Reading Partners

Reading Partners brings publishers and libraries together to create exciting events and activities for readers. The programme, set up in 2004 by the Reading Agency, is going from strength to strength as publishers build libraries into their marketing planning in new and exciting ways.

Download the Reading Partners' report 2008, which includes new information, statistics and other key achievements for libraries and the book trade.

New online reading group project

Reading Partners has recruited 12 reading groups to be part of a brand new online Reading Group project in partnership with Random House. The project aims to create a large, vibrant social network of reading groups online under the Vintage Reading Group name. The site will enable people to create their own reading groups and to contribute to existing reading groups, breaking down time and geographical constraints and hopefully bringing more people to reading and conversing about books across the country. The site will provide a space where anyone can talk about any book to a fellow reader. A vibrant and exciting place for any book lover to come! For participating in this project, the 12 reading groups will receive a 12 month supply of books and there will be lots of media coverage for the reading groups taking part. The library linked reading groups taking part are:

Blackburn
Hackney
South Gloucestershire
Swansea
Doncaster
Nottingham
Newcastle
Middlesborough
Hillingdon
The Reading Agency Group
Norfolk Grown Ups
Richmond

Reader Meets Writer programme

A huge Reader Meets Writer programme including some of the UK's best-known authors and covering all of the 149 library authorities in England ran in 2008. The programme was created by Reading Partners and was part of the National Year of Reading.

50 high profile author events have taken place in library venues across the country. Kate Mosse was in Lambeth, Derbyshire and Sutton; Hanif Kureishi appears in Leicester; Iain Banks in Gateshead, Alexander McCall Smith in Warwickshire, Mavis Cheek in Kent and Cumbria and Clare Francis in Brighton. To find out which big name authors were going to be where, and when, you can download the big name author event details.

Reaching Readers

Reaching Readers was an exciting initiative for Black and Minority Ethnic readers.

Our Reading Partners publishers teamed up with public libraries on six projects in Birmingham, Leeds, Lewisham, Manchester, Newham and Norfolk. Together they worked on innovative projects to promote books and the joys of reading to a culturally diverse audience. Activities included work with reading groups, exciting book promotions to introduce more readers to books by British Black and Asian writers, and engaging author events. The projects helped publishers and libraries learn more about each other's work and to find out more about all aspects of BME reading and writing.

Libraries and publishers working together

Libraries and publishers running joint events can use the libraries and publishers' planning form devised by Nicola Thomas and developed with several West Midlands libraries and Helen Johnstone of HarperCollins.