Read Program Overview
Target audience
· Time-rich adult readers (eg recent retirees, part-time workers, lapsed readers)
· Pre- and early primary school students and their parents/carers
Objectives
· To promote reading as recreational activity
· To increase use of print collections
· To promote reader's advice services
· To promote opportunities to learn to read with children
Strap Line: Need to Read – Read @ your Library
Key Messages
· Enjoy recreational reading @ your library
· Libraries are free
· Libraries offer expert reader’s advice- We know books
· Learn to read to your children @ your library
· What will you read next? Find it @ your library
· 7 habits of highly effective people- read read read read read read read
· Rediscover reading @ your library
Measures of success
· Number of visits to libraries
· Attendance at regular bookclubs and storytimes compared with capacity for attendance
· Attendance at Read events
· Enquiries and feedback about Read program
· Number of loans in print collections during program
How to make it work
· Communicate with branch libraries to share ideas, prepare activities, displays and other promotions
· Prepare local promotional material: booklists, event flyers, web links
· Communicate great ideas and questions with other Champions
· Send pre- and post-program media releases to local media
· Provide advice and encouragement for staff
· Provide feedback at the end of the program
Read Target Audience
Target Audience: Time-rich adult readers (eg recent retirees, part-time workers)
(Primary school children and their parents/ carers: see Holiday Fun Target Audience)
Primary Message: Enjoy recreational reading @ your library
1. Our strengths and weaknesses as they appear to this target group:
Strengths Weaknesses
Print collections Presentation of collections
Free- and no commercial agenda Reputation- not a ‘lifestyle’ option
Opening hours, spaces to read
Safe
Social opportunities and support
Personal, expert advice and service
Open to all and celebrate diversity
2. Major factors that will impact on our libraries:
Opportunities Threats
Greater numbers of retirees Trend to part time employment
Family history popularity instead of retirement
More adaptible attitudes to technology Increasing lifestyle aspirations of
Increasing book prices retirees
3. Important target audience needs to be satisfied
· Enjoyable recreational activities
· Comfortable, personal, friendly, respectful service
· Efficient service
· Large print services and signage
· Good reading collections
· Reading advice
· Assistance with new services
4. Major competitors in local area
· Bookstores
· Magazines, newspapers, and radio literary programs
· Recreational groups, such as Seniors groups
· Travel industry and other commercial groups targeting retirees
· Non-use
Brainstorm starter for Champions
1. Write your own list of strengths, weaknesses, target audience needs and competitors
2. Rank your library and its competitors on relative ability to meet target audience needs
3. Identify 2-3 strategies to capitalise on your strengths and overcome weaknesses
Read Ideas
Media Release Ideas
‘Lists with twists’ are always a great story – such as Twenty Quirky Book Titles, 10 Good Reasons to Read, 5 Different Ways to Read @ your library (eg audio books, large print, LOTE, e-books and e-journals, storytime)
Ask your local Councillors and Mayor to describe books that have helped them, or interview local personalities (business people, writers) about why reading is important to them. Accompany the release with photos of them reading a library book at work.
Find some local statistics about literacy and promote the positive effects of reading for enjoyment
Event/display/promotion ideas
Promote reader’s advice services and create What Do I Read Next? booklists
Publicise bookclubs, either locally or through the CAE
Extreme Reading - hold a story or photo competition with an extreme theme or a race to become the fastest person to read out a famous speech or book opening
Organise an exclusive literary event for bookclub members
Produce booklists of the top ten books in different collections at your library, such as Top 10 Books in Chinese, or Top 10 Talking Books
Hold a workshop on how to read to children, with your Children’s/Youth Librarian, or the Storytelling Guild of Victoria
Offer a frequent reader rewards program, with discounted reservations, or free library bags for regular borrowers
Read with Greed - a great title for any Read event with food! Celebrate the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival with some literary and culinary gluttony.
