Issue 27 Autumn1999 Taking Reading to the Limits!: The National Year of Reading - where do we go from here? Delivered on 14th July 1999 Trish Botten	Collections under which this       article appears:       Reading Related Articles or Resources Other Articles by Author

In the run up to The National Year of Reading (NYR) I think there were an few sceptics who muttered under their breath, "Who cares, libraries encourage reading every day, hasn't any one noticed?"

Some Library Services were frankly a bit slow off the mark not many had the year mapped out in their Annual Library Plans and seemed to be waiting for something to happen, reacting rather than initiating, looking for someone else to give them the ideas.

A CORPORATE APPROACH
The authorities ahead of the game were those who had already started planning authority-wide, identifying partners within the council and in the community. In those authorities Libraries could really demonstrate their ideas, expertise and knowledge of reader development.

Some authorities, like Derbyshire with its "Read On- Write Away! Programme", were already into a long term corporate reading strategy of which the NYR was just one element. Back in l996 Derbyshire began to look at the idea of a strategic initiative which would involve key organisations with an interest in improving and celebrating literacy. There was a recognition that raising standards of literacy is not just about what happens in schools and colleges but about what happens in communities and in families. What was also recognised was that literacy is not only about phonics, about tests in schools, about qualifications for promotion, but about fun, enjoyment and creating a desire for reading... and so Read On - Write Away! was embedded in celebration and valuing all aspects of literacy.

Westminster was an early star authority on the NYR web-site with a particular emphasis on partnerships with businesses and the arts. Jonathan Douglas was seconded from the Library Service to be the authority's full-time NYR co-ordinator, demonstrating the unique strategic role of libraries in co-ordinating a multi-agency approach to reading support in Westminster. At the launch children who had participated in their summer reading game saw a special showing of "The Little Mermaid" at the Odeon Cinema at Leicester Square and a further 1,000 received tickets for "Mulan". Macmillan Books and Whiteley's of Bayswater combined to present Shopping for a Read with authors and poets positioned in appropriate shops - performance poets in MacDonalds etc. Westminster focused on three main roles for the NYR: Read On: Reader Development Projects, Educational projects and Arts projects.

Libraries, of course, were just one element of the NYR. As the NYR team started to select projects for funding, a real head of steam and enthusiasm started to build up. By January the reading message was everywhere in the media, in TV and radio adverts, and in storylines in soaps - it was becoming part of the public domain. Gradually there were fewer questions like, "What's this NYR then?!" The message given was that reading was OK and could be enjoyed by everyone.

EXCITING LOCAL PROJECTS
The National Year Reading offered Libraries a tremendous freedom to break away from traditional library activities and to think laterally with other partners about the best way to deliver a community reading strategy. It also provided shared aims and objectives that cut across all sections of the library service.

When you read the monthly bulletins you could see some tremendously exciting and imaginative projects happening, such as:

• The Town Council in Newton Aycliffe in County Durham, making partnerships with the libraries and local businesses to set up and maintain a pre-school lending library service through ten pre-school learning services.
• The Buzzwords Children's Book Festival, a 3 year joint promotion by three library authorities (Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Luton and Milton Keynes). The Festival is funded by an A4E Lottery Bid and local sponsors including "Whitbread in the Community".
• Stories from the Web, a British Library funded research project, is being developed with Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds Library Services and UKOLN (UK Office of Libraries and Information Networking). The project explores how children's libraries can stimulate the imagination of children between 8 and 11, and encourage them to explore, read and creatively enjoy stories using the internet and interact with other children from Stories from the Web clubs, as well as publishers and authors.
• BOOX for US projects, allowing libraries to work with the National Youth Agency to reach socially excluded young people.

Many projects were about experiencing what you read, such as reading groups that gave the children a chance to share reading experiences; primary school children working with sculptures to produce playground representations of the characters from the Chronicles of Narnia. My particular favourite, though, was living out Rosemary Sutcliffe's novels in a fort on Hadrian's Wall.

NATIONAL PROJECTS
Libraries also participated in national reading projects on a huge scale: World Book Day and Bookstart were created by outside organisations, but managed or promoted by Libraries.

Other national projects were created by the library profession itself, especially through the library development agency, Launchpad. Two of these projects, "The Reading Safari" and "ASDA's BIG READ", were different initiatives, because, although they were created by librarians working with reading and marketing consultants, they were created externally and handed back to libraries as a complete product with guidelines for running them and evaluation established. Is this the future - the availability of guaranteed high quality products with ready made national profiles?

The Reading Safari, the largest library-led national project created by LaunchPad, was a high quality reading challenge that succeeded in involving 85% of library authorities and nearly a million kids. It had a national media campaign to promote ways libraries could develop children's reading over the summer; an authoritative evaluation process; and a mechanism for making the case for Libraries at Government level. On the ground it saved each authority from re-inventing the wheel and left staff with time to develop other priority reading developments.

The ASDA project was startling in its ambition: for libraries to work with every ASDA store in the UK to get the reading message to busy families as they shopped. It involved 227 stores, 450 storyteller visits, 120 mobiles in ASDA car parks and 1000 ASDA and library staff. LaunchPad was able to act as a-one-stop shop through which ASDA could work with the whole UK library network. What individual library authority could have brokered that partnership and the massive sponsorship deal?

Colette Blanchfield at ASDA HQ said,

"Like many companies we are always looking for ways to work with the community. Because of The National Year of Reading we were interested in teaming up with Libraries but needed a way of working with them nationally. When LaunchPad approached us they offered a chance to work with a small team who understood commercial priorities but who could also put us in touch with the whole library network. That was very appealing."

