In their own words

Myself and my team all took part in the training course to help reignite our focus on the customers (students and staff) who visit our libraries and how to make the most of the spaces we provide. The training very much helped to do this and I would definitely recommend it to other FE college libraries. I took the course myself and thought it was very interesting and well-planned. I especially liked the practical side of the training and the way it encouraged us to try out ideas.

This course is very thorough and has really forced me to consider how to make positive changes by taking the reader's perspective. I have adopted so many useful suggestions and ideas: making better first impressions to visitors; using all my senses to create changes to our landing strip; and I have decluttered and refreshed the 'space worth thousands'. Our collection is comprised largely of textbooks but now, based on what we've learnt, we are rearranging our stock, making it easier for students to find what they need.

I have gained a better understanding of what Reading for Wellbeing means and the reason for doing it - more than just a book club. The course has made explaining my role so much easier. Finding out about perceptions of book covers and how important they are was crucial and I appreciated the in-depth feedback and option to review after the mentor has discussed your answers with you.

I found the discussion around genres and types of books helpful. The sections about what judgements you can make from the book cover and how this might relate to individuals and groups was interesting. I am definitely more confident now and have begun the process of increasing my book knowledge. The reflective nature of the information was really thought-provoking and the case studies were great - they really got me thinking about applying the knowledge. I found having discussions with my mentor really helpful and it made it a more personal experience. The feedback on this course is very in-depth and provoked a lot of thought about how to approach each task.

Not coming from a library background it was very useful and good to feel supported and get feedback that I was on the right track. I enjoyed the activities especially using book covers as an ice-breaker and a way in to talk about books.

I had a lovely time doing the course and reflecting on my own and others' experiences of reading. The visual resources were great and it was really fun playing the games with them and seeing how these could be good icebreakers for groups/individual sessions. The links to research were interesting and I liked being able to see how the theory linked to practice. It felt like a well-rounded course that covered everything I felt I needed. Mentor discussions were really useful for picking up on things I may have missed.

I have really enjoyed the experience of the Reading for Wellbeing course - thank you so much for your feedback and encouragement! I'm sure the practice will inform our projects, especially in terms of how we prepare to engage with a wide audience of people from different backgrounds/situations/issues and encourage them to read without making them feel intimidated.

This course is wonderful. It offers some insight and everything I need to know in a nutshell.

The experience of being able to have your [book collections] critically evaluated is of course slightly nerve-wracking but in a way that makes you take the time to actually think about the selection. Many thanks for championing the importance of reading for wellbeing. It is something that I feel confident in using within my work at the library now.

I really enjoyed merchandising the bookshelves course. I particularly enjoyed the creative tasks of merchandising a particular part of the library, for example: the teen fiction section which often gets forgotten about.

Coming from the school of social work, I didn’t learn visual merchandising in library school - so this training is new and I found it refreshing. And even if I had experienced it before, I would still keep an open mind and trust that I will learn something new and interesting! After all, we work in an industry that gives evolving, updated information regularly - and this is what this course is about - a refresher for the evolving, curious minds and something new, for someone like me!

I thought the course was fantastic. Thinking like a retailer really make a lightbulb come on. I 'dared' to redesign a space I hadn't touched for years and learned about making our shelves more attractive. Best course I have done with the library.

I enjoyed this course - it gives simple and applicable approaches to merchandising the library with immediate effects. The information was easy to understand and to apply, the interactive elements were fun and I found I could use what I learned from the course immediately in my work.

I just wanted to let you know how useful I found the training. I have only worked at the library for four months and in that time have learnt a great deal from my colleagues, who are very friendly and supportive. However, this training gave me a great insight into many new things. Firstly, it reassured me that I am doing some things well, particularly in relation to welcoming customers with a smile, but the training also helped me develop my customer radar, in particular considering how many customers would rather approach a staff member away from the desk and tailoring any advice and support to their needs. I have learnt a great deal about creating the perfect display and the best ways to showcase our books. I also thought that the format of the course was clear and easy to follow.

Your course is excellent! I loved it. Our library has been trying to merchandise our collection before and we have had in house training. This course reinforced our library guidelines and my previous experience with displays in the library. The way your training was organized was very thoughtful and logical. It was easy to follow, fun to experiment and full of inspirational ideas and encouragement.

