LibraryOn works to increase digital and physical visits to libraries by showcasing all the great things they offer. Based at the British Library, the programme is delivered by an agile team creating a website that includes a library map, events listings and special collections content.

LibraryOn has recently concluded two rounds of grant funding to public libraries. Through Arts Council England investment, the programme awarded just under £1.5m to 48 capital projects in 2023/24. The fund was shaped by public libraries to ensure it supported their digital needs. A comprehensive evaluation has now been published looking at the impact of funded activity on libraries and their users. The report will be used to help shape future digital development for the library sector.

The report is packed with case studies, quotes from applicants and useful tips for libraries hoping to deliver similar projects. It also contains an evaluation into how the grant programme was administrated and suggests some takeaways about the overall status of digital development in the library sector.

What did the funding deliver?

Awards focused on increasing the digital impact of public libraries, supporting users and encouraging non-users to engage.

Case studies include:

• Blackpool upgraded their 20 year old library management system to a new cloud based system, making their services more accessible and user-friendly.
• West Sussex commissioned photography and films to demonstrate the impact of library services on users’ lives.
• Camden collaborated with the RNIB to make e-books more accessible to blind and partially sighted users.
• Brighton and Hove created a digital marketing campaign to attract younger users and highlight the range of digital resources available to users new and old.

National reach of projects

The grants benefitted 53% of English public library services, including those who applied through consortia. That means 1,524 individual branches were reached, helping to maximise public investment and supporting libraries to strengthen their digital offer across the country.

This infographic shows where the projects happened and how much investment went into each area:

The Community of Practice

Alongside the grants programme LibraryOn also ran a Community of Practice, co-designed by projects to help share learning and progress. This included a series of expert sessions, suggested by libraries to help support digital practice. Open to the library sector, these have included the following topics. Click the links to view recordings of the sessions.

• Accessible Websites and User Journeys
• Telling Stories with Data
• Social Media Surgery
• Why Digital Inclusion Matters
• Library Data, Visualised
• AI for Public Libraries
• Projects 101 – Building Partnerships and Getting Funding.

Linking to a major new report into library engagement

The evaluation chimes with the Barriers to Library Use report (PDF, 1.7kb), published by DCMS / IPSOS in October last year. This report aimed to understand reasons for people not using public libraries and provide suggestions for boosting engagement.

LibraryOn’s grant funded activity supported many of the report’s suggested actions. New and updated websites, for instance, give users greater clarity on the variety of their library’s offer. Through virtual tours, people know what to expect before physically visiting. Video content showcasing classes, events and the space itself demonstrate that libraries are modern, relevant and full of life.

By creating a single digital front door for libraries, LibraryOn’s core site also helps to address the report’s conclusions. Linking the site to the digital presences of libraries across the country, many of which were upgraded by LibraryOn grants funding, allows LibraryOn to showcase what libraries offer, challenge perceptions and create a pathway to engagement via the Find a Library map. The recent refresh of the site also features event integration with the intention to offer this for all libraries.

What people are saying

Lisa Mustoe, successful applicant and Library Service Manager for Merton Library and Heritage Service, is quoted in the evaluation: ‘The promotional film has been instrumental in enhancing online discoverability and access for users through various initiatives and outreach. By showcasing the library’s resources and accessibility, the film has simplified the process for both current and potential users to find, and engage with the library, ultimately strengthening its presence in the community.’

Liz Jolly, Chief Librarian at the British Library, said: ‘At the British Library we want to help libraries across the country benefit from digital technologies and make it easier for library users to discover the wealth of resources, activities and support that libraries have to offer.

We were delighted to receive so many fantastic applications for LibraryOn grants and it highlights how dedicated library staff are to engaging with their local communities and helping their services to meet the needs of library users, through projects that bring the benefits of technology into libraries.’

