November 2005

New campaign adds creativity into Skills for Life agenda

The Vital Link is pleased to announce the launch of a new campaign to promote reading for pleasure and the role of libraries to learning providers working with adults with literacy needs. This campaign is funded by the Skills for Life Strategy Unit in the Department for Education and Skills.

The Vital Link: Reading, libraries and Skills for Life aims to inspire and enable practitioners to integrate creative reading activities and partnership with libraries into their teaching. This extends The Vital Link's existing activity which has focused on building libraries' capacity to support emergent readers - those adults who are just getting into choosing and reading books for enjoyment.

'Enjoyment of learning is fundamental to successful learning. Libraries know how to inspire and develop a lifelong love of reading. I'm delighted that the Department for Education and Skills is working with libraries to promote reading for pleasure.' Phil Hope MP, Minister for Skills

New research, Confidence all round: The impact on emergent adult readers of reading for pleasure through libraries, confirms the beneficial outcomes of libraries' creative reading activity in partnership with Skills for Life. Improved confidence shone out as the key change, with individuals talking about a greater capacity for self-expression, renewed self-esteem and a sense of achievement. Most reported an increase in skills and aspirations to continue reading and learning.

The new campaign will also bring together related reading for pleasure activity around libraries' involvement in the BBC RaW campaign and the World Book Day Quick Reads initiative for 2006 and will be working with NIACE to provide online learning resources to support the Quick Reads titles due to be published on 2 March next year.

A world first resource for emergent adult readers - First Choice Books - is available at www.vitallink.org.uk listing fiction and non-fiction selected for emergent adult readers.

'I have just found the newly launched Vital Link database and think that it is stunning. I am recommending it to the other nine Learning Centre Managers at our College and am hopeful that they will be recommending it to the relevant staff and students.' Comment on web survey

Notes to editors:
1 Confidence all round: The impact on emergent adult readers of reading for pleasure through libraries was commissioned by The Vital Link programme earlier this year. Consultants Morris Hargreaves McIntyre talked to adults in nine groups across the country, some in literacy provision, others in family learning. All had been involved in some kind of creative reading activity ranging from book discussions to library visits. An Executive Summary of the impact research can be found at www.vitallink.org.uk

2 First Choice Books - lists fiction and non-fiction selected for emergent adult readers. according to criteria developed by The Vital Link. With over 400 books searchable by title, author and category and a facility to contribute reviews and further recommendations, this provides a unique resource for emergent readers, Skills for Life practitioners and library staff.

3 The Vital Link is run by The Reading Agency in partnership with the National Literacy Trust and National Reading Campaign. Part of the Government's Framework for the Future strategy for public libraries being implemented by the Museums, Libraries & Archives Council, it brings together libraries and the Skills for Life sector and focuses on reading for pleasure as a way of motivating existing students and engaging new learners

4 The new Vital Link campaign is being outlined in more detail at the national Skills for Life conferences in November and in mailings to Skills for Life coordinators and practitioners over the next few months. It will develop an online resource for practitioners at www.vitallink.org.uk

5 The Reading Agency is the UK agency for libraries and reader development. Its mission is to inspire reading by working with libraries to research and plan programmes, provide resources and training and build links with new partners.

6 The National Literacy Trust (NLT) is an independent charity dedicated to building a nation in which everyone enjoys the skills, self-esteem and pleasures that literacy can bring. It is the only organisation concerned with raising literacy standards for all age groups throughout the UK. The NLT runs the National Reading Campaign on behalf of Department for Education and Skills.

Contact

Kay Jackaman, Campaign Manager, The Vital Link
on kay.jackaman@readingagency.org.uk or 0871 222 1034

Genevieve Clarke, National Coordinator, The Vital Link
On genevieve.clarke@readingagency.org.uk or 0871 750 2104