Oh my goodness, I am absolutely LOVING this Opening the Book course! It's expanding how I think and look at the work environment, and seeing libraries through our customers' eyes. I try to do that anyway, but this course is great!

The course is clear and easy to follow. It was easy to log on the first time and the instructions were clear. I've enjoyed working through the tasks - the course is not too long and it can be tackled in small chunks. I liked the fact that my place was saved each time and I felt I was able to adapt my learning as I went on. As a library worker, I found the content to be appropriate and supportive to my work.

I enjoy selecting books for Opening the Book displays (virtual or otherwise) as it gives me several hours to browse our library (or online) and find some hidden gems that warrant promotion.

The course was excellent. It has made me feel connected to my job and our readers and has given me renewed enthusiasm. I think the course was written and presented in a user friendly way which inspired personal involvement - it made me think!

I really enjoyed Managing first impressions; the practical tasks were interesting to undertake and I am now looking at our library in a very different way. It is very satisfying to see the changes I have made making a positive difference to the library and the customers.

I really enjoyed this course! It's an eye and mind opener, and I love the creative licence you gain! I feel excited by the thinking behind the creating of powerful promotions and look forward to putting my ideas into practice!

I really enjoyed the course and found the books that might appeal to men and the under 45s’ activity fun to do. It also was fun to research online, through blogs, and from family members and friends for their insight into what books to recommend to read. I did all my learning by using my knowledge of my own library and seeking insight from friends/family and colleagues on some of the questions.

I love Opening the Book courses because I always learn something which greatly helps me in my day-to-day job. It helps change your perception and your thinking with regards to which books to promote and how to effectively promote them so that borrowers take them all!

It was a great chance to reconnect to books, and to really consider book over design. The course was well structured culminating in the virtual display exercise, which was absorbing and illuminating. I enjoyed the philosophies that were expressed, and especially the idea of offering our customers a reading experience.

The course did a really good job of challenging the ways that we do promotions. I feel very attached to the old style of doing it as it's fun and creative to make big, silly displays with lots of decoration and hyper-specific themes. This course convinced me that I shouldn't be doing that! Everything I learnt makes sense and I look forward to shifting some more books because of it! I would recommend this course to others. I'd say that it's a good way to change your perspective on library displays and could ignite some excitement in this area if things are feeling a bit old and stale.

The highlight of this course was the ability to have mini assessment style interactions. I felt like I was learning more and able to see the result when I chose the best covers in the selection. There is so much helpful information, and along with the interactive sections, it really gives people a chance to try and have immediate feedback on their choices. It will help staff bring a fresh frame of mind for their display choices - and understand the patron's point of view. The final bookcase tasks were so fun!

I enjoyed the course, it gave me the opportunity to review and look at how we promote our stock and to talk with customers and staff about how they choose books. This taught me the skill of thinking about promotions outside of work, when I am not with customers and the day to day running of the library. Thinking about promotions when you have some quiet time does help with being more creative.

I do relief library work in several community libraries in a rural area so was able to visualise different libraries and book collections during the exercises. I thoroughly enjoyed working through the course, it was not an arduous task at all if you love books and working with readers. Well laid out and easy to use, not technically challenging. Good practical ideas to use in our own libraries.

Our displays have been stuck in a rut and staff have resorted to jazzing them up to grab attention instead of letting the books do the talking. Following this course, I can now see growth in the library team and we have been able to talk and share thoughts and ideas. This has already created more diversity in our book displays.

One thing I learned from this course is what makes a library appear cluttered opposed to a comfortable open space with interesting nooks to investigate. I also learned about the importance of remembering to look over your library critically from an outsider's or visitor's perspective in order to make sure that the library presents well and that displays do not appear to look monotonous or stale. I found the advice on creating showcases to be particularly helpful in achieving this goal!

This course has helped me learn the importance of display unit position, as well as how to configure a showcase of books. Moving forward, I will ensure that I merchandise books and use my training to really consider what I'm choosing to display and why. I think completing the practical work in the training has helped me create eye-catching displays which borrowers have engaged with, and it has also shown me which areas of the library are interacted with the most.

