Victoria Dilly is Chief Executive Officer of the School Library Association – a national
organisation that supports everyone who works in school libraries through training, advice,
networking and professional development. Before taking up the post earlier this year,
Victoria worked in education for 20 years, initially as a school librarian herself in schools
across Sussex and then leading national education programmes for organisations such as
National Literacy Trust, Royal Horticultural Society and Young Enterprise. She has a wide
range of experience and expertise and a keen desire to enable children and young people to
fulfil their full potential. An avid reader from a young age, Victoria believes in the power of
stories to transform and is excited to be advocating for school libraries and all they do to help
young people, and to expand the reach of the SLA so that more schools around the country
can enjoy the benefits of vibrant, well-resourced and well-used school libraries.
Jenny Hawke – Children’s Librarian, Youth Libraries Group & GLL Foundation I am a
public Children’s Librarian for Bromley Libraries based at Orpington Library but also part of
the Children’s Team helping to deliver events and activities across the libraries in Bromley.
Earlier this year I became the Vice Chair of the GLL Literary Foundation which supports
authors in writing, sharing stories, and inspiring young readers, operated by GLL which is a
charitable social enterprise. I am very active in the Youth Libraries Group (YLG) and
passionate about children’s literature and library services. I have been a YLG SE Carnegie
and Kate Greenaway judge and in 2021 I won the YLG award for my dedication and
commitment to working with children and young people. I am currently the Chair of the YLG
National Committee.
Sarah Tyson is a freelance literary consultant and events producer based in Yorkshire who
may already be known to some of you as ‘Books Up North’. She is the executive officer for
the Libraries in Leeds network and produces their festival and events.
Sarah Tyson – Freelance Consultant and Producer, Books Up North
- Her background was running Ryedale Book Festival (but didn’t survive covid), working in
Waterstones York on events, then Creative Producer for Leeds Public Libraries service –
reviewing their events programme, and now works freelance. - Runs Books Up North – a mobile bookseller and event producer. Works with a wide variety
of publishers/authors to connect them with communities of readers in different locations.
Covers Yorkshire and Humberside, across the Pennines into Greater Manchester, Liverpool
and Teeside/Newcastle, Durham. Has a lot of literary contacts e.g. with booksellers, festival
organisers. - Sarah works on a freelance basis to help find venues/plan events in the North and plan
Northern tours in both libraries and independent bookshops. - Sarah supports a lot of literary events e.g. Festival of Ideas, York Explore, Books by the
Beach… Can chair events, train volunteers, help with programming, bookselling - E.g. Worked with Libraries in Leeds festival in November, who teamed up with the British
Library and the Queens Reading Room to host a hybrid event with Tracey Chevalier - Sarah also runs a Kids Book Review panel on the Books Up North website
- Is currently developing a reading tool to share book suggestions from enthusiastic young
readers with more reluctant readers. It will be called Reading to Smile and is in development
at the moment.
- The Libraries in Leeds network comprises British Library, four university libraires, prison
libraries, hospital libraries, medical libraries, research libraries, specialist music libraries and
more. It pools resources and draws across different collections/services a single programme
of events, which Sarah programmes and produces. Sarah is interested in developing
reading, reading audiences and engagement – but the stakeholders in the network are
interested more broadly in heritage, health, digital so the programme will represent all their
work. - Librariesinleeds.org is the website – have a look at the events tab for last year’s events.
- General point on public libraries. They are part of Libraries Connected – an independent
charity representing public libraries and every library service is part of this umbrella. Reading
is only part of libraries’ universal offer, they also cover other areas e.g. health/wellbeing so
don’t forget that reading is only one of four areas covered by libraries. - Not everyone you might connect to at the library is an avid reader or loves books/reading.
- Dynamic libraries can apply for funding, giving them ‘NPO’ status, which means you have
additional resources to create additional events, programmes, partnerships beyond the
statutory offer. - When working with libraries remember that creating events on top of customer service,
managing stock, can be a lot for libraries so bear in mind that frontline stuff have a lot to do –
events are the cherry on the cake. Staff are lovely and keen to make things happen but help
by making it as easy as possible. - There are challenges – Public libraries priority is not selling books or event tickets, so that
can be a conflict – so if a publisher expects minimum book sales for an author appearance
and high audience numbers that is unlikely to happen. Libraries may have free events which
makes it tricky to gauge how many people may turn up. - Libraries also may not have the retail capacity to take card payments/sell products – so
using bookshop partners is really beneficial. - Sales teams can get a set of books added to library stock – which works well for reading
groups. E.g. you can borrow a set of 10 books and distribute it to a reading group. - There is a calendar of the library’s Universal Offers – that’s a good way to make it relevant
to the library, a publicist can reach out and mention that an event would tie into the offers.
