Access to this page is available exclusively to CILIP members or members of the specific Branch/Group.If you are already a CILIP member
Mozilla Firefox users only: After logging in, you will need to do a View/Reload of this page before all the member-only content will be displayed.
Page summary
Reader development encompasses all age groups from younger readers through to adult readers.
The reader is at the centre of all reader development activity.
Reader development has developed as a buzz phrase in the library world since 1995.
The Branching Out website states that ‘First and foremost it is work that is reader-centred. It starts with the reader and the individual reading experience, not the author, or the subject, or the theme of a book. In reader development work the aim is to concentrate on the act of reading itself.
The term also came to signify a body of professional practice which encouraged readers to open up their reading choices, share their reading experiences and raise the status of reading as a creative activity.
The Opening the Book website definition is that Reader development means active intervention to:
- Increase people’s confidence and enjoyment of reading
- Open up reading choices
- Offer opportunities for people to share their reading experience
- Raise the status of reading as a creative activity
The Reading Agency refers to 'work that intervenes to expand people’s reading horizons often by connecting people to each other to share reading experiences'.
There is a discussion list for reader development at
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/READER-DEVELOPMENT.html
Reader development - adults
Reader development - babies & children
Reader development - teenagers
Reader development - special needs
Reader development - international
Local and national agencies
Reading lists
Reader development - further reading
Reading groups
National Year of Reading
Bibliotherapy/books on prescription