I really enjoyed learning new ways to put together eye catching book displays. I especially liked learning how to make an attractive showcase by using contrasting colours and grouping the same size books together to give a more streamlined look. It seemed to be popular with the customers too as I had to restock a few times during the day.

This course made me think more about what the customer sees and wants when they come into the library and their point of view of displays and interactions with us. Also, that displays can be a collaborative thing; I never would have thought about letting the public add to and take away from a display. I think this adds another interactive element and enjoyment, as well as reinforcing the sense of community in the library.

What's the old saying? ‘every day is a learning day’. That's for sure. This course reminded me of how each reader is an individual and the time they spend in the library is very precious to them so we should try our very best to enhance their experience.

Working through this course, I found a new perspective on how to use displays to develop people's reading experience. Also - not to be afraid to plant some books on the returns trolley. I look forward to experimenting further and reflecting regularly on what works and why.

This was such an interesting training course. I didn’t think that there was so much involved in displays and recommendations. It’s definitely made me more aware of the needs of readers and library visitors alike and has given me some valuable information and insights I can use going forwards. Thanks a lot.

After taking this course, I am now equipped with more conversational tools so that I don’t feel like I have to know about all the books in the library.

Even though I have always talked with readers and encouraged them to tell me about their reading journey, I now have an arsenal of new questions to ask that I hadn’t thought of myself. Also I look at the way we display books differently now.

The reflective nature of the information was really thought-provoking and the case studies were great - they really got me thinking about applying the knowledge. I found having discussions with my mentor really helpful and it made it a more personal experience.

I have absolutely loved this course and everything I have gained from it has been so valuable. Thank you for the brilliant feedback. I learned a lot from my mentor and I would feel a lot less confident, even on completing the course, if I hadn’t had their guidance and suggestions.

The personal feedback on this course is very in-depth and has provoked a lot of thought about how to approach each task.

The tasks were interesting and cleverly designed to encourage you to think latitudinally, looking at different options and considering the development of the reader. The course introduced new ideas gradually and gave you opportunities to apply them practically. My mentor offered timely and clear advice, giving me areas to think about without spoon-feeding the ‘correct’ answers.

I found the input of my mentor really useful, partly because I have not completed this 'type' of training for many years, it was interactive and autonomous, very different from the usual.

This course has made me challenge my thinking on traditional stock promotion. I am now planning displays in a different way to try and engage with a more diverse audience.

Thinking about age and genre signifiers in book covers was interesting. I hadn't thought much about age signifiers for adult books except for the difference between adult and YA or children's books so this gave me a lot to think about. Having a personal mentor made me think more deeply about the content of the course. Thank you very much for everything.

I found the clear language and explanations in the course very helpful and I enjoyed the activities relating to my own personal reading. In Module 2 - the activities on book covers and the guidance on feelgood books for the final task were stand out. Working with my mentor was fabulous - thank you for all the great feedback.

I changed my face-out display this week to a bigger range of returned books and carefully arranged them on the shelves to have maximum impact for each cover. The result? Loans more than doubled. 50% ignored the display before the change, and only 25% ignored it after the change. Before, 7.5% of customers walking past took from it, and after the change, 17.5% of customers took from it. I have more: before the change, 15% of people who noticed the display took something from it. After the change, 23% of people who noticed the display took something from it.

We used to take great pride in our pretty book displays which combined a book theme with associated props, which were sometimes elaborate indeed! Despite using a variety of library stock, nothing was borrowed and the display remained pretty unused. We speculated that perhaps our displays were too pretty and that customers thought they were for show only. So we decided to remove the props and display the same themed items without the embellishments, just a snazzy looking sign and carefully selected tempting books. This shift in presentation resulted in about 70% of items being borrowed and before it would have been no more than 20%. We discovered that attractive library books advertise themselves and that we only needed to provide a face-out display to showcase them.

This comprehensive course challenged me to step outside of my comfort zone and supported me to do so. I received good encouragement and appreciated the insightful feedback from my mentor. The elements of trying to target a particular group and focus on their needs has been very enlightening. I can see that unexpected information can come from this process - and that just assuming what groups of people may want or need is not always going to result in a suitable event or project. It’s all a learning experience and you can gain knowledge by just giving things a go.

