and babes in arms flowed across St Peter’s Square between Manchester Art Gallery and Manchester Central Library as Manchester Baby Week 2025 was launched! For many of our youngest Mancunians this was their first cultural experience- and they loved it! Getting your first library membership card is a special event, and babies were also treated to free nursery rhyme Sing With Me booklets and gorgeous new books from Read Manchester. There was plenty of time to talk about the importance of early literacy and offer tips and advice to new parents including the Early Words Matter campaign.
Our library storytellers put on some fantastic Storytime sessions with songs and rhymes, plus other providers joined in the fun with activities. Artful Playground provided music and movement sessions with live instruments, the Football Museum gave us nursery rhymes galore and Dance Like A Mother saw parents and babies dancing the day away! The Child-Friendly City team explained how we are making our city welcoming for children and families- a warm welcome always awaits in Manchester Libraries.
Half-Term – Central Library
It was another lively half-term at Central Library, with many children and families choosing to spend their school holidays with us at the end of May. As always, Lego Club was a huge hit, 20 children and 14 parents joined in to build castles, gardens, and all sorts of imaginative creations.
A popular new addition was the Seed Library, which saw 25 budding gardeners (no pun intended!) planting tomatoes, beans, and sunflowers to take home and nurture. We were also thrilled to welcome the fantastic artist Lorraine Rudyard, who led a creative workshop where 45 children and 25 adults learned how to make dolls using wire, fabric scraps, and other materials.
Other highlights from the week included a fun-filled family board games session, as well as Italian and French storytime sessions that brought language and culture to life for our young visitors.
Refugee Week – Abraham Moss Library, Beswick Library, and North City Library
This year, the Moomins were the theme for Refugee Week, celebrating community as a superpower. At Beswick Library, Abraham Moss Library, and North City Library, children took part in creative sessions where they designed their own Moomin houses.
From collage and painting to sculpture, the children fully embraced the activities, pouring imagination and care into their creations. Each house reflected their unique ideas of what makes a home welcoming to everyone, and the results were absolutely fantastic!
Refugee Week – Chorlton & Didsbury library
As part of our programme of events for Refugee Week, we hosted two heartwarming craft sessions, one at Chorlton Library and the other at Didsbury Library. This year’s theme, “The Door is Always Open,” was beautifully tied to the beloved Moomins, celebrating 80 years since the first book was published. The Moomins’ timeless message of inclusivity, kindness, and belonging remains as powerful today as ever. In The Great Flood, the very first Moomin story, the Moomins become refugees in search of a new home. Their journey ends in Moominvalley, where they find the welcoming Moominhouse, a place of shelter, comfort, and community.
Inspired by this story, our sessions began with a short film adaptation of The Great Flood, followed by a creative activity where children designed their own Moominhouses, first on paper, then as keepsake boxes. They were encouraged to think about what their ideal home would look like, who would be in it, and how it would feel. The results were truly special. We saw some amazing creations and had many thoughtful conversations. Parents and carers even joined in, crafting their own versions of the perfect house, or rather, the perfect home.
Refugee Week – Longsight Library
To mark Refugee Week, Longsight Library hosted a special screening of Fremont, directed by Babak Jalali and co-written by Carolina Cavalli. The event took place in one of their stylish upstairs community rooms, thankfully cool and comfortable despite the heat outside!
The film, which follows Donya, a former US Army translator and Afghan refugee resettled in Fremont, California, resonated deeply with the audience. Through its quiet strength, gentle humour, and themes of loneliness, connection, and resilience, Fremont sparked heartfelt responses. One attendee shared how the story reminded her of her grandmother’s journey to the UK as a refugee.
The screening was a hit, with many guests asking, “..when’s the next film?”.
