Reading 4 Life Skills sharing day
An East Midlands 'Reading 4 Life' skills sharing event, November 2011.
58 participants attended the Reading 4 life event held at the Schools Library Service for Derbyshire and Derby on Tuesday 15th November 2011.
An excellent mix of library assistants, library managers and librarians took part and every East Midlands’ authority was represented.
The programme for the day was developed by the regional Reading 4 Life Group, many of whom facilitated the discussion groups.
The event began with 4 short presentations highlighting successful reader development initiatives from around the region covering:
• The 6 book challenge and working with a Nottingham Pizza factory
• Leicester City’s Health Days in Libraries and Working with Volunteers
• Leicestershire’s Words on the Street programme.
These were followed by a choice of 4 workshops covering:
• Author events and the benefits for readers and libraries
• Using social media for publicity, audience development and interacting with readers
• Reading 4 Life – how reading supports well being
• Talking about books – techniques for building confidence to talk to customers about books.
Each participant was able to take part in two of these workshops
There was also a short presentation and practical exercise around the national reading offer at the end of the day.
Every library authority had provided a poster highlighting aspects of their reader development work and these can be seen below.
The evaluation responses were collated and have been collated and circulated to workshop facilitators, presenters and members of the Reading 4 Life group. Feedback was sought on content, impact, the venue, and priorities for the national reading offer "spikes”.
The responses were overwhelmingly positive – with participants highlighting each of the presentations and workshop sessions as being of particular value, interest and relevance to them. They also appreciated the opportunity to meet people from other authorities and to be able to share good practice and pick up new tips and ideas to try out.
When asked "what might have made the day even better for you?” the most common response was "to have been able to attend all 4 workshops”. We also asked "if you only do one thing as a result of today what will it be?” and it was clear that people had gained practical ideas and more strategic approaches to reader development as a result of the day.
The skills share day was an excellent example of regional cooperation and partnership working at every stage. The Reading 4 Life Group designed and delivered an informative, enjoyable and very relevant day which will have benefits for all East Midlands’ library services and their staff and customers. We were very grateful too for the support of Sandy Mahal of Reading Partners who helped facilitate the workshop on author events.
Workshop sessions feedback:
Author events and the benefits for readers and libraries
Using Social Media for publicity, audience development and interacting with readers
Reading 4 Life and Wellbeing – how reading supports well being; Health and Wellbeing workshop notes
Talking about Books – techniques for building confidence to talk to customers about books.
Posters:
ebooks and Audiobooks- Derby 
Books on call - Derbyshire
I Love Reading - Leicester Local History events -Leicester
Words on the Street - Leicestershire Words on the Street 2 - author events
Reader development - Lincolnshire Writing Futures -Northants
Festival of Reading - Nottingham V.I. P. Reading Groups-Notts