NEW CORE SERVICES
The day to day services we provide in libraries have also been evolving and changing during the National Year Reading due to three main Government influences:

• Lifelong learning, and the rise in the profile of open learning facilities, study support and homework clubs as well as other initiatives that link libraries with organisations such as The National Youth Agency and Education Extra.
• The Literacy Strategy, which along with the National Year Reading, concentrated on families, young people and boys as target groups of readers. The result - Reading Groups in Libraries such as Southwark's family reading groups; Enfield's 77 (Teen Zones) and 77 Reading Groups; and the "Boys Behaving Badly" collections in Islington Libraries.
• The Home Office Paper "Supporting Families", that outlined the Government's emphasis on the early year's; which resulted in Sure Start; information for parents, etc. In West Sussex a joint bid between the Health Authority and Libraries, resulted in a successful NYR bid for an Early Years Van to tour the rural areas.

THE NYR HELPED CHANGE OUR ETHOS
Activities such as Homework Clubs and Reading Clubs are user/reader centred and require on-going consultation with the users and a continually responding development plan. A reader-centred approach to reading looks at how people use books and where books fit into their lives. In the past libraries defined their role, as providing materials for those who wanted them.

The reader-centred projects are linked by common fundamental principles of equity, partnership, creativity, participation and sustainability, responding to local needs and getting results. They also require us to work in new and challenging ways.

The NYR also brought people together to talk about why reading matters as a community. In Derbyshire 8 Forums were created, including one for parents involved in family literacy projects, another to bring together past and present employees of a large firm, and another for under fives workers.

THE NYR INVOLVED US WORKING IN NEW WAYS
Sometimes during the National Year of Reading Libraries were the leaders, other times Libraries were one of the key players amongst a range of organisations providing the reading experience, or making first contact with specific target groups.

Sometimes the reading opportunity happened in a library but often Libraries were helping to provide the activity in a community or business setting, making use of our expertise rather than our buildings and resources.

Instead of just selecting resources and making sure they get into the right hands, we found ourselves in charge of the reading experience and facilitating reading experiences in on-going activities. We needed a new set of skills.

We discovered that working with businesses is a partnership of two completely different management styles and have had to cut through red tape, enforce seemingly unrealistically short deadlines, question our interpretation of "quality books" and release front line staff to work on the planing of these projects, as in Leeds where a member of staff was released to manage the national ASDA campaign.

EVALUATION
We all need to take on board those principles which have made The National Year of Reading a success and guarantee sustainability in the future when there is no Government led campaign to add kudos, sparkle, authority and money to the projects. On a strategic level it is has been a one-off opportunity for libraries to prove their vital role in raising literacy standards and encouraging reading.

The Library and Information Commission have commissioned a national evaluation project to be carried out by a team of researchers at Information Management Associates. The evaluation will:

• provide evidence of the overall impact of NYR on children, adults and those not in formal education.
• identify examples of good practice in the promotion of reading, particularly those which are sustainable beyond the end of the campaign, and provide case studies.
• provide evidence of co-operative initiatives between libraries and other stake holders.
• assess the impact of libraries' activities on schools' promotion of reading and literacy activities.
• assess the benefits to public libraries from the National Year Reading.
• compare the aspirations of the NYR with its actual achievements.
• draw attention to the lessons learned for future initiatives and campaigns.

WHAT NEXT - READ ON
Fortunately The National Year of Reading is being extended for another couple of years in the form of Read On, which is important if we are not to lose impact and the continuity, but my guess is that it will be a slightly lower profile than has been during the last year. We need to be thinking now about sustaining the progress so far and developing it further.

IN THE SHORT TERM
Here are some points to bear in mind:

• don't lose those partners, discuss with them ways of keeping the impetus going.
• build on the good practice examples from other authorities. Don't re-invent the wheel, free up your time for targeted local projects by investing in good national projects such as the Carnegie & Kate Greenaway Award Shadowing and the next national summer reading challenge.
• build upon the huge potential of the under-5's to work with parents, carers and pre-schoolers to tie in with Bookstart, SureStart and Early Years Development Plans.
• keep taking the reading message to places where libraries don't usually go. Look out for the case studies and the conference about the BOOX For US projects
• build in more opportunities for readers to comment and shape the services they need.
• make more use of IT, create the virtual library which everyone can participate in, not just those who walk through your doors.
• identify new skills and develop ways of training all staff in those skills.

A READING STRATEGY FOR THE FUTURE
A good example of a forward thinking corporate reading strategy is "Birmingham Reads, a reading strategy for the City". The vision is to create by 2001, "Birmingham as a self sustaining reading community...". They have identified 10 themes, including increasing the amount of community activity; increasing the amount of shared joint training, and setting common goals, targets, objectives and areas of work. Their motto is "Read, in order to live" (Gustave Flaubert).

CONCLUSION
Rachel van Riel and Olive Fowler (reading consultants) of Opening the Book have this to say:

"There is a profound professional shift taking place. Librarians are combining new professional skills with their traditional place at the heart of the community to create opportunities for cultural participation through the art form of reading. Libraries are the most popular and well used cultural institutions in the country. The energy of reading promotion shapes a new vision of what libraries can become as we move into the next century."

Delivered at the 1999 Umbrella Conference on July 3rd 1999 by Trish Botten
Professional Adviser, Youth and School Libraries
The Library Association