This is the question that we have been working with our partners on the National Youth Libraries Board to answer.

The answer that we have come up with is the National Youth Offer, which you can download from Resources. The youth offer describes the sorts of services libraries can, and should, be providing for young people and how young people can get involved in running services in their local libraries.

It is based on extensive research, consultation and all the good examples of young people and libraries working together that have come out of our Fulfilling their Potential programme and HeadSpace projects, amongst others.

As ever we believe in thinking big and this offer represents a national aspiration. We and our partners on the National Libraries Board hope that this youth offer will challenge libraries to look again at the services they offer to young people. And illustrate the vital role libraries have in running activities that young people want to get involved with and learn from.

The offer was launched at a national conference on 29 January 2008 that we ran jointly with the Local Government Association. Following this conference, we have written more about the youth offer, gathered examples of initiatives involving young people and libraries working together, and made suggestions for how libraries can campaign to deliver the youth offer. It's in the second of our New thinking series of publications available through our online Shop shortly. So check back soon.

Resources for libraries

In Resources you will find a number of documents to help you understand and deliver the youth offer. These include the:

• heads of library services PowerPoint presentation to use with your Director of Children's Services and other strategic partners
• guidance notes to use with the presentation
• a briefing paper for heads of library services and ASCEL members, about the youth offer and the National Youth Libraries Board
• an evidence-based research report on young people's views, which inspired the youth offer.

Multiple copies of the youth offer have been distributed to library services and other key partners across the country. Order additional copies through our online Shop.

National Youth Libraries Board

The National Youth Libraries Board is chaired by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and is managed by The Reading Agency.

Other members are:

• Society of Chief Librarians
• MLA Yorkshire
• Local Government Association
• Department for Children, Schools and Families
• Department for Culture, Media and Sport
• National Youth Agency
• Association of Senior Children's and Education Librarians
• Head of Community Learning and Development at Norfolk Children's Services.

So we are launching a new website. What goes on the website (and what it’s called) will be down to young people.

We plan to make the most of web 2.0 technologies - blogs, podcasts, videocasts, RSS feeds, tagging, webchats, and the like – to create new reading communities and a social network for anyone aged 13 and over. Young people will be able to create their own pages and get involved with reading in all its forms – be that manga, audio, poetry, computer games, plays or lyrics. The website will also host quizzes, competitions, news, author interviews and advice on reading and creative writing. Any young person can use the site – and it’s free.

What’s in it for grown ups, you might ask? Well adults who work with young people are also being consulted on what the website should contain (and what it should be called). When it is up and running libraries and schools will (in return for a users’ licence fee) be able to create their own young people's reading spaces. They will also get advance notice of content, support on how to make the most of their virtual space, and access to events, booklists and reading activity ideas.

We are very excited about this project. Watch this space for updates.

TRF is the way that we make important contributions to some important national policy agendas such as Change for Children, which safeguards the wellbeing of children and young people, and Framework for the Future, which develops the skills of librarians.

We are developing TRF in partnership with the Association of Senior Children's and Education Librarians (ASCEL), the CILIP Youth Libraries Group, the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) and the Arts Council.

Visit the TRF website to take one of our interactive learning packages, join our discussion forum or download practical planning tools and advocacy documents, which help librarians develop skills and plan services. You can also find information on our face-to-face training courses.

Partners for Change had a particularly difficult brief. Not only were library services in the south west encouraged to get young people involved in their local library but we were interested in young people who traditionally don’t see a library as a place for them – young mums, young travellers, looked-after young people and young people at risk.

Our partners in this venture were the South West Museums Libraries and Archives Council (SWMLA) The National Youth Agency and library authorities in Dorset, Gloucestershire and Swindon. And we are thrilled by what we managed to achieve together.

Some of the highlights are the fact there is going to be a much larger space for young people in the new Swindon Central Library when it opens in 2008 thanks to the input of our young people. While library staff in Dorset were able to help travellers to get more support because they got to know the traveller community by running projects for young travellers. And young people in Cheltenham secured £10,000 for improvements and new furniture for the music library.

Some very valuable lessons were learnt from Partners for Change. It has shown that libraries have much to offer socially excluded young people. It has shown that with the right training and a commitment to outreach work to build the trust of young people, library staff can achieve great things. And it has shown that young people from socially excluded backgrounds are willing to get involved in shaping the services that local libraries provide for their age group.

The work in the region goes on. A HeadSpace has opened in Lyme Regis. Young people will be involved in Swindon’s new Central Library and in Gloucestershire young people are having their say through focus groups at Cheltenham, Matson and Cirencester libraries.

HeadSpace is the project that proves that we can successfully put young people at the heart of projects meant for them. We are really rather pleased with it.

The original idea came from a group of young people in Derbyshire known as the Book Pushers, who wanted a new, laid-back environment in which to read and enjoy books - in fact they wanted to be able to enjoy words in whatever form they come in.

