This year’s National Acquisitions Group (NAG) Award for Excellence has been won by Leeds Libraries Stock Team for their ongoing work to diversify adult stock provision. Their policy of deliberately including more stock from smaller independent presses has brought in more work by diverse and marginalised voices across the spectrum.
The Executive Committee were impressed by the connections being created between libraries and independent publishers and the breadth of diversity being considered. As NAG is an organisation for both libraries and suppliers and publishers, this was a particularly relevant piece of work.
Stu Hennigan at Leeds Libraries said: “Independent publishers are a shining light in a publishing industry that becomes more homogenised with each passing year. Small presses are willing to work with working class, ethnic global majority, queer/trans identified , and others, writers who can’t see themselves in so much of corporate publishing’s output. Buying more stock from indies helps build diversity into the acquisition process by default; it has huge benefits not only for library users, publishers, and writers whose voices are marginalised in the mainstream, but for the communities those voices represent too. This work has been ongoing in Leeds for a number of years so we’re delighted to accept the award, which we hope to use to help advocate for closer links between small publishers and library services nationally in future.”
The team will share their project with the wider NAG membership through a webinar or paper at a NAG event in 2026. The NAG Award for 2025 is generously sponsored by BDS.
“BDS is delighted to sponsor the award this year and we hope, for years to come,” says Lesley Whyte. “There is so much excellent work being done in libraries, and it is great to see that this continues, despite budgetary restraints and cuts in staffing. BDS is proud to sponsor this award where professionalism and determination shine through”.