A one day course for librarians with responsibility for reader development and reading groups

Thursday 16 October 2008, The Bookseller's Association, London (10.30am to 4pm)

Course aims

This course aims to:
• develop understanding of volunteer motivation, recruitment and management in relation to reading groups
• demonstrate relevant models of volunteering
• explore the potential for involving volunteers and communities in reading groups
• identify potential audiences and partners for this work
• look at ways of evaluating the impact of reading groups

Trainer

Priscilla Bailey was the regional co-ordinator for the East Midlands Regional Group pilot, which has been developing this work in a partnership between us and the nine regional library authorities of the East Midlands region and the East Midlands MLA. She has overseen three regional volunteering pilots exploring new ways of using volunteers, sometimes known as community champions, to support library reading groups. Priscilla also works for Derbyshire Library Service as Reader/Audience Development Officer

Background

Libraries are beginning to use community reading champions in new and exciting ways particularly in relation to reading groups. Library reading groups are increasing in popularity and libraries are seeking ways to reach new audiences through the reading activities they run. In addition, local authorities are looking for ways to get local people involved with running services in their communities.

This course looks at how volunteers can attract new and different kinds of readers and increase capacity.The emphasis will be on actively involving community ambassadors (volunteers) and the added value they can bring to library reading groups.There will be practical case studies and information on the resources available to support this work.

H2. At the end of the course

By the end of the course participants will:
• have developed their understanding of the role of community ambassadors (volunteers) in reading groups
• know more about ways managing and delivering reading groups with community ambassadors
* know more about the resources available to support this work
• shared ideas for developing volunteer projects, including how to reach new audiences, working with partners, and recruiting, training and supporting reading group volunteers
• have an understanding of evaluation methods that can support this work.

A one day course for staff from libraries and learning organisations.

1 October in London (10.30am to 4pm) Booksellers Association, 272 Vauxhall Bridge Road.

7 October in Birmingham (10.30am to 4pm) Birmingham Central Library.

Course aims

This course aims to tell participants about how to run the Six Book Challenge, including planning and building partnerships with other organisations, planning and running activities, acquiring stock, and evaluation and follow up monitoring.

Trainer

Genevieve Clarke (National Coordinator for the Vital Link, The Reading Agency)

Background

In its first year as a national scheme, The Reading Agency's Six Book Challenge was run in over 80 per cent of English library authorities. Libraries teamed up with partners including local colleges, adult and community education teams, prison education teams and trade unions. This course draws on the lessons we have learnt during that first year and prepares delegates for running the Six Book Challenge successfully in their own organisations in 2009.

The Six Book Challenge is one of the strategies being used across the country to engage learners in reading for pleasure. As you may know adult literacy learners are a key audience for the National Year of Reading and the Six Book Challenge provides an attractive and ready-to-use package to engage them in reading for pleasure. It also offers ways of measuring reading confidence and skills. While the resources support the National Year of Reading and its legacy as part of a local authority's ongoing commitment to reading development for learners.

The Six Book Challenge helps libraries to meet the local priorities of:
• social inclusion
• literacy and lifelong learning
• partnership working

It also helps meet learning priorities:
• student retention
• student progression and achievement
• student employability and Skills for Life

This course will enable you to develop partnerships with your local learning providers or library service. It will equip you to run the Six Book Challenge effectively so that you get the best value from the activities and are able to learn useful lessons from running the project.

At the end of the course

By the end of this course participants will:
• understand the aims and context for the Six Book Challenge
• know how to use the full range of promotional materials and resources effectively
* know how to talk about the Challenge and its aims to colleagues
• know how to set up and develop long-lasting partnerships between libraries and learning providers
• know about the range of books appropriate for adult learners and understand how to promote them
• have ideas for engaging and supporting learners through the Six Book Challenge
• understand how the Six Book Challenge can be evaluated and how the evidence from evaluation can be used for outreach and advocacy work.

A one day course for prison librarians, prison staff and public library staff.

13 October 2008 (10.30am to 4pm)
Priory Street Centre, 15 Priory Street, York, YO1 6ET

Course aims

This course aims:
• To help you to understand how the Big Book Share can link offenders with their families through reading to improve their literacy and support their resettlement
• To raise awareness about the national initiative that involves libraries supporting offenders and their families
• To provide training and resources so that public library and prison staff can work in partnership to run the Big Book Share in prisons

Trainers

David Kendall or Tricia Kings (Managers Big Book Share programme) or Clive Hopwood (Writers in Prison Network).

Background

Around 140,000 children are separated each year from their parents through their parents' custodial sentences. It's estimated that 39 per cent of women and 25 per cent of men under 21 in prisons are parents. And two-thirds of the prison population have literacy needs.

Overwhelming research evidence shows that children do much better in school when parents, family members and carers get involved in their education, even those in the most difficult of circumstances (National Literacy Trust). According to one American study "Children of offenders are five more likely than their peers to end up in prison themselves". And we know that sustaining good family ties can reduce a prisoner's risk of re-offending by six times (Prison Reform Trust).

