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Harborough Insight Gathering

What You Told Us

Over 500 people took part in our Insight Gathering Project through surveys, outreach activities, creative engagement sessions and focus groups. Thank you to everyone who shared their views and ideas.

The feedback showed that Market Harborough Library and Harborough Museum are highly valued community spaces. People particularly praised our friendly staff, welcoming atmosphere and the important role the site plays as a hub for learning, culture and community connection.

The strongest themes from the feedback were:

• A desire for more activities and events for all ages.
• Increased demand for interactive and hands-on experiences, especially for children and families.
• Interest in more creative activities, performances, talks and workshops.
• Requests for more opportunities to engage with local history and heritage.
• A need for better communication about existing services, activities and exhibitions.

What We Will Do Next

We want everyone who contributed to see how their feedback is shaping our future plans.

Strengthening Our Events and Activity Programme
The feedback will help shape and strengthen the Library Events Programme, including contributions to initiatives such as the Early Years Festival and a wider range of activities for children, families and local communities.

Community Connectors Group
We will establish a Community Connectors Group for Market Harborough Library and Harborough Museum. This group will help us maintain ongoing conversations with local residents, gather feedback, test new ideas and ensure community voices continue to influence future plans and activities. This will also help us develop new partnerships and increase community participation across the site.

New Heritage Volunteering Opportunities
We will introduce a new Heritage Volunteering role within Harborough Museum, creating more opportunities for local people to get involved, develop skills and help share the area’s rich history with visitors.

More Creative and Cultural Activity
We are developing a new National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) funding bid for 2028-2033. If successful, this will support increased creative and cultural activity across Museums and Libraries, creating more opportunities for community engagement, participation and co-produced programmes. There will also be more opportunities for local people to engage with Creative Practitioners on creative and cultural projects across the county.

More Interactive Activities
Feedback consistently highlighted a desire for more interactive experiences. We will introduce more hands-on and interactive activities across both the library and museum, particularly for children and families. This includes exploring new interactive displays, creative activities, performances and participatory events.

Improve Communication
Many people told us they were unaware of activities and services already available. We will work to improve promotion of events, exhibitions, collections and opportunities, with clearer information about what is happening across the site.