Ten partnerships have been named the 2026 I Partner with My Public Library Awardees — from a retired bookmobile re-purposed by a community in rural Kentucky to city schools in the Philippines, the first award ever made outside North America. Congratulations to all ten.

The 2026 awardees

• B3 | Being, Belonging, Becoming, nominated by Chapel Hill Public Library, North Carolina. A nonprofit coffee kiosk in the library offering paid internships to neurodivergent people.
• The Bonanza Restaurant, nominated by Pembroke Public Library, Ontario. A downtown restaurant that hosts the library’s Casual Choir and helped its Multilicious program triple to 155 participants.
• Bullitt County Health Department, nominated by Bullitt County Public Library, Kentucky. Brings public health services into the library year-round, including a mental health festival that drew 614.
• CASA by the Lakes, nominated by Marshall County Public Library, Kentucky. Created a family space and a mothers’ support group with the library, working to prevent child abuse and neglect.
• Community Seed Bank Committee of the NC State Extension Master Gardener Volunteers of Gaston County, nominated by Gaston County Public Library, North Carolina. Volunteers who package thousands of seed packets a year for the library’s free seed bank.
• Department of Education – Schools Division Office of Makati City (DepEd Makati), nominated by Makati City Library, Philippines. Brings library storytelling and environmental education into city schools, reaching more than 440 children and family members.
• E3 Community Services, nominated by Collingwood Public Library, Ontario. Supports the 40 volunteers with intellectual disabilities who run the library’s pay-what-you-can Happy Day Café.
• Fountain Run Women’s Group, nominated by William B. Harlan Memorial Library, Kentucky. Turned the library’s retired bookmobile into a permanent mini-branch for a community of about 220 people.
• Merriweather Arts and Culture Center, nominated by Howard County Library System, Maryland. Hosts Battle of the Books for more than 1,800 fifth graders — 42 percent of the county’s public-school fifth grade.
• Reach Across Hill County, nominated by Hillsboro City Library, Texas. A substance misuse prevention nonprofit that sponsors the library’s Dungeons & Dragons club and Community Care Corner.

Detailed information on all Awardees will be shared online in conjunction with the 2026 Awards Ceremony, which will be held online on Thursday, November 19, at 2 pm Eastern / 11 am Pacific. It is free and open to all. Register here.

A rigorous review

This year’s 31 nominations came from public libraries in 13 U.S. states, two Canadian provinces and the Philippines. Twenty-three volunteer reviewers from 16 states and provinces read them through September. Every nomination was read independently by four or five reviewers and scored against seven defined criteria. No reviewer read a nomination they were connected to.

To every reviewer: thank you. This was many hours of careful, generous work, and these awards could not happen without it.

To everyone who submitted a nomination: A huge thank you as well!

Nominations for 2027 will open on June 1, 2027.

Our ultimate goal in this endeavor is to celebrate and raise awareness about the tremendous power of community partnerships involving public libraries.

These annual awards were started in 2023 after a three-year national (U.S.) study determined that the most impactful public library initiatives require strong community partnerships with a wide range of collaborators. We’re thrilled to shine a light on library partnerships through this endeavor.

The goal of these annual awards is two-fold: (1) to celebrate the amazing work that is only possible when public libraries collaborate with community partners, and (2) to highlight opportunities for both public libraries and potential community partners to start and extend collaborations.

You can also learn more about this effort in this article published on OCLC/WebJunction.

Intergenerational connections thanks to partnership between Elmwood: An Inspira Health Group Senior Care Facility and Hubbard Public Library, a 2024 Honorable Mention.

Why does Let’s Move in Libraries sponsor this award?

Since 2016, the non-profit organization Let’s Move in Libraries has been a national and international voice advocating for strengthened partnerships between public libraries and others that want our communities to be healthier places for all. Through this work, we have seen that public libraries can do a lot to promote health, but this health promotion work is almost always made possible by community partners and community collaborators. Recognizing a gap around this topic, in 2023 Let’s Move in Libraries launched the annual I Partner with My Public Library Award to begin the process of creating a platform to celebrate and acknowledge the crucial work of community collaborators to the work of public librarianship. This award is open to all partners, not only those focused on health promotion.