My mentor helped me analyse every single part from the research to the feedback phase. That was great!

The biggest takeaway for me was it expanded my mind when thinking of a target group. It made me more open to making reader connections based on the real positive impacts it could have to these readers, rather than just approaching it from a library point of view of getting people through our doors. I thought the course was well set out and I enjoyed doing it. Thanks!

Talking with readers made easy worked well for me. Being able to log on when time allowed was very useful. I am keen to revise the course once our restructure has taken place and share ideas from it with the team. I look forward to signing up for future Opening the Book courses.

I found the encouragement to mix fiction and non-fiction within themed displays very useful. I had always felt I should keep them separate to avoid confusion but it broadens the scope of what a collection can offer and expands the appeal to help readers discover new genres. I have developed confidence to look beyond the usual book display and think about the readers I want to appeal to, and the mood and tone of what is being chosen for the collection. The mentor relationship encouraged me to pause and think more deeply about the tasks and the feedback was valuable - either by confirming I was on the right track or by highlighting something I'd overlooked or not considered.

I really benefitted from the 'building in range' part. Usually when I create a display at work it's a narrow theme. I keep a calendar of promotional days, holidays and author birthdays for displays but I usually only have a topical social media post in mind. This course and my mentor have taught me to think outside the box and curate a rich collection of books. It doesn't have to be all one author for their birthday, for example, I can look for books about them, or authors inspired by them and authors similar to them. I also appreciate the tips right at the end here about asking your staff to add a book they think fits in the display so that the display keeps being replenished. I used to hate being asked for recommendations as I only read one genre myself at the time - having a display that I might not have read much from but understood would have really helped.

It has made me analyse and evaluate the current library space and make changes from the advice given. As the training has been done by a number of staff and based on different sites it will allow a diverse perspective of each library. I have found it to be enjoyable, engaging and informative. I would recommend to other libraries who are looking for fresh ideas to improve their library service.

I really enjoyed the course, there were a lot of things that I hadn't considered before and will now use going forward. I have learned a lot about how to display books on shelves so they look more inviting to the customer. I think more about which choices to make and the impression that is created in the library as a whole from how I interact with the customer, to what they see when they walk in. I think we could reposition the desk are in the library so that it is more customer friendly when you walk in, the furniture could be rearranged so it looks more intentional rather than mismatched as it does at the moment.

It gave me so many questions to ask & ways to explore books - I found listening while following the text helped it to bed in. I am now excited to get going on sharing the joy of reading with others for reading's sake rather than study.

We just wanted to say a huge thank you for the toolkit as it looks incredible, it's super accessible and very easy to both understand and take learnings from. The play out loud feature is also such a bonus and so helpful for us and our front-facing staff.

I've now had the chance to read all the modules. It has been tailored perfectly to our clients and so carefully considers inclusivity and accessibility. A huge thanks again for this toolkit, it will be invaluable. There are so many specialist areas here I would never have considered that open conversations and ensure it engages everyone equally.

You can tell how much care, thought and experience had gone into this new training for our book champions. One thing that I noticed was the language used throughout the training is matched very similarly to the language we use in our work; I shared this back to our CEO, who was very impressed.

The toolkit is great; it's really made me think outside the box of what a book club can look like.

The whole course feels as if it has been put together by people who are deeply immersed in the subject and thoughtful about how to achieve key aims. The variety and range of reading resources used as examples is really useful and I liked preparing for the work in my job by doing real tasks. Having a dialogue with my mentor was incredibly valuable. The feedback was detailed and geared towards the future.

I found the Information very useful and informative with really good activity suggestions eg grab a book. I've now got lots of ideas to help with recommending books and I enjoyed putting the capsule collection together before I meet people.

The online format was easy to use. I found the exercises that I can use in sessions really helpful, and so was the opportunity to practice pulling a book selection together, especially with feedback from my mentor.

It was clear and nice to use, easy to understand the points being made. I will now take a more active approach when it comes to talking to students.