The Big Book Share develops partnerships between libraries and prisons so that offenders can choose, read and record a story for their children while they are inside and then go on to visit and use libraries once they are released. The programme started in 2000 in one prison and has grown and grown so that it now runs in more than 20 prisons.

The Big Book Share won CILIP's Libraries Change Lives award in 2002.

As you may know young men and fathers are key targets for the National Year of Reading and The Big Book Share can be used to engage new male (and female) readers and build new reading audiences in this National Year of Reading.

The Big Book Share helps libraries to meet the following local priorities:
• social inclusion
• literacy and learning for families in need
• safer communities
• partnership working

It also helps meet prison priorities:
• sustaining family links and positive parenting
• assisting resettlement
• reducing re-offending

At the end of the course

By the end of this course participants will:
• know how to implement The Big Book Share in a prison/library partnership
• understand the importance of family reading for offenders and their families
• understand how to work with prisions and public libraries to provide effective
support for ex-offenders.

New training courses for the autumn

These new courses support libraries and partners will help to spread the message about the value of reading during the National Year of Reading and beyond.

They provide practical tips and techniques for success, set within a clear context that reflects current policy priorities. They focus on reaching particular audiences of new readers and will be invaluable to a range of library and other staff.

The cost will be £185 per delegate (£165 for second and subsequent delegates from the same organisation).

To book a place at any of three autumn training courses listed below download the booking form and email it to training. We recommend you book early to be sure of a place.

The Big Book Share

A one day course for prison librarians, prison staff and public library staff
13 October 2008, York (10.30am to 4pm)

Would you like to be part of an award-winning project? Our Big Book Share project helps libraries and prisons to work together and achieve key priorities including social inclusion; support for families in need and partnership working.

This course will enable you to develop partnerships with your local prison or library service and understand how valuable family reading is to offenders and their families. At the end of the course you will be able to run the Big Book Share in your local prisons.

[more...]

Running the Six Book Challenge

A one day course for library and learning organisation staff and adult literacy tutors
1 October 2008 in Central London (10.30am to 4pm)
7 October 2008 in Birmingham (10.30am to 4pm)

Help to engage adult literacy learners in reading for pleasure. The Six Book Challenge is one of a number of strategies being used nationally to engage literacy learners (a key audience for the National Year of Reading) in reading for pleasure.

This course helps libraries and learning organisations to achieve important local priorities such as social inclusion, literacy and lifelong learning and partnership working. It helps tutors keep students attending and with their progression and achievement, as well as Skills for Life targets and employment prospects.

At the end of this course you will be able to develop partnerships with your local learning organisation or library service. You will also be able to run the Six Book Challenge effectively, getting the best value from the project.

[more...]

Using volunteers with Reading Groups

This course is fully booked

A one day course for reader development librarians and those with responsibility for running reading groups
16 October, Central London (10.30am to 4pm)

Reach out to your local community through reading groups. Library reading groups are increasing popular and libraries are looking for ways to reach out to new audiences while local authorities are looking to engage local communities and help them to have a say in how their neighbourhoods are run. One answer is to use volunteers and community reading champions in new and exciting ways particularly in relation to library reading groups.

At the end of this course you will be able to engage a range of target audiences through reading groups. We will show you how you can work with volunteers and reading champions to reach new readers and increase your capacity to run reading groups.

[more...]

Chatterbooks training days

Inspiring trainer, Jerry Hurst, is leading two Orange Chatterbooks training sessions for The Reading Agency:

Thursday 27 November 2008
Marriott Room, York Central Library, Museum Street, York YO1 7DS

Thursday 4 December 2008
CILIP, 7 Ridgmount Street, London WC1E 7AE

The training provides an essential introduction for library staff new to Orange Chatterbooks. It is also highly recommended for library staff who want to refresh or top up on previous training in this field. And if you're planning to start a Chatterbooks reading group in your authority, then this is also the training for you (or your staff).

You are guaranteed to come away with practical ideas of how to set up, run and develop a successful and lively Chatterbooks programme for your library service - and information on how you can evaluate your Chatterbooks groups' achievements.

Places cost £185 per person and £165 for each subsequent delegate from the same authority

Complete this booking form to book a place.

For more information call Jenny Warner on 020 7278 8922 or email training

Online training

For details about our regular online training courses see TRF and information about face to face can be found on The Vital Link website.

Finding out more

For further information about our training courses or to book a place please contact training or call 020 7278 8922.

We then publish conference presentations and reports on this website.

Coming up...
Just gone....
A while ago...

Coming up...

New thinking seminars

Do games tell a story? Why Gaming is the new reading funded by Creative Partnerships and in partnership with Channel 4
24 November 2008
6pm, Channel 4, Horseferry Road, London

Following on from our popular and successful joint Creative Partnerships seminars on the Future of Reading held in autumn of 2007, we will be exploring the creative relationship between reading, gaming, narrative and storytelling.

January 2009
And in the new year, following on from the Gaming and narrative seminar, this New thinking seminar will contemplate the partnership between reading and broadcasting taking a look at how broadcasting can be both a platform and a creative medium.

April 2009
From gaming to health! Also one for your diaries as in the New Year we will be holding a 'Reading and health' event to explore new thinking on how reading can support health and well being.

