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I support about 80 reading groups, on behalf of Leicestershire Library Services. 

I select new books each year, from a budget of around £1,500 and we buy ten copies of each title.   I produce a catalogue, with the new titles flagged up, of all the reading group stock, with details of length of book, genre and a precis. 

Groups choose six titles and six reserve titles on an annual basis, and I, with a colleague, allocate titles to the groups, trying to offer as many of the first choice list as possible to each. 

Books are either collected from HQ by a member of the group, or delivered to the nearest library by the library distribution service.  Books are borrowed for 6 weeks, and sent back. 

Titles are kept on the catalogue which is ever-expanding, in order that the number of titles increases, and we can therefore take on new groups.  We try to provide stock that isn’t on the current best sellers lists but which offers a challenge to groups.

We offer support to groups that are starting up. One of the team will visit the group and advise on the service we offer plus give tips for different ways of running a group, e.g. reading genres or non-fiction etc. Our Literature Development Officer produces a quarterly newsletter, which is distributed to our reading groups. This contains general information on literary activities and events in Leicestershire.

 We are planning a reader’s day later in the year targeted at reading groups. This will be modelled on a successful regional reader’s day, which was run as part of the EMRALD project in 2004. The East Midlands is currently running a national pilot project on the management of reading groups.

To see more about the EMRALD project click here