AMAZING! I now feel confident and knowledgeable when it comes to how the library works. This course helped me gain an understanding of how to make the library more approachable and alluring. I have a better understanding of how important merchandising is for students. I now make sure it's not only me who is welcoming anyone who comes in, but also the books lying on the shelves, I make the books face the students and look towards them.

I found the course very good in giving ideas how to engage with students. I learned the importance of having a conversation with staff and students - listening to what ideas and thoughts they have about the books they are reading, seeing or hearing about.

Students are finding it easier to know what books we have in the library. Rather than looking for them on the shelves they are taking them from the displays to borrow and read. It was most informative and self-explanatory, which has given me more confidence in myself to go out there and make displays!

This has broadened my scope and changed how I would approach finding a good read for somebody. I would have traditionally said 'what kind of books do you like' and realise now there are many more ways to find out and that the conversation can often be way more important than the end result. The discussion with my mentor was extremely beneficial and really astute. Some great resources included which I found really useful to research and elevate our own information - this was definitely the main highlight and I am so glad I had access and will be going back over the notes for sure in the future. Some great ideas to get you thinking about what reading actually is or can be for people eg. doesn't have to be straight up book reading it can be browsing a beautiful picture book or reading to your grandchild or flicking through magazines online. It definitely made me stop and think and plan new activities.

While I recommend books and other sources of reading to people on a daily basis, this course has given me time to pause and reflect on the positive impact that a good read can have on somebody's life. The evidence of impact on reading for wellbeing was very compelling and proves reading to have all the positive influences on increasing our thought processes, memory, empathy and compassion. I am confident that I am now better equipped to find a good read for somebody, especially ways to find connections when recommending books to people who are not that interested in reading. I definitely found the discussion with my mentor very beneficial and I took on board all feedback given and hope to implement this going forward.

I found the course to be very helpful and engaging. It provided quick and practical solutions for refreshing my library with a makeover. I was able to implement the strategies shared in the course right away, and I have already seen a positive impact on my library.

It was a fantastic course to make the library more attractive with book displays so the students choose books easily.

This course made me realize that my library needed so many things rearranging to make it look more inviting to students and make it more organized. Then that made me think of some good ideas to put into practice.

I'm a school librarian, working alone in a school of 400 children from year 1 to year 13. This course made me stop and think about the ideas it offered and the main reason of school libraries: the students.

One of the most interesting aspects of the course was its focus on helping me arrange books in the library in a more efficient and engaging manner. By learning new techniques and strategies, I was able to organize the books in a way that captured the attention of the children and sparked their interest in reading. As a result, the students showed a greater enthusiasm for the books available in the library collection, making it a more inviting and enriching space for learning.

I found this course to be very super interesting, engaging, and not overly theoretical. Helping children choose can be a difficult task, especially when they truly don't know how to respond to questions like "what do you like?" This course is full of practical activities that seem to get children thinking without even knowing it. We will definitely make use of the fun activities that this course inspires!

Very informative with lots to keep the children engaged. As School Librarian I will be introducing these activities into all of our Library Sessions and most certainly introducing the course to the Classroom Staff.

I really enjoyed this course! The examples of activities and downloads are very practical and down to earth. The website is very attractive and very user-friendly. I think that this is what I liked most about this online course...the fact that you can mark the page as completed and that it indicates the percentage of the course that is being reached. Everything is clear and you know exactly where you stand. Very well done!

I found this course very interesting and would recommend it to others. It has really made me think about how each display looks and how it might entice patrons to pick up and borrow different books in the collection. It also offers insights into how we can make the library more appealing to a variety of users and the hands-on assignments give confidence in setting up displays.

Mentor feedback on this course was incredibly helpful. In terms of putting collections together, my mentor provided me with an objective perspective that helped to strengthen the focus of the collection, and thus its power. She was a great combination of supportive, objective and encouraging.

This course was really enjoyable and I learnt a lot about curating new collections to increase reader engagement. It also made a refreshing change to be able to focus on developing my stock knowledge (which isn't strictly part of my day job). I liked having set tasks to complete, but with the ability to bring my interests and love of reading to the table. Thank you for letting me be part of the course and for the support I've had from the mentors along the way. I'm a little sad it's over - as I'm a sucker for learning!

I feel the course was very well-structured, and having the feedback from a mentor was extremely useful and supportive.