In the autumn of 2024, the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, in professional partnership with the Hungarian Library Institute of the National Széchényi Library and the Petőfi Cultural Agency, launched the Library Challenge competition. The initiative aims to encourage public libraries of various sizes and functions to compete both with each other and with themselves, using innovative methods to promote reading, increase visitor numbers, and boost loan statistics.
The competition is based on a comparison of participating libraries’ statistical data from the current and last year. It rewards outstanding achievements in four core areas:
The priority target groups of the Library Challenge are children and young people, as well as Hungarians living outside the country across the Carpathian Basin.
Three special categories were also announced:
A total of 370 libraries entered the competition. The stakes were high: the top three winners in the core categories received €25,000, €12,500, and €7,500 respectively, while the winners of the three special categories were awarded €25,000, €12,500, and €12,500 for their libraries.
Representing the organising bodies, Mr Máté Vincze, Deputy State Secretary for Public Collections and Cultural Development at the Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Mr Dávid Rózsa, Director General of the National Széchényi Library, and Ms Tamara Bajnok, Head of Department at the Library Institute, personally visited the most prominent participating libraries in each county during the first half of 2025.
These visits aimed to highlight and communicate the libraries’ achievements and the effectiveness of their programmes to a broader public via social media platforms. During the site visits, the delegation observed innovative practices, the success of community programmes, and the active engagement of local audiences.