Reading Partners Activity
Every library authority to be paired with a writer during the National Year of Reading. This was the offer made by Reading Partners early in 2008.
Reading Partners is a Reading Agency co-ordinated project which is encouraging a consortium of publishers to work more closely with library services, in promoting books to readers. The partnership has been gaining momentum over the last couple of years, and this year some high profile events have been taking place across the country.
There have been 2 major benefits for libraries in this region, which although already having a good track record of putting on events with writers, has sometimes struggled to attract some of the "big names". This year, thanks to Liverpool's Year as European Capital of Culture, lots of publishers have wanted to send their writers to have a presence in the city. To date Liverpool Libraries have hosted well- attended events with Jeffrey Deaver, Paul Barber and Mike Gayle, and still have visits to look forward to, including one from Bernadine Evaristo this month. These events have helped to position Liverpool Libraries firmly as a major contributor to the city's developing literary infrastructure, alongside The Bluecoat Arts Centre and The Reader Organisation.
In other parts of the region some Reading Partners highlights have been or will be visits by Peter James to Cheshire, Sarah Hall and Mavis Cheek in Cumbria, Peter Robinson to Oldham, Patricia Scanlan in Tameside and Chris Ryan in Warrington. Every library authority will have had at least one Reading Partners event by the end of the year.
The biggest event of all was a recent visit by Ian Rankin to Manchester. Ian was on a whirlwind national tour, promoting his latest title Doors Open. Manchester Libraries were fortunate in securing him for his only "library event". Owing to the (correctly) anticipated large numbers of people interested in hearing Ian, the event had to be held in an external venue, but St Ann's Church provided a beautiful setting for this very articulate and entertaining speaker. Manchester Libraries made sure that their involvement was well appreciated , loaning copies of Rankin titles on the night, which didn't detract from the very healthy sales. This event also helped further cement a growing partnership with Borders' Books which should see further similar high-profile names visiting Manchester Libraries.
Image- Ian Rankin signs books for a very long queue of fans.
The 2nd benefit of Reading Partners for this region has been ensuring that every library authority provided at least one event for writers and readers over the course of the year. Some library authorities naturally engage with this sort of activity more than others, and it is relatively easy to attract writers wanting to promote their books in cities like Manchester and Liverpool. Reading Partners has provided writers to the smaller authorities who often find it harder to attract interest from publishers. Many of these are still to take place over the next 3 months, so please keep reading the news pages of this site to see how successful they are.
