Specially devised training in the 33 selected local authorities will enable libraries to explore new ways of meeting readers' needs. The aim is to create a new kind of librarian, who will be skilled in reader development; able to open up reading choices, increase people's confidence and pleasure in reading and offer opportunities for reader to reader interaction.

In their first major project, Branching Out, librarians from across England are helping to create exciting new software to help readers find that elusive 'good read'. If you're one of those millions of readers who vaguely know the kind of book you're after, but can't for the life of you remember authors or titles, here is the answer to your prayers. And if you're the sort of reader who devours a favourite writer and is suspicious of trying anybody else, here's a fun way of stretching your boundaries. The software has been developed by Applied Psychology Ltd and will be publicly available via the Internet in 2000. Branching Out participants are selecting books to be included and rating them on, for example, how unpredictable or optimistic they are.

Branching Out is an initiative from The Society of Chief Librarians, made possible by an award of £300,000 from the National Lottery through the Arts Council of England. Opening the Book won the contract to deliver the project.

Librarians will be involved in action training - learning by doing - during the project and the results of this will feed into long-term change. The Society of Chief Librarians has established partnerships with key sector organisations to ensure that Branching Out leaves behind a sustainable infrastructure for future development. Apart from the local authorities, which are spread across every region of England, Branching Out is also working with the National Library for the Blind, and the funded literature section of the Arts Council and all ten regional arts boards. BfS, a leading library bookseller, will bring its expertise to help develop routes for public libraries to buy and promote a wider range of material. The University of Central England will document the project and create accredited courses in reader development for public librarians and other literature development professionals.

For all those who have been involved in reader development work in libraries over the past few years, Branching Out offers opportunities on a different scale from one-off projects, however exciting those may be. Branching Out will embed reader-centred practice in the library service in ways libraries have only begun to think about. It will enable libraries to explore reader behaviour, to research how and when to make effective interventions to help readers choose. It prioritises the needs of the 18-30 generation, who are under-represented among library borrowers, and will aim to provide a wider range of fiction and poetry that appeals to them.

Through Branching Out, and its long-term outcomes, librarians will become more than providers of reading; they will be dynamic enablers, developing reading audiences both inside and outside library buildings and encouraging new reading experiences for many. 
 

For more information about Branching Out, Tel: 01977 602188 or Fax: 01977 602988 or visit www.branching-out.net

 
 
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