Run a bookclub event for parents of pre-schoolers to discuss the best parenting and escapist reads
Boys, blokes and books - hold a literary event for Dads and sons
Conduct a workshop where kids learn how to be newsreaders, and video the results
Create Reader Recommends slips for members to fill out and return with their books, and display them on your returns trolley
The Reading Chair - put an oversized chair in your library for people to sit in and read to themselves, as a living part of your Read display. Bring them cups of tea and biscuits!
Try me tables or display stands of staff or customer recommended reads
Risk it for a biscuit – invite members to borrow a mystery book, wrapped in brown paper, and receive a free biscuit
Desert Island Reads - publish member reviews of books they’d take to a desert island
Prepare a display of book bundles, with 3 books on one theme, and on each bundle add a fun quote about reading by a celebrity, author, or staff member
Produce Staff favourite stars to stick on to front covers in book displays
Create a storyboard- real or online- and collect staff and patron stories about their favourite place to read
Publish a Book Journal, with spaces for favourite books, books lent, and books to read
Run events or create displays to tie in with the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, Seniors Festival, Comedy Festival, or first AFL match
Read Useful Contacts
Questions? Contact the Public Libraries Unit, State Library of Victoria
on 8664 7044 or visit www.libraries.vic.gov.au/atyourlibrary
Literary Awards
Man Booker Prize
www.bookerprize.co.uk/
Nobel Prize for Literature
www.nobelprize.org/literature/
Premier’s Literary Awards
www.slv.vic.gov.au/pla/
Childrens’ Book Awards
www.cbc.org.au
Literary Web Sites
ABC Books
www.abc.net.au/arts/books
ABC My Favourite Book campaign
www.abc.net.au/myfavouritebook
Australian Book Review
Email:
Web: www.vicnet.net.au/~abr/
Australian Bookseller & Publisher
Email:
Web: www.thorpe.com.au
Australian Multicultural Book Review (AMBR)
Email:
Web: www.papyrus.com.au
CAE Bookclubs
www.cae.edu.au/bookgroups
MS Readathon
www.msreadathon.org.au/
The Reading Agency
www.readingagency.org.uk
Finding Authors
Victorian Writers' Centre
First Floor, Nicholas Building
37 Swanston Street
Melbourne 3000
Phone: (03) 9654 9068
Fax: (03) 9654 4751
Website: www.writers-centre.org.au
Links to publishers, local writers groups, arts and writers organisations, and a business directory with performance poets, visiting authors
Australian Centre for Youth Literature (ACYL)
328 Swanston St Melbourne 3000
Tel: 03 8664 7014
Email:
Australian National Playwrights' Centre (ANPC)
PO Box 1566
Rozelle NSW 2039
Tel: (02) 9555 9377
Fax (02) 9555 9370
Email:
Web: www.anpc.org.au
Australian Society of Authors (ASA)
PO Box 1566
Strawberry Hills NSW 2012
Tel: (02) 9318 0877
Fax: (02) 9318 0530
Email:
Web: www.asauthors.org
Express Media Inc.
156 George Street
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Tel: (03) 9416 3305
Fax: (03) 9419 3365
Email:
Web: www.expressmedia.org.au
International PEN
Judith Buckrich
PO Box 2273
Caulfield Junction VIC 3161
Tel: (03) 9509 7257
Email:
Sisters in Crime
GPO Box 5319BB
Melbourne VIC 3001
Tel: (03) 9537 2781
Email:
Web: www.vicnet.net.au/~sincoz
The Storytelling Guild of Victoria
Imelda Evans
Phone: (03) 9753 4290
Email:
Web: www.home.aone.net.au/stories/
Also try speaker agencies, literary agents, publishers, and university and TAFE literature and writing departments
Prizes
Local bookstores can sponsor prizes and donate posters and displays they no longer need
Publishers and your library book suppliers will often donate books or money for prizes
Questions? Contact the Public Libraries Unit, State Library of Victoria
on 8664 7044 or visit www.libraries.vic.gov.au/atyourlibrary