Development Librarians are the key contacts to speak to about events. - Look at LibrariesConnected.Org – they tend to offer events that link to the universal offers.
Victoria Dilly – CEO of the School Librarian Association - Has been in post for three months – was previously in education, a school librarian, ran a
book blog (Book Activist) and worked at NLT on the (now) Libraries for Primaries - SLA are looking at impact of libraries on young people – recently worked on Social
Reading Spaces with HarperCollins (Research and Insights – Farshore) - Have 3,000 members – huge reach – that represents 1.5m children
- Keen to work with publishers to get the right books in the hands of children. They are
developing a menu of opportunities for publishers to engage with, with tiers of options – want
to work a year in advance. That will likely launch in January 26. - Meet the Creator is going to be redeveloped
- Looking at changing newsletter – providing more thought leadership and literary content
- Developing pupil-facing resources for librarians which would include authors, illustrators,
poets - Have patrons – reviewing this programme at the moment
- Want to launch a ‘Coming Soon’ project to highlight new books
- Launching an ‘SLA for Publishers’ update so publicists can be aware of opportunities.
- Annual Conference in June – booked for this year, but will release opportunities for 2026
directly after this year’s conference. Author panels, speakers. - They have regional leads in 21 branches and that is a good route to engaging with a group
of schools to organise schools tours. Works well for regionally based authors. Get in touch
as early as possible. - Open to conversation – do reach out to Victoria and their Comms Manager Saira Aspinall
- Saira is the first port of call for anything to do with books and reading
Jenny Hawke – Youth Librarian Group
Children’s librarian for Bromley Libraries, Chair of YLG National Committee
- Jenny has been Chair of the YLG since September – busy putting finishing touches to
conference in Eastbourne on 6 th September. This year’s programme is pretty locked down. - Do get in touch with YLG National Committee – details on their website.
- As a children’s librarian, Jenny is based at Orpington Library, currently in temporary
accommodation as main library being refurbished - 9 of 14 libraries are being refurbished in her area, do big launches for the reopening
- Footfall has really picked up post-covid – over a million visitors came to Bromley libraries in
2024-2025. - There are three children’s librarians in Bromley who all get together to plan events/activities
for the year - In Bromley they host events for very small children e.g. baby bounce, Chatterbooks groups
for 8-11 year olds, and teenage reading groups. Authors can come and visit these groups.
Have even had board book authors come for baby bounce – so important to incorporate
board books into those early years events. - Author might pop into a teenage reading group sessions (10 or 12 teens taking part) and
do a reading and more informal chat which is really good. - For younger ages a presentation on authors background/journey can be good, but events
with a song or craft activity have the strongest engagement. - Planning and communication is key for author events – preferably by email – but will swap
mobile numbers nearer the day of the event. - Biggest venue in Bromley Libraries is the main hall in Bromley Central Library which is
300/400 seated. That is mainly used to bring in schools. Public events are usually in the
libraries which would fit 30-40 children. Bromley Library will be moving premises this time
next year. - Can’t always fit a three-form entry year group in a library, so sometimes the school focus
on bringing in pupil premium students. The library always prefer to have events inside the
library rather than hosting in a school to promote the library if possible. - Book sales a bit tricky – whether children bring in money on the day or via pre-order form –
pre-order always better. For school events they like to give bookmarks to children who
haven’t been able to get a book. - They like to tie events up with national initiatives like Empathy Festival, National Share A
Story Month - Currently programming events for the Autumn term – plan well in advance to get it into the
school calendar. - GLL (Greenwich Leisure Limited – a social charitable trust) run Bromley Libraries,
Wandsworth, Grenwich, Dudley, Lincolnshire and they recently launched a Literary
Foundation, which Jenny is Vice-Chair of. - GLL Literary Foundation is a support programme for authors – supporting 20 authors
across the five partnerships. Authrors will receive a placement including a bursary, online event, school event etc. GLL also run “Start Up Business” with pre-recorded videos tailor made for authors on brand identity, marketing and business planning. Authors also get networking opportunities. They had a big launch at Battersea Library with authors, literary world, and it was great networking. GLL Lit Foundation events have now started – the programme inspires readers, champions libraries. - The next submission window for authors to get involved in the GLL Foundation will be in
November/December – the form will be on the website and publishers can submit authors.
Authors need to be local to the boroughs the libraries are in. - Would love publicists to get in touch about hosting events. Information they need is: age
range, maximum number of children, IT requirements, dietary requirements (like to make
sure the authors are well looked after), book sales can be tricky (especially for schools) but
they can do it and work with indie booksellers. Be aware librarians work on the frontline so
can be busy, but do like meeting publishers and forging more links. - Jenny doesn’t work on adult events, but know there are programmes in the evenings and
they sometimes do Library Lates e.g. recently on World Book Night