Over 200 supermarket stores and more than 4,600 libraries nationwide worked together during the National Year of Reading to bring together our Asda store colleagues, librarians, schools, playgroups and local MPs in storytelling, reading and discussing books. The Big Read reached more than six million shoppers through an unlikely partnership that seemed almost impossible when libraries first approached Asda in September 1998.

When the library development agency, LaunchPad, outlined the aims of its Reaching Parents programme and plans for developing partnerships that would help take library services into new and exciting places there was much debate about how the two very different cultures could work together. Together we agreed that two weeks of in-store activity at all Asda stores would be ideal. We believe in putting something back into the communities where we operate and the Reaching Parents programme provided the opportunity to do just that. We welcomed the chance to work with people who really understand the support parents need to help improve the literacy skills of the entire family

Common goals
Through the partnership, libraries were able to reach thousands of parents every day by taking library resources out of their usual environment on to the high street and into the workplace. The Big Read was a win-win partnership that aimed to benefit both partners and achieve a wide range of common goals - driving more people into stores and libraries strengthening links with the local community, changing public perception of libraries and supermarkets and building relations with opinion leaders. It also provided the inspiration for others to embark on similar partnerships.

In every store an Asda colleague and a children's librarian teamed up to run the event in their own communities. In many stores this partnership is still in place and storytelling sessions have become part of everyday life. (pull out quote)

Feedback from our Asda colleagues illustrates how the Big Read not only changed their perceptions of libraries, but also provided them with a real sense of achievement: "This personal level of interaction was beneficial not just for the store but for individual colleagues who began to feel better known in their communities."

Librarians felt the Big Read had helped them strengthen their links with the community and raise their profile amongst non-library users.

Probably the most significant indication of success is the way the Big Read has inspired Asda to adopt a similar approach with maths corners and maths trails for the Big Sum to celebrate Maths Year 2000.

Asda and libraries in partnership may have seemed like an impossibility in September 1998 when LaunchPad first met with Asda but, through working towards shared benefits and involving colleagues and librarians nationwide, the partnership resulted in a new approach to working with the local community.

Subscribe to Literacy Today