A HeadSpace is a library but not as you know it. It is a place where young people can pick a book and a snack served by a Book Waiter. A Book Waiter is a local young person who can tell you about the hottest new books, cds, games and dvds that you can borrow while they serve you your order.

You can find a HeadSpace in a library but you might equally find one in a café or youth club. What unites them is that they are run in equal partnership between young people in the area and their local libraries. Young people help pick the books, choose what gets served in the café, choose how the HeadSpace looks and decide what happens there.

In fact, a group of young people have already designed the HeadSpace branding in partnership with CuriousGroup.

All great experience and fantastic CV fodder.

We have worked with almost 700 young people and 20 library authorities in four regions to develop HeadSpace thanks to a Big Lottery award of £575,000. It is part of our Fulfilling their Potential work.

The first HeadSpaces have already opened and lots more will follow up until March 2010. Eventually there will be a HeadSpace in (those marked in bold have already opened):

East Midlands
Buxton Library, Derbyshire
Corby Library, Northamptonshire
Worksop Library, Nottinghamshire

North West
Halewood Library, Knowsley
Halton Lea Library, Halton
Haslingden Library, Lancashire
High Street Library, Bolton
Longsight Library, Manchester

South East
Burgess Road Library, Southampton
Café IT, Folkestone, Kent
Crawley Library, West Sussex
High Wycombe Library, Buckinghamshire
Lordswood Library, Medway

South West
Barcode Youth Café, North Somerset
Central Library, Swindon
Efford Library, Plymouth
Hartcliffe Library, Bristol
Lyme Regis Library, Dorset
Melksham Library, Wiltshire
Padstow Library, Cornwall

"We'll be there in the library for when a child or teenager comes in - we will be talking to them about books and suggesting books that we think they will really like. HeadSpace is going to make a difference." Sameeha Patel, volunteer at HeadSpace Bolton"

Throughout the autumn of 2007 we will be running training courses for staff at all levels in the 11 participating library authorities. Building on all the good work that we know is already happening in the region, our training will focus on involving and engaging young people with libraries – as well as how we can keep them involved once we’ve got them started.

In 2008 each of the participating library authorities will run a project where they put what they have learned into practice. Young people will design spaces, choose stock, run reading groups – perhaps even train staff themselves. The point is that it will be up to them.

Our partners in this venture are the National Youth Agency, the Regional Youth Work Unit and Museums Libraries and Archives.

“Library authorities in Yorkshire and Humberside have taken pride in their work with and for young people. With the Fulfilling their Potential project we expect to develop this work into a full-scale sustainable regional programme with a focus on participation and partnership.” Fiona Williams, head of libraries and heritage for York Libraries.

We ran training courses for public librarians working with young people to boost their confidence, help them develop projects and meet others doing the same work. Young people are now actively involved in their local libraries and taking decisions about stock, layout and activities. We think that’s something to be proud of.

You can read about some of the many ways that libraries in the region achieved this in the FtP NoW case studies available from Resources.

We are also very proud of the foundations that have been established for future work with young people and libraries in the north west. One of our partners in FtP NoW, the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) is going to take this work forward over the next two years.

In fact, partnership has been at the heart of FtP NoW and our other partners in this venture were the National Youth Agency, the North West Regional Youth Work Unit, the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) and MLA North West.

It’s a tough challenge to pull off but with the committed support of our partners we are getting there. Over the last two years hundreds of young people have told us what they think of their local libraries and how they can be improved.

Fulfilling the Potential is part of the government’s national strategy Framework for the Future, which sets out their vision for modern public libraries.

If you are running a project for young people in your library then please tell us about it by filling out the online project form in Resources.

Involving young people

We have been actively involving young people in our projects. Seven hundred young people gave us their opinions on the project that has successfully opened as HeadSpace. Another group, Nlarge, was commissioned to take photographs, Libraries through the Lens, that are now available to libraries throughout the country.

We have run several Fulfilling their Potential projects.

FtP NoW
FtP Yorkshire and Humberside
Partners for Change

We are also developing a new website for young people as part of our Fulfilling their Potential work.

We are very excited about all of our Fulfilling their Potential projects.

Tools for libraries

We have produced several tools which can be downloaded from Resources.

The Improvement Framework allows libraries to assess their current level of services for young people and set priorities for improving things.

There are also learning packages, ideas and case studies on ways to involve young people on our TRF website. Look out for a module called Involving and consulting young people in Reader Development Skills 1 and the Fulfilling their Potential link on the front page.

National policy

Fulfilling their Potential has been developed within Framework for the Future, the government's vision for a modernised public library service. If you are aware of the various national policy agendas that seek to make things better for young people then you’ll also want to know that Fulfilling their Potential is fully aligned with and supports Every Child Matters and Youth Matters.

Together with the Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) and the Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL) we responded to the government’s call for comments on Youth Matters. We also consulted with young people in the north west and south east of England on Youth Matters and all of these reports can be downloaded from Resources.

