Dear Liz
I was really interested to see your request for
information about reading group provision in libraries and wondered whether you
were aware of the work underway in the East Midlands to test drive a
national reading group offer supported by a range of resources and
tools available for general use.
The regional pilot involves all nine East
Midlands authorities working together with The Reading Agency
to support an agreed minimum baseline of reading group provision. This
minimum offer is built around a quality framework for progression that allows
scope for some authorities to deliver a more enhanced level of provision but
means that at the very least, all authorities provide a referral an
advice service using the national reading group database and a specially
developed pack. This means that even if they don't directly support reading
groups they can still direct people to information about local groups and
provide support for readers to set up their own through the pack. Obviously,
most authorities are able to provide much more than this through library based
groups and services but nevertheless there is common baseline for provision
across the region that has been used to develop effective user facing marketing
materials.
As well as providing an operational framework, the
pilot has also, through lottery funding, developed a creative programme that has
invigorated the reading group message to users through events and activities.
These have included a reading group writers' tour, a writer/reading group
mentoring scheme, a storytelling commission and a reading inspired creative
writing commission. There is also an online strand to the work, a capacity
building programme that has included the development of new tools and resources
such as the pack, staff training and a volunteer pilot that is directly engaging
the community in supporting reading group provision and building bridges to
hard to reach groups.
The pilot is approaching its third year
and there are some encouraging indicators of success. The regional approach
means that authorities with less capacity and resource have been able to fully
participate in the programme supported by others in
the consortium. Satisfaction rates are high and the authorities
involved have increased and developed provision without overstretching
capacity -there has been an increase of 33%
in the number of groups available and a widening of the range of audiences
covered.
The Reading Agency is currently looking at
rolling out the East Midlands model and would welcome contact from any
regions or authorities interested in adopting elements of the pilot in their own
area.
Debbie Hicks
Director of Research
The Reading Agency
Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, January 04, 2008 2:31
PM
Subject: Reading Group support in public
libraries
** apologies for cross-posting**
Dear all,
I'm interested in
finding out what provision is made in other authorities for reading groups.
Currently we offer very little support to reading groups and it is
something I would like to change, but concern has been raised about the
pressure that it would put on the budget as we are quite a small authority, so
I thought I'd do some research via these lists. I will collate responses
for the list(s), so feel free to reply off-list.
I'm particularly interested in the following:
- Do you support reading groups?
- What level of support do you provide? i.e.
space in libraries, provision of the books/other materials, member of staff to
lead the reading group...
- Do you
take any particular steps to ensure that appropriate materials are available,
i.e. sets of books kept particularly for reading groups
- If so, has this led to budgetary pressures, and if
not, have you had a problem with popular materials not being available when
requested?
- What size/type of
authority are you? (I will keep authorities anonymous if requested to do
so, but would still be useful to know whether you are e.g. a small London
borough or a large county authority).
any other comments you have well be most gratefully received!
Thanks,
Liz
Team Librarian
Ordnance Road Library
London Borough of Enfield
*************************************************************************************
Any opinions
expressed in this email are those of the individual and are
not necessarily
those of the London Borough of Enfield. This email and
any attachments
or files transmitted with it are strictly confidential and
intended solely
for the named addressee. It may contain privileged and
confidential
information and if you are not the intended recipient you
must not copy,
distribute or use the communication in any other way.
If you
receive this email in error please contact the sender as soon as
possible
and delete the email and any attachments.
*************************************************************************************
No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG Free
Edition.
Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.17.13/1212 - Release Date:
06/01/2008 22:55