Laura Farrant

Laura's work on two Opening the Book courses - Dynamic Readers’ Advisory and Merchandising Library Shelves - has been very impressive. She's taken the opportunities offered by both to make a real difference for her library and her reading community, and she's been resourceful in turning new ideas into practice.

What makes Laura's contribution outstanding is her determination and commitment to apply the coursework directly to her practice - and her instinct for using the learning as a platform for developing new approaches to her work, rather than treating it as a one-off exercise. Her commitment, eloquence, openness and versatility make her a star learner in our eyes, and a great asset to her library team.

01 Imaginative displays that move stock

Laura has a gift for creating imaginative and attractive displays, and she uses the range across the library collection as her material - experimenting with the best ways to get books off the shelves and into the hands of readers. Her merchandising work is grounded in the practical end of what displays are actually for: not decoration, but circulation.

02 Conversations as a route into readers' lives

Laura has a fundamental empathy with readers. She knows how to draw people into conversations about books and reading, and she uses what she hears in those conversations to find something new and appealing to recommend. Her work on both courses showed a determined, intelligent and analytical approach to bringing the two halves of the role together - the books on the shelves and the readers in the room.