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A focus on reader development is changing the way public libraries work, and transforming people’s lives in the process. The Reading Agency has led many of these changes but they are only the start – with better, sustained funding, there is so much more that libraries could do, writes MIRANDA McKEARNEY


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t’s shameful that 56 per cent of UK adults have literacy skills below the level of a good GCSE, and that some children go to school without knowing which way up to hold a book. And it’s horribly telling that 25 per cent of young offenders have reading skills below those of the average seven year old. The Reading Agency has been backing and building a movement in libraries called reader development because we think it can make a serious contribution to tackling these problems, and add to the sum of human happiness. The movement is creating a livelier, more interventionist reading service that’s both much more attractive and socially relevant. It’s all about motivation, pleasure and recreation as the precursor to learning and growing. Research shows that this reader development way of working has profound implications for helping people enjoy reading, for bringing communities together, building literacy skills, for helping people feel better in and about themselves, and even for increasing community volunteering. The movement is changing the way libraries operate. Its most intensive work has been with children’s reading and it’s no accident that children’s book issues are rising. But it’s making ground with adults too. Fifteen years ago writers’ events and proper book promotions in libraries were rare, now they are much more commonplace and professional. Library reading groups are mushrooming. We could make such ground if this new offer was more systematically developed and supported by decent book stock.


The Reading Agency is seven years old now and it has accomplished a lot. With libraries and with readers we’ve found new ways of working that have had a big impact across the library network and on people’s lives. When you’re experimenting, not everything works, so we’ve been looking at where our national role can make the most difference.


Libraries and readers tell us they value the way we’ve created huge shared national reading programmes. These give readers irresistible experiences, improve their quality of life and literacy, and, at the same time, drive library improvement through economies of scale and sharing good practice. The Summer Reading Challenge, Chatterbooks reading groups and the new Six Book Challenge all do this. They also support library advocacy because we can do one piece of impact research everyone can share. We are also hearing that libraries value


our brokering of national partnerships that make a tangible local difference. We have a strategy to engage partners like BBC Learning, UKTV, Disney and Orange, so that libraries are not left out of big marketing pushes on reading. These partnerships get positive library messages to consumers and often give libraries free marketing materials. They give the public a richer local library experience, linking people into a bigger world of reading and ideas. Libraries also tell us that they value the Reading Agency’s ability to work with them to think out of the box and see new connections. It’s been fascinating to see the All-Party


Parliamentary Group for Libraries call for a national development agency and to compare that call for advocacy and shared improvement with the work we do. You could argue that we are the reading development


developing to get writers and readers together – Girls Nights In, war stories sessions, events targeting minority commun- ities, and so on. And then there are broadcasters. We’re


currently running a small but very promising project called Reading Detectives. It’s the literature part of the BBC and Arts Council’s Made in England programme. It involves five library authorities – Lancashire, Stafford- shire, Derbyshire, Kent and Cumbria – where teams of readers, authors, archivists and local studies librarians are investigating undiscovered or forgotten writers with a link to the locality. Their progress is followed by BBC local radio. The project seems to have injected reading into that vein of people’s enthusiasm for local studies, and is wholly user-driven. We think it has huge roll-out potential.


“Reader development is all about motivation, pleasure and recreation as the precursor to learning and growing”


agency for libraries. We’re small, but we’re making quite a difference and could do a whole lot more with more resources.


New partnerships


The past few years have seen new partnerships emerge and develop. I’ll take publishers first. In 2004 we set up Reading Partners, a partnership between the UK’s major publishers and the whole of the library network. We set out to revolutionise the library/publisher relationship because we were annoyed that library-users weren’t getting the chance to meet authors or get the same marketing-based book choice guidance as bookshop users. Hugely flourishing, the scheme now involves 34 publishers. We’re running author events in 102 authorities, and getting publishers to trust libraries enough to host authors as big as Nick Hornby. I’ve been looking at the latest returns. It’s great to hear thrilled feedback from people all over – from Barnsley to Ramsgate – so grateful to have access to big name authors. And it’s wonderful to hear delighted reactions to the clever, creative new models libraries are


That’s a quick gallup through phase one


of the Reading Agency: innovating through shared national programmes and partner- ships. What will the next phase involve? It’s a pivotal point, as we wait for the Government’s library review, and have Arts Council backing for a big new reading push – and, indeed, as we face a tricky combination of reduced budgets and changing public demographics, expectations and need.


How can we best help library services against this background? What’s next in our own manifesto for change? There’s lots we’re powerless to change – the government mess where library policy and finance sit in two different departments, the confusing plethora of library reports, the strange performance measures where the English indicator for libraries is just about adult library use. We can’t wave a magic wand. Instead, we will be focusing on what we can change, on where libraries tell us we really can make a difference, and where future social trends are pointing – a much more diverse population, more children in care, continuing skills problems, and an ageing


NOVEMBER 2009 ADULTS LEARNING 27


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