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What we do Work with Libraries When Read On - Write Away! was launched in January 1997, the Derbyshire Libraries and Heritage Service was a core partner. The development of a strategic initiative which incorporated and underlined a commitment to a celebration of literacy as well as to the economic, educational and social aspects of improving literacy made the role of the Library Service central. The Director of Derbyshire Cultural and Community Services, Martin Molloy, was one of the founder Board members, and remains enthusiastic, committed and publicly supportive of the Initiative. The partnership between Read On - Write Away! and the Library Service has ranged from the strategic to the particular, from joint involvement in large-scale externally funded projects to the development of joint training programmes. On a strategic level the collaboration has included the joint management of the Books for Babies scheme, one of the first in the country. The partnership approach enabled the scheme to go beyond the model of simply giving books and information to the parents/carers of young children, to the of a county wide strategic scheme, engaging parents/carers in the development of their children's literacy and the pleasure of books. Underpinning all of this the scheme specifically encouraged parents and other adults to address their own basic skills needs. As Millard says (Evaluation of Derbyshire's Books for Babies scheme, 2002):
In the family literacy strategy (part of the ROWA! programme) the role of libraries has become central. Every project includes as a matter of course, the involvement of the local libraries, who will visit the group, run a story time session and then supports visits to the library. The vast majority of the families involved are not library members and have never visited the library. The involvement of the library staff enables people to visit the library in a supportive atmosphere, as part of a group, and the Library Service regularly reports a rise in enrolment and use of the library, following a family literacy course. The recent development of a family literacy collection, piloted in two libraries, takes this further. A selection of themed books, in pairs, encourages the adult and child to borrow books together. The current collection has 60 pairs of books, fiction and non-fiction, displayed under the banner "First Choice". Quality in Libraries Award Over the last few years Read On - Write Away! and the Libraries and Heritage Service have collaborated on another idea - the development of the Skills for Life Quality in Libraries Award. This followed a discussion about what local libraries were doing to support and encourage adults with Skills for Life needs and how this could be recognised and formalised. The Libraries and Heritage Service was aware that some libraries had developed good links with local providers; others had Skills for Life groups on their premises, but no real links. The "Framework for the Future" (DCMS, 2003) made clear the Government's ambition that libraries would engage with the social inclusion agenda:
The Vital Link Project brought together a strong partnership of local and national library and literacy organisations to 'harness energetic reader development work in libraries to support and motivate emergent adult readers and recruit and retain 'hard to reach' learners'. (Making the Vital Link, 2003). The production of a toolkit providing examples of ways to build partnerships between libraries and Skills for Life providers encouraged the Libraries and Heritage Service and ROWA! to look at their partnership working, and provided a stimulus for this work. Read more about the Quality in Libraries Award. |
