Supporting libraries

Every year, we provide new books to libraries worldwide, set up new reading spaces and help librarians inspire people to visit again and again.

Home What we do Supporting libraries

Libraries are magical

Libraries introduce new ideas and open up new worlds. For millions, they offer the only chance to read.

But many libraries also lack the funds to buy new stock. People are faced with empty shelves and outdated, tattered books. It makes it much harder to discover how far a book can take you.

So we support libraries across the globe – providing everything from high quality children’s books to the latest medical and legal texts, always guided by what our partners tell us will make the biggest difference. 

Supporting libraries

We provide brand new books to every kind of library imaginable. These include everything from large public libraries to small community and mobile libraries. These inspiring local groups are often run by volunteers and they take books into communities in vans, on motorbikes or even towed by donkeys. 

We work in prison libraries too, and in refugee camps – where a library might simply be a selection of books laid out somewhere quiet – and we have a special focus on supporting libraries where book collections have been lost to disaster or conflict.

Creating places to read

In places where there are no libraries, we work with communities to set up new ones. 

For example, we create Community Container Libraries, transforming shipping containers into thriving libraries. Each one contains 5,000 brand new books, funding to buy more books locally and training for the staff who will run these thriving libraries in the long-term.

We’ve also opened 152 Children’s Corners across Africa since 2010. Each gives children their own place in a library to fall in love with reading and empowers librarians to support them as they begin to read.

Libraries contribute to:

SDG 4

Quality education

SDG 10

Reduced inequality

Impact since 2015

71

Libraries refurbished since 2017

1,059

Libraries received books last year

Why libraries matter

Libraries stocked with brand new books give people the power to change their lives for the better. Here are just a few of their stories.

Sharon’s story

A better life through books

Sharon grew up in an informal community at the edge of Nairobi. Despite the challenges she faced, she knows the power books and perseverance can truly have.

Read more
Rogers’ story

Moving books to far places

Rogers grew up with no books and went on to found his own library – including a bicycle library. This is his story.

Read more