Booking details and confirmed dates and venues to follow so check back soon.

Just gone...

The Vital Link libraries and adult literacy conference for the National Year of Reading

A passion for reading: where does it fit into Skills for Life?
12 March 2008

Publication coming shortly.

Aiming High: the library offer to young people
29 January 2008
Programme details

Publication coming shortly

A while ago...

Community engagement through reading
30 November 2007
A conference run in partnership with the Local Government Association

Reaching New Markets
22 November 2007
A seminar run in partnership with the Bookseller on developing a black and minority ethnic strategy. Download the print advert for the seminar.

Follow the links to read the post-conference press release

National Year of Reading conference
October 2007
The National Year of Reading conference brought together people to discuss all the exciting possibilities offered by the National Year of Reading and to begin to plan how we are going make some of them happen. You can read more and download the interactive report from the National Year of Reading website hosted by the National Literacy Trust.

PLA Conference 2007
October 2007

At the Public Libraries Authorities' conference our Director, Miranda McKearney, highlighted the opportunities for libraries to get involved in the National Year of Reading 2008. Joanna Prior, Penguin's Publicity and Marketing Director spoke about how publishers were supporting the National Year of Reading.

Miranda McKearney's presentation and speech (see presentation notes to read the speech)

Joanna Prior's speech

The writer/reader mash up
September 2007

The relationship between readers and writers is changing, with a blurring of the boundaries between the consumption and creation of text. Young people are finding new ways both to tell their own stories and relate to writers. The digital revolution is creating different kinds of reading and writing communities. How are we responding to this new dynamic? We examined all of these questions at the writer/reader mash up seminar.

The reading revolution: how reading is changing and what that means
July 2007

The seminar proposition was that with the imminent arrival of the Sony e-reader and with the digital revolution well on its way, what is the future of the book and our current definitions of reading? How are young people accessing text and what are they reading?

Follow the link to download the podcast

Fulfilling their Potential conference 2007
Public Libraries and the Youth Offer

At the Fulfilling their Potential conference in 2007 we looked at the many different ways that young people could get involved with local library services and why libraries were so important to young people. Drawing on real life examples our speakers spoke passionately about putting young people and libraries together.

Libraries and Young People: Where have we got to and where next?
Miranda McKearney, Director, The Reading Agency
Tom Wylie, Chief Executive, The National Youth Agency

Why are public libraries critical to the Youth Offer?
Damian Allen, Executive Director of Children's Services, Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council - the local government view
The Derbyshire Libraries Book Pushers - the young people's view

Involving hard to reach young people: the experience of the Partners for Change project in the south west
Ciara Eastell, The Reading Agency - what has been learned to date?

Involving Looked After young people
Allyson Jordan, Library Services Manager, Swindon Libraries
Josh Chesterman, past Chair of the Swindon Youth Forum

Next steps for youth policy and public libraries
Rt Hon. Beverley Hughes MP, Minister of State for Children, Young People and Families

Transforming young people's library experience: lessons from the FtP north west partnership project
Nicky Parker, Head of Library and Information Services, Manchester City Council; Peter Garden, Regional Adviser, MLA North West and Liz Harding, Head of the North West Regional Youth Work Unit

The Chelsea Football Club Experience: developing new readers through partnerships
Suzi Raymond, Chelsea FC Education Department
Jim Sells, National Literary Trust

Creative Reading: The Wow Factor
Anthony McGowan, Author and winner of the 2006 Booktrust Teenage Prize

Creative Partnerships, libraries and creative reading symposium
This symposium looked at the links between creative partnerships, libraries and creative reading. Download the report.

To get more reading to more people we need to understand readers better – why, what and how they read and what's standing in the way of reading more and differently. We need to be developing new thinking and experimenting with new approaches.

Our research programme allows us to pull together all the evidence and rich first-hand information we have from our work with readers. We then use this to inform debate and discussion about readers and reading. Our research is also incredibly valuable when we are planning our own projects.

So often good ideas get forgotten and impact gets lost. We want to capture evidence and new ideas through a new publications programme. The first one will follow the Community engagement through reading conference and there will also be one following the Youth conference. See Conferences for more information.

We are also about to publish a new piece of research jointly with Harper Collins into black and minority ethnic reading trends and how to promote BME writing effectively. Watch these pages for updates.

We'll try anything to get people talking about reading, and we’d like to work with new research partners. Contact us.

You can download our free reports from Resources.

Book Sales in Public Libraries

Our large-scale research into Book Sales in Public Libraries is available to order priced £29.95 by emailing resources with the number of copies you would like, your delivery address and invoice address.

You can read the key messages of the report by following the link.

We carry out and commission our own research and organise discussions within and beyond the library sector. We also run training courses and events related to the projects we run both face-to-face and online.

To allow us to share our knowledge and learn from others we also stage events and conferences that allow space for new thinking.

Recently we have been thinking about how technology is changing reading, especially for young people, and how best to bring black and minority ethnic authors to the widest possible audience.

This is an area of our work that we are actively developing and expanding and we are very excited by it.