Partnerships
Booktrade
“Working with the library sector enables publishers to reach directly into a dedicated reading
community, to a ready- made audience of book lovers to whom we’ve not spoken before.
We’ve discovered (and it seems so obvious now!) that not only are these readers receptive
to our wonderful books, but they are also happy to be seduced by the new, fresh voices at
work today. Although loyal to established writers, library borrowers are also willing to try the
unfamiliar and experiment with a vast range of great writing.”
Joanna Prior, Director of Marketing, Penguin.
Partnerships with the booktrade were integral to the first phase of Love Libraries. At the 2006
seminar Stephen Page, President of the Publishers’ Association and CEO of Faber, talked about
how the partnership between libraries and publishers “is being reborn” and about publishers’ new
understanding of the “strategic worth of the partnership with the library service in the promotion of
reading”. He also spoke about future possibilities for collaboration.
Download Stephen Page’s Love Libraries seminar speech
Reading Partners, the consortium of nine British publishers and The Reading Agency, played a key role in the 2006 Love Libraries project. The consortium is aiming to revolutionise the way libraries and adult publishers work together. Libraries are benefitting from new skills through a skills sharing programme, free promotional resources, new access to authors and new publisher networks. The operational section of this website has details of important new tools and approaches being created through the consortium’s work. Each region of the UK has a library representative responsible for steering the work of the consortium and galvanising regional activity.
Reading PartnersMany libraries are using partnerships with local bookshops to get new perspectives to help modernise their service. The three Love Libraries transformation libraries learnt a lot from seminars on merchandising and customer care led by Waterstone’s and Borders Head Office staff and from shadowing schemes with local booksellers.
Operational sectionGo to the research section for data on the links between borrowing and buying. This gives you the rationale you need when negotiating partnerships with publishers and booksellers.
Research section TopBroadcasters
Since the BBC’s Big Read broadcasters have been discovering that books and reading make great television. As part of Framework for the Future, The Reading Agency has been developing partnerships with broadcasters to open up big new marketing opportunities for libraries at national level. These partnerships can help modernise the reading service by enabling libraries to harness national promotional opportuniites for reading and link their readers to the national buzz around reading. They include partnerships with BBC Learning, BBC Radio, Channel 4’s Richard and Judy Book Club, and the Galaxy British Book Awards.
Partnerships calendar Top