Luke Burton, Director Libraries, Arts Council England said: ‘Public libraries are vital to their communities and a strong digital offer ensures the widest possible reach for their resources. Arts Council England has been investing in the development of LibraryOn as a national platform serving public libraries nationwide for some years. We’re delighted that some of this investment has directly supported library services across the country to boost their own online offer and visibility while improving access for their customers as well as enabling library staff to gain new skills.’

As part of its role as the custodian of the UK’s documentary heritage, the British Library frequently acquires items of significance to the nation. Thanks to the support of the British Library Collections Trust, curators recently acquired a unique 16th-century broadside mandate proclaiming Henry VIII’s supremacy (C.194.c.125).  

Issued in 1535 by the Bishop of Lincoln, it’s the earliest known printed evidence of a bishop’s support for the Reformation in England. It joins a rich collection of books and manuscripts relating to Henry VIII already held at the British Library, most notably Henry’s own book collection in the Old Royal Library.

The mandate asserting the Supremacy of King Henry VIII (C.194.c.125)

The Act of Supremacy was passed by Parliament in 1534, declaring Henry VIII supreme head on earth of the Church of England. In early June 1535, Henry VIII’s chief secretary, Thomas Cromwell sent a circular letter to all bishops in England and Wales.  

It contained an order for the bishops to declare Henry’s new title during all Sunday services as well as on high feast days. The bishops were also asked to spread these directives to all clergymen and schoolmasters in their dioceses. Complying with the orders was a matter of life and death: one of their own, the Bishop of Rochester, was awaiting his imminent execution for failing to support the king.  

The Bishop of Lincoln faced a particularly difficult task as the Lincoln diocese was one of the largest, both in area and number of parishes, and reaching everyone by manuscript letters alone proved challenging. Therefore, as the bishop explains in a letter to Cromwell, he had 2,000 copies of the mandate printed as a broadside. The British Library’s mandate is the only known copy to survive.  

Written in Latin and English, the mandate was directed both at the clergy and at parishioners. Used as the basis for sermons, it is also possible that the broadside would have been pinned up inside the church for everyone to see.

The text reveals the meticulous and ruthless detail with which Henry’s supremacy was enforced in the 1530s. Not only was every ‘true chrysten subject’ obliged to ‘recognise the kynges hyghnes to be supreme heed in erthe of the churche of England [recognise the King’s Highness to be Supreme Head on earth of the Church of England]’.  

They also had to ‘teache theyr chyldren and servants’ that the ‘bysshop of Rome [the Pope]’ has ‘usurped, not onely upon god, but also upon princes of this realme and theyr progenitours’.  

Consequently, any mention of the word ‘pope’ was to be erased from books. Indeed, today many books bear the traces of such deletions. For example, in a Polycronicon copy printed by William Caxton in 1482, someone has blacked out all mentions of the word ‘pope’.

Deletions of the word ‘pope’ in Ranulph Higden’s Polycronicon (IB. 55058)

Now sitting within the British Library’s rich Printed Heritage Collections, this unique mandate sheds light onto how printed material became a site of profound political and religious shifts during this tumultuous period in English history.  

By Alyssa Steiner
Curator, Printed Heritage Collections

Having retired from corporate finance, Martin Giles is using the Library to research his encyclopaedia of hippos.

Martin Giles

A few years ago, I was on holiday in Burkina Faso. We were in a wooden dugout looking at hippos, and a lady started asking the guide questions about them. I found that I was answering, and she turned around to me and said, ‘Are you some kind of a hippo expert or something?’ And I thought, gosh, actually, do you know what? I’ve just realised – I am. 

My book will be an alphabetical hippo encyclopaedia, with cross-referencing. It will cover everything from religion to recipes to how hippos have appeared throughout history. I think they’re an animal that has dignity; that is underappreciated. Hippos have always given me joy. 

My book is about the connections between hippos and other topics

With the resources provided by the Library, I have the opportunity to pursue this interest. I love sitting in the Reading Room surrounded by people being studious, and going to the Members’ Room to have a break and a cup of tea. 

