Promoting reading
- Played a key role in how the perception and status of reading has changed in Britain in the last 20 years.
- Invented the practice of reader development in the early 1990s; by 2003 every library authority in the UK used the concept and the ideas.
- Changed libraries’ role so they have become promoters of reading as well as providers of it.
- Taken reader-centred ideas to countries across Europe, as well as to Australasia, Canada and a few places in Africa.
Promoting libraries
- Changed the perception of public libraries especially by national and regional arts councils in Britain.
- Advocated the unique role of the public library in working with readers, changing perceptions in the book trade, education and the wider media.
- Given library staff confidence, skills and vocabulary to articulate their role in the wider culture.
Training
- National long-term training programmes in England, Wales and Scotland created agents of change to re-energise library services.
- The largest programmes of face-to face training across the UK, tackling many training needs for the first time – promoting Black British writing, promoting gay and lesbian writing, understanding customer behaviour, working with visually impaired readers, promoting poetry, introducing narrative non-fiction. The one day-workshop The Reader-friendly Library was run 150 times and reached staff in every library service.
- Now running a uniquely tailored online course for library staff which can reach a part-time, widely distributed workforce, many of whom have no training opportunities.
Collections development
- Broadened the range of fiction being bought by UK public libraries through training, advocacy and exciting stocklists.
- Introduced the promotion of narrative non-fiction in UK libraries.
- Developed the Stock Quality Health Check for the Audit Commission, offering a reader-centred way to measure stock quality. Used by most authorities in England and Wales, SQHC holds a unique bank of comparative stock data for 125 library authorities.
- Created the first online directory to link libraries and independent presses
Online
- Whichbook.net – internationally acclaimed readers’ website, offers choices unavailable even on Amazon.
- Bilingual Norwegian version ønskebok.no launched 2007.
- Whichbook was the first (and for many years the only) website to link to author/title level in all UK library online catalogues.
- Created and maintain the first free online directory of UK reader development contacts, enabling simple communication with complex library structures.
- First cross-authority and cross-regional collaborative websites for readers aged 11-16 and 16-25 including features like Book Brother and Blind Date with a Book.
- Run reader2reader.net for the Read strand of The People’s Network Service.
- Developed an interactive map system for library users to locate stock areas – first introduced at the new Swansea Central Library.
Library design
- Invented the quick choice concept for public libraries, now used by thousands of branches.
- Developed the concept of the reader-friendly library, making choosing and independent navigation much easier for library borrowers.
- Introduced the observational methods of Paco Underhill to UK libraries and gathered data on customer behaviour from observations in more than 80 library authorities.
- Developed the concept of customer-centred layout - starting from the customer rather than the staff or the stock.
- Raised the standard and expectations of public library environments with new approaches to shelving layouts, people flow, library guiding and the use of colour.
- Provided consultancy on designing academic and school libraries as well as public ones.
Library furniture and promotions
- Transformed the look of UK public libraries with new ranges of promotional furniture and professional graphics.
- Innovative children’s furniture range which combines play with reading.
- Promotional units of all sizes enable libraries to exploit face-forward display in every situation.
- Latest range introduces a revolutionary approach to on-shelf merchandising which is increasing performance everywhere it is introduced.
Reading groups
- Developed the concept and practice of reader-centred reading groups as an inclusive model especially appropriate for public libraries - there are now estimated to be 5000 reading groups in UK libraries.
- Worked with Waterstone’s and public libraries to create The Reading Group Toolbox – everything you need to know to set up a reading group in one box. 1000 free copies were distributed to English library services including one to every prison library.
- Trained reading group facilitators in the UK, Ireland, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary.
Consultancy
- Strategic consultancy with more than 70 senior management teams in UK library authorities.
- Consultancy on library design in UK, Ireland, Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands.
- Consultancy on reader-centred approaches for many cultural institutions – Arts Council, British Council, BBC, South Bank Centre, Poetry Society – as well as for booksellers and publishers such as Waterstone’s and HarperCollins.
- Specific consultancies on many topics - libraries and one-stop shops; implementing RFID; joint university and public libraries; change management and many more.
Publishing