Information Scotland

The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland

August 2003 Volume 1 (4)

Reader development

Going boldy and learning as we go

Linda Corrigan outlines her work at the NLB with visually impaired people.

At the National Library for the Blind (NLB), we believe that visually impaired people should have access to the same kinds of library services as sighted people. We know perfectly well that services for visually impaired people need to be delivered slightly differently from those for sighted people. We also know that many public libraries are both ill equipped and ill-trained to deliver services for visually impaired people. As specialist providers, we fully expect our services to be needed (along with those of the other specialist providers) for many years to come. However, we are also aware that it would be much better for visually impaired people to get as much as possible delivered at a local level. Our aim is to support this function by providing training and materials for use in the community, backed up with the extra specialist material that we provide ourselves.

When we talk about visually impaired people having access to the same kinds of services, we are talking about everything. Not only should we be providing, books, reading and reference material at a local level but we should also be ensuring that visually impaired people in our communities participate fully in the life of the library community. How many libraries throughout the UK have reading groups, homework clubs, careers centres, online centres, story times, author events, local studies centres, reading festivals and all the many other activities that take place in libraries? How many of those activities have visually impaired people taking part along with sighted people? The short answer is 'very few'. Is that because there are no visually impaired people out there? Of course it is not. But is it because visually impaired people don't know about them, or don't think they would be able to take part, or have never been to the library and don't know what's there? Then the answer is probably 'very likely'.

Over the last four years, NLB has run a series of pilot reader development activities in public libraries, combined with providing some accessible materials and training and consultancy for library staff. In most cases, we have tried to include an element of IT in the activities, to allow visually impaired people to taste what the internet and access technology can do for them. When we set out, Reader Development was just becoming a buzz word in libraries and the DDA was a silent cloud on the horizon. We 'boldly went' where none had been before. With the help of Opening the Book, the Reader Development Agency, we tried to avoid problems, to second guess all eventualities. We worked together to make NLB's services reader-centred and on projects such as A Touch of... which reached out to the public library world. Some things worked and others didn't but over the years we have gained a lot of experience. We now know that there is no shortage of visually impaired people out there who would like to take part in such activities. We also know how hard it is to get in touch with them and how difficult it often is for them to attend.

There are more than two million people in the UK with impaired vision. It is estimated that in every local authority, around 1 in 30 people on the electoral roll has uncorrectable sight loss. Another estimate suggests that 1 in 4 people will have serious sight problems as some point in their lives. This amounts to about one quarter of libraries' potential clients.

Often, serious visual impairment is an invisible problem. Many people with serious sight loss can still manage to walk around and travel relatively easily. They may borrow Large Print books or Audio Books seemingly independently. However, they will never see the notice about the Reading Group or about the Writer Event. They may not use all the library's facilities, even those designed to help them, because they don't know that they are there.

NLB is a partner in the largest national Reader Development programmes: Branching Out in England, the Reader Development Network in Scotland and Estyn Allan, in Wales. This has allowed NLB to get its message to the widest possible range of library authorities. In April, Fiona Edwards of Opening the Book and I gave three days of training, for the RDN, one in each of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Most of the library authorities in Scotland were represented at one of these days and we were able to spread the word, discuss and answer questions about delivering Reader Development work with visually impaired people. It's not rocket science. It is more about thinking about your potential audience whenever you plan an activity.

As a result of the last four years work, NLB now has training programmes available for library staff and workshop programmes available for working with visually impaired people to enhance their use of the library. Pilot programmes were funded by the DCMS Wolfson Library Challenge Fund during 2001-3, and can be seen on the NLB's website under the headings A Touch of... and A Touch more... They have been tried and tested and we know that they work. Now, our challenge is to find a means of getting these programmes out to more and more library authorities so that best practice can be shared and developed.

Linda Corrigan is Reader Development Manager, National Library for the Blind.

Training programmes

If you are interested in any of the training programmes, please contact Linda Corrigan at linda.corrigan@nlbuk.org or Pat Beech, Library and Information Services Director at pat.beech@nlbuk.org.

Information Scotland Vol. 1 (4) August 2003

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Last updated: 13 February 2004