A colleague of mine once asked, ‘What’s the world market for an encyclopaedia of hippos?’ I said to him, ‘That’s not why I’m doing it. I just think there should be one.’ 

However, in an encyclopaedia about birds, for example, you’d have a few chapters on general topics and then a page on every kind of bird for a thousand pages thereafter. Whereas there are only two kinds of hippos – pygmy and regular. My book is about the connections between hippos and other topics. 

Tutankhamun may have been killed by a hippo

The first pharaoh of unified Egypt, Menes, was supposedly carried away and killed by a hippo. One of the theories about Tutankhamun is that he was killed by a hippo, too. People may know that the first American president, George Washington, had dentures made out of hippopotamus ivory, but they don’t tend to know that another president, Thomas Jefferson, had a bit of a fixation with hippos. He was determined to prove that they existed in North America. 

I’m going to look at hippos in art and literature, and hippos on stamps, banknotes and coins. I was interested in the designers and engravers who created stamps with hippos on them, so I contacted the Philatelic Curator at the Library, and that has turned out to be an interesting path to pursue.

The first stamps with hippos on them are from Liberia

There are Roman coins with hippos on them, and bank notes from the Belgian Congo. The Library holds an archive of original artwork by the Crown Agents, who created the stamps for Britain and the Commonwealth. For about a decade, they did Liberian stamps as well. 

The first ever stamps with hippos on them were from Liberia in 1892. Liberia is associated with pygmy hippos, so there is an assumption that the hippos on the stamps are pygmy hippos. The president of the Liberian Philatelic Society even wrote a great article about it. But that point didn’t sit well with me, because the image looks like a regular hippo. 

The Library holds wonderful 19th-century books of engravings. The hippo engraved on the stamp was from Jumbo’s Picture Book of Natural History, created by a very experienced pair of engravers, The Brothers Dalziel (the firm who did Sir John Tenniel's illustrations for Alice in Wonderland). The engraving is clearly meant to be a regular hippo and has clearly been copied on the stamp. I got in touch with the Liberian Philatelic Society to have my theory peer reviewed. I’ve now written 24 articles for their journal, and this year, they elected me a director of the society. 

There’s no end to where hippos get

One thing that’s really surprised me is that the Library has so much literature that’s not in English. If I want to include a novel in my encyclopaedia – such as El Ruido de las Cosas al Caer by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, a Colombian novel that features the hippos of Pablo Escobar – I can read it in translation, but I can also check the original. 

There’s an Angolan novel called A General Theory of Oblivion in which an old woman decides to wall herself up in her apartment because she isn’t sure how to cope with the outcome of independence. But, on the balcony below hers, somebody is keeping a hippo. There’s no end to where hippos get.

I can even look at original manuscripts at the Library. There are medieval romances about Alexander the Great, in which, when he crosses into India, he sends 200 of his finest knights across the Indus River and they are eaten by hippos. Now, of course, the story is nonsense, but, as I research it, I get to handle volumes printed in the 15th century. 

There is no topic you can’t bring round to hippos

Hippos have a cuddly side to them, but they are said to be the world’s most dangerous animal. There are no good figures about that. One element of the project that I’ve found very interesting has been chasing down facts. You know, nobody keeps good records of how many people have been killed by hippos. 

I have a long-suffering wife. She has an acronym that we joke about: SHAWIG. It stands for ‘Spreading Hippopotamus Awareness Wherever I Go’. There is no topic you can’t bring round to hippos. For a relatively introverted person, it’s a great way of side-stepping conversational angst. Nobody writes an encyclopaedia because they’re an extrovert. This time last year we went to Colombia together, because I was chasing down the Pablo Escobar hippos. He imported four hippos, and now there are almost 200 living there. 

I’m currently ready to share a few letters of the alphabet with a publisher. I’m on E for Egypt, Pablo Escobar, earthquakes, eclipses – how do hippos respond to a solar eclipse? I don’t know if this is going to be the world’s leading encyclopaedia of hippos. But, in the meantime, it’s fun.

As told to Lucy Peters