Partnerships

At the heart of Fulfilling their Potential is our partnerships. We work closely with library services across England to try out new and creative approaches to involve young people in libraries. We also have a range of positive partnerships which include the National Youth Agency, Association of Senior Children’s and Education Librarians (ASCEL), Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), Society of Chief Librarians (SCL) and the Regional Youth Work Units in the north west and Yorkshire and Humberside.

Enjoying Reading is an important new initiative funded by the Department for Children, Schools and Families DCSF to help every child love reading. It encourages schools and libraries to work more closely together. It helps schools understand how public libraries and schools library services can help them, and how, together, they can get more children reading more.

As Jim Knight MP, Minister of State for Schools and Learners, said: "Children's enjoyment of reading is critical to their life chances but schools alone can't crack this. The Department for Children, Schools and Families believes more joined up working between schools and libraries can make a big difference and is funding the Enjoying Reading initiative to provide inspiration, ideas and practical support. The National Year of Reading is the perfect time to start to strengthen this alliance."

Enjoying Reading started out as a toolkit we produced in 2004 (which you can still download from Resources). The newly launched Enjoying Reading website shows how schools can make the best of what each part of the library system has to offer. It includes research, case studies, an ideas bank and other resources which all demonstrate how teachers and library staff working together can bring more reading to more children.

There are Enjoying Reading booklets available for primary and secondary schools. And we are also producing new resources to allow more teachers to build on the highly successful Summer Reading Challenge which involves over 650,000 children in libraries every year.

Our partners in Enjoying Reading are:
National Literacy Trust
School Library Association
Society of Chief Librarians
Association of Senior Children's and Education Librarians
Museums Libraries and Archives Council

Other organisations also think that Enjoying Reading is a good thing and are supporting it. These include the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, Ofsted, the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, United Kingdom Literacy Association and the National Strategies for primary and secondary education.

During which time we have organised training programmes and conferences, carried out research into how libraries are working with Creative Partnerships and commissioned a study by Demos into young people, reading and libraries. You can download the publications and podcasts of our work to date from Resources.

The Reader/Writer Mash-up Seimnar podcast is coming soon.

“This project has taught us that exposure to a wide range of books and other resources is really the way to capture the imagination of both teachers and children, which is the surest way to develop their interest in reading.” Jane Choules, Project lead in Bristol Libraries

Booktrust Teenage Prize 2008

The Booktrust Teenage Prize is a flexible, ready made reading promotion. You can use it to broaden and make visible your work with young people, teenage reading groups and young people focused events. The Reading Agency will supply lots of reader development ideas and support so you can make the most of the initiative.

Libraries can promote the shortlist from September 2008 through to November (the shortlist is announced the week commencing 8 September and the winner announcement on Tuesday 18 November).

The shortlist for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2008 is:

• The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner
• Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz
• Apache by Tanya Landman
• The Knife that Killed Me by Anthony McGowan
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
• Creature of the Night by Kate Thompson

Teenage Judges competition 2008

Young people between the ages of 11 and 16 can win the opportunity to decide on this year's best book for young people and to attend the glamorous awards ceremony in London in November. Entrants are asked to write a short story in no more than 500 words on the theme of 'My Great Escape'. This links into June's National Year of Reading theme of 'Reading Escapes'. The four best short stories will win their authors a place on the judging panel for the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2008.

The competition is now closed and the winners will be announced on the 16 September.

For more information about the Booktrust Teenage Prize go to Bookheads, their dedicated website for teenagers.

The scheme is being run by the Booktrust and funded by the government's Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF). We have teamed up with Booktrust to help librarians give children the chance to read all 12 free titles in their local library, to promote public libraries and school libraries working together and to supply the promotional materials to participating libraries. We are also hoping to run author events to support Booked Up.

Booked Up was promoted from September to December 2007 and it is hoped that a similar scheme might run again next year so check these pages for information. Libraries and schools need to sign up in late summer.

For details visit the Booked Up website and download the booklist from Resources.

However, we know that if you capture a young person’s imagination and get him or her involved then they can, and do, get fired up by reading. There was also encouraging news when a recent survey found that secondary school pupils said that being able to design websites would get more of them to read more. *

So that’s what we’re doing. With one of our projects anyway. We’ve given young people the chance to design their own website.

We’ve also been very busy listening to young people and getting them involved in their local libraries through our work in the regions. Thanks to some of our other projects, young people are choosing books, designing library spaces, organising training for librarians and even deciding what gets served in cafes. (Yes, you did read that correctly – you’ll have to read about our HeadSpace project to understand.)

“With HeadSpace we'll be having things like weekly night sessions where you can play music, and drama workshops and there will be youth workers you can talk to confidentially. It's very different from an old-fashioned, quiet library!” Lowell Fachau, aged 14 from Lyme Regis

*Souce: National Literacy Trust 2005 survey of over 8,000 pupils.