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This section covers the types of reading
materials which are most suitable for use with basic skills
students and their promotion and display.
Your basic skills collection
Most library authorities have reviewed their stock collections
for adult basic skills learners and have bought new materials,
ideally in consultation with local learning providers and
learners themselves. For example, Hampshire, the Isle of Wight,
Southampton and Portsmouth library authorities formed a partnership
with the Essential Skills Strategy Unit in Fareham to review
their stock and select the best paper-based and online items.
Download case study 
Wandsworth consulted with tutors to identify a collection
of Skills for Life books which are now in stock at all branches.
Download the list here
Avanti Books is the main supplier of materials to
support adult basic skills and ESOL learners at all levels
www.avantibooks.com. Key publishers include New Leaf Publishing (www.newleafbooks.org.uk) and Gatehouse Books (www.gatehousebooks.org.uk).
Books to promote reading for pleasure to adult learners
Increasingly, however, libraries also have collections of
mainstream fiction and non-fiction for 'emergent' readers,
adults who can manage texts with a readability level between
9 and 14 (Entry 3 to Level 2) and are just getting into reading
for enjoyment. In many cases these have been selected according
to criteria developed by the Vital Link programme following
earlier work by Essex Libraries with basic skills tutors and
learners.
Since 2002, The Vital Link has promoted a series of book collections featuring these selected titles . These include promotions targeted at parents, and particularly dads, with low literacy – Got kids? Get reading and Five Minutes.
These book collections are included in a unique database, First Choice Books - www.firstchoicebooks.org.uk - which has been created by The Vital Link. Originally launched in 2005, this has now been redesigned and expanded to support the growing amount of work done by public libraries to support emergent readers.
These take into account factors such as design and
type size as well as plot structure, complexity of sentences
and level of vocabulary.
With the help of library staff, tutors and learners, The
Vital Link programme has chosen appropriate books for this
target audience, branded First Choice.
Other kinds of stock may be more suitable for different audiences:
graphic novels and Manga are particularly popular with young
people with skills gaps, while illustrated books are especially
appreciated by staff working with travellers and teenagers. See the list of graphic novels used in Surrey's Project
Hero, aimed at young offenders, at www.semlac.org.uk/aboutus/publications/casestudies/index.asp?id=1066,1407,9,1411
The Reading Agency has produced a collection of Manga titles
and promotional materials aimed at young people called Manga
Mania -
www.readingagency.org.uk/shop/ - which are available for purchase. Stock collections
for basic skills learners may also need to include ESOL materials
and dual language books for learners whose first language
is not English.
For new learners, audio books and story tapes provide a link
to the printed book and are less daunting; some authorities
have used plays and play reading to good effect as an introduction
to reading for pleasure. Alternative materials in different
media, such as lifestyle magazines, may also be popular with
new learners.
The range and variety of resources available for emergent
readers can be enhanced where library authorities work together.
Library staff in South Tyneside in the North East of England
identified a need for collections of multiple copies of titles,
to use with basic skills reading groups. They successfully
bid for funding from the local MLAC to provide a reading resource,
which is now available to all library authorities in the area.
Download case study
Essex Library Service have been promoting titles selected
for emergent readers through their Ask Chris website. Working
with Essex Adult Education, the library service created the
stock selection criteria for this work which have since been
developed further by The Vital Link. Visit http://askchris.essexcc.gov.uk
Library staff working with new learners recommend rotating
reading for pleasure collections for new readers between branch
libraries to keep stock fresh and to add variety.
'We like the book displays as that makes it easier for
us to find the books we want.'
Chris, Loughborough
Promoting book collections for new and less confident adult
readers is tricky territory. A carefully-chosen selection
of titles can be wasted if learners do not know it is there.
Fundamental to this is effective partnership working between
the library and local basic skills providers so that each
sector is aware of what the other has to offer.
The challenge is to use a range of attractively presented
titles to give less confident readers a taste of what the
whole library has to offer, without relegating them to a corner
under a 'basic skills' sign. Decisions about how to brand
and display stock should ideally be made in consultation with
tutors and learners. They may well want space allocated to
more traditional basic skills titles but will also appreciate
efforts to de-stigmatise books targeted at new adult readers.
We would recommend that you separate out your basic skills
stock (adult learner text books, books for tutors and ESOL
materials) from your reading for pleasure stock. Promote your
reading for pleasure stock in the main part of the library
using techniques such as face-out display. Use the posters
and banners to signpost the way to the titles and keep the
stock fresh, updated and stickered, so that it is obvious
it belongs to the collection.
The new national Six Book Challenge is also an ideal way to target emergent readers with an incentive scheme that can introduce them to a whole range of specially selected titles.
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