GETTING more young people to read is a tough task but Julie Spencer is doing just that for the whole of the North-west.

Now her hard work has been recognised and she has won a prestigious national prize, the Tom Farries Award for Personal PR Achievement.

It means staff at Bolton Library have two reasons to celebrate after also being highly commended for the Bill Naughton archive in the same awards organised by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

Julie, who works at Bolton Library, runs a project called Everybody's Reading which covers 18 local authorities and targets 16 to 25-year-olds.

She said: "I was thrilled to get the award. The project targets underprivileged young people and Bolton was the lead authority for the whole of the North-west.

"Even though I have been running the project, it has been a real team effort. It is wonderful for the library to get two awards. A lot of hard work has gone into the reading project and into the archive."

Judges praised Julie's commitment to the project and said her initiative had been an inspiration for other authorities throughout the UK.

Julie was awarded the MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for her work on Everybody's Reading and previous projects to promote reading.