This section of the site explores some common questions about how we can develop children and young people and questions about the active way libraries can work to create the best possible reading experience for everyone.

Question are divided into groups:

Activities

Does reader development apply to pre-readers?

Yes, reader development can apply to anyone, in any situation. Wherever we engage with young people through reading and wherever we enable young people to come together through reading, this is reader development.

For very young children reading is special because

Being read to helps young people learn to talk and develop language
Being read to supports young people in developing the skills to read themselves
Being read to, right from birth, gives young people the pleasure of sharing and communicating with others, and a sense of emotional closeness

Libraries' work with under fives, through baby and toddler sessions or through Bookstart, helps to lay the foundations for a lifetime of reading experiences.

In this area of our work valuable skills and knowledge include

Knowing ways to support adult/child sharing of books and reading
Knowing something about how books ad sharing stories help young people in their language development and learning to read

Does that mean making young people better readers?

It depends what you mean by 'better readers'.

Reader development does not directly support literacy - but reader development activity can motivate and help build young people's confidence in their reading so that there is a resulting improvement in their reading skills.

Reader development is a powerful means of changing young people's lives for the better in several ways - for example, helping them to see the world from others' points of view; helping them to become more confident in speaking aloud about their reading enthusiasms – or simply enriching their lives through reading.

Libraries' role therefore is

To open up as many reading opportunities as possible so that young people feel confident to explore and develop as readers on their own terms
To support these opportunities by acknowledging all types of reading and all types of reader, regardless of ability or taste

Encouraging Sharing

Some of my colleagues are a bit dubious about spending time talking with children about what they've been reading. How do I justify it?

Any responsive service has to talk with its customers about its business. A big part of libraries' business is books and reading - and so talking with children about their reading is part of the service.

The more we know about customers' preferences, the more relevant we can make the library; the more relevant we make the library, the more it will be used.

As with all library users it's important that we talk to young people and hear what they tell us about what they are reading and about our stock and services.

Talking with young people will also increase their confidence in their reading and in talking about their reading – research has shown that young people do like to share their views about books with adults.

The children who use my library don't seem very interested in my reading recommendations. I read a lot of children's books and I like to think I'm pretty well up to date. What am I doing wrong?

You're not doing anything wrong – it's great that you know something about children's books and this will be really appreciated by the children themselves.

It's just that peer-to-peer recommendation is often even more powerful – so try to find ways for young people to pass on to each other what they think about what they're reading.

This may include structured opportunities for them to talk with each other – maybe in a class visit or reading group – or simple ways of sharing their recommendations: 'book-bite' sheets up on noticeboards, comments slips in books, slots on the library website.

And when young people are comfortable in their own space in the library, spending time there and meeting friends, that talking-about-books buzz will be happening in the best way of all.

I run a reading group and I find the same children tend to dominate the sessions. What can I do to prevent this?

This can make it complicated when we are encouraging young people to share their views. But we need to support less confident members of a group to contribute while at the same time not preventing others from doing so. Learning to respect others' views and developing the skill of listening is just as important as becoming vocal oneself!

Try to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak at a time when others listen. Praise the listeners as well as the talkers.

Maybe you could split the group into smaller groups or into pairs – that might seem less daunting; most children are happy to speak to one other child. Invite them to write down what they felt about the book they have read.

How about starting a 'Must Read' file, with recent recommendations for all to share ? These might be written – they might be drawn. You could involve children in contributing to the library website or to a children's book review site.

Find out how each individual child feels most comfortable in expressing themselves.

But it doesn't matter that not everyone speaks up – it can feel a bit intimidating to be put on the spot. Just make sure that there are other ways the children can express themselves.

We have a reading group every month and participate in the summer reading challenge every year, but how can we encourage children to share their reading enthusiasms on a day-to-day basis?

You're right – the sharing can be going on all the time, not only when there are structured reading activities. Ideas for sharing appear in the answers to other questions in this section, and remember too these key day-to-day opportunities in libraries:

Sharing with adults: talking at the counter, or at the shelves
Sharing with each other: talking, sharing through a notice board or reading chain
Library opportunities to share in the open: displays of children's quotes, favourite excerpts; using the library website; video footage of children's reading activities…
The way libraries work involves a unique way of sharing – the same book passing through many hands, providing different experiences for so many people…

Opening Up New Reading Choices

The children who come in the library tend want to talk about the latest 'must read' novel, TV or movie tie-in. How could we get them interested in other reading?

Fad reading or TV tie-ins are fine: we need all kinds of reading to suit our different moods and feelings. And yes, getting young people interested in other reading – stretching their reading horizons – means they'll have much more to choose from and to match those moods and try out those feelings.

Try promoting different types of materials – different genres, non-fiction, poetry, magazines and comics, spoken word…

Through display, discussion, book sharing devices, focus on how the materials make the reader feel or react, rather than on what type of reading it is.

Find out more about children's individual preferences and use them to encourage others to try something new.

If children feel negative about a particular book or type of book, then use that as a discussion point. It will often help you find out what kind of books you could recommend instead.

Have a look too at the scenarios for 'Helping Young Readers Develop'.

Reader Development Beyond the Library

It's difficult to justify outreach time away from my library. Isn't it better to concentrate on providing a good service there?

It really depends who your targeted communities are and how outreach work fits in with your overall planning.

For example, if you are as a service tackling social exclusion, excluded non-users can only be reached in this way.

There is always a question of balance between making the library service as accessible and as appropriate as possible to the wider community and maintaining a quality building-based service for the people already using it. But working beyond the library walls will bring increased use of the library itself and will help you to plan services that are responsive to real local needs.

Use your work beyond the library walls economically - concentrate upon your priority groups, whether it's under-fives, travellers, children in care or maybe disaffected teenagers - rather than adopting a blanket outreach policy. Work to your planned targets. You will already know WHY you have these targets. What are your desired outcomes? Concentrate on gathering evidence of outcome success with these targeted groups. That way, it will be much easier to justify working away from the library. In your outreach you will be working with individuals and organisations in the community who could prove to be powerful partners and advocates for the library and for reader development.

I've arranged to talk with a group of Year 9s at the local secondary school. I want to make a good impression and show that the library (and librarians) are a lot 'cooler' than they thought. Any ideas?

Just be yourself!

The very fact that you are going to talk about what you offer with a group of 13/14 year olds is evidence enough of your sincerity - and that's what counts. Just be prepared to hear as well as talk and make sure you don't offer more than can be achieved in terms of the delivery of services.

You certainly don't need to be a particular age, gender or 'type', or talk with young people in what you think their language is… Being yourself is cool – sorry, being yourself is fine!