Opening the Book teamRachel Van Riel - DirectorRachel is responsible for the strategic direction of the company and leads all its activities. Rachel founded and shaped the reader development movement which has changed the status of reading in the UK and influenced public libraries especially. She is much in demand as a speaker and has addressed many national and international conferences over the past 10 years. Sometimes challenging as a 'critical friend' to libraries, Rachel is a passionate advocate for public libraries in the wider cultural and educational sector. Rachel has taken reader-centred ideas to European countries from Norway to Hungary and also to Canada and Australia. Rachel taught in university and adult education before moving into arts development. In the 1980s she got a job in community arts with Sheffield City Council which was based (unusually) in the library service and discovered libraries were the ideal place for the kind of audience development work she wanted to do. With Chris Meade, (now with the Institute for the Future of the Book) she set up an innovatory programme of arts activities including the first reader-centred events in the UK. She founded Opening the Book in 1991 and hasn't stopped for breath since. Olive Fowler - Assistant DirectorOlive has worked for Opening the Book for 13 years and became Assistant Director in 2004. Olive is responsible for the management of our websites and also plays a significant role in developing new ideas for our reading promotions programme. Working with a range of design companies, Olive is responsible for the colour schemes in our library interiors and manages the design and production of the signage and graphics. Before joining the company, Olive worked for the largest independent press in Yorkshire, managing its publishing and writer development programmes as well as being the fundraiser, marketing manager and a key member of the management team. Anne Downes - Training DirectorAnne Downes is responsible for many of our innovative training programmes. Anne joined the staff of Opening the Book in 2000 and is based in the south of England. Her principal work since 2004 has been developing and running the Frontline course in the UK and Ireland. Previously she was the Literature Officer for Arts Council South East and, before that, for Arts Council North West. She spent two years as a Literature Development Officer for Lancashire Libraries. Her other work experience includes running a literature festival, managing a youth charity, training counselling staff and working for a publisher. Carol Cooper - Business ManagerCarol joined Opening the Book in 1997 and took on the new full-time post of Business Manager in 2005. Carol is responsible for all accounts and budgets and plays a key role in financial and business planning for the company. She manages the financial aspects of our library installation contracts and has develped a particular knowledge of seating manufacturers. Carol has worked in public sector finance for 20 years. For the last 15 years, before going full-time with Opening the Book, she worked with West Yorkshire Police, where she was responsible for personnel, research and strategic planning for her department as well as finance. She is also Company Secretary for MESL, jointly run with her husband. Tristan Campbell - Web Applications ProgrammerTristan develops and maintains websites for Opening the Book. He is responsible for the innovative coding and design for the Frontline course as well as for the whichbook sites in the UK and Norway. He has connected whichbook to all the online public access catalogues in both countries. He has also connected into all local authority systems in the UK so that online functions and automatically generated emails which are crucial to the Frontline course can be accessed and used by all subscribers. Outside of work Tristan is a passionate landscape photographer who can often be found on moorland carting a large format camera around in the early hours of the morning. Fiona Edwards - Reader Development Co-ordinatorFiona has worked for Opening the Book for nine years initially as an associate trainer and writer on the A Touch Of ... project and in the last seven years as Reader Development Co-ordinator. As well as delivering workshops in reader-friendly customer care, developing display skills and working with 8-14s and other training days in the UK and Europe, she is also supervises trainee Co-ordinators on Frontline - Opening the Book's online training course. Fiona is online editor for whichbook.net, liaising with whichbook readers and managing the selection and input of titles for whichbook. Over the last 12 years Fiona has been the reader-in-residence in both Pontefract and Castleford libraries, working with reading groups and organising reading events. She still plays an active role in one group which meets monthly at Pontefract Library. In a former life, Fiona was a teacher of English and drama before moving into the world of educational publishing as a desk editor. Simon Brind - Project ManagerSimon is now an established member of the team after joining us full-time in 2008. He enjoys all the challenges of managing our many varied library installation projects. Simon has 10 years experience of overseeing library schemes from initial design and technical development through to production, managing sites and installation. He is our key liaison for building services departments and their appointed contractors and developers. Simon has built up a large client base within local authorities, managing both large and small projects and readily dealing with all the client’s needs. Swansea Central library in the Civic Centre is the largest project he has managed to date with a contract value of over £500k and covering a space of 2100 sq metres, working very closely with the client and Carillion, the main contractor, in meeting the design and installation programmes. Simon also enjoys the challenge of much smaller libraries, delivering the best possible solutions on site, whatever the size. Simon's key strengths are understanding the client's requirements post-project, planning any mechanical and electrical elements, building good working relationships and successfully managing and delivering the end product on time. Simon's previous career as a project manager includes working on very large shopfitting projects for most of the main High Street retailers. Originally he trained and then developed towards manufacturing management in a variety of industries. He is also a fully qualified Rowing and Sports Coach. Simon loves the water, in his spare time he keeps fit and enjoys the peace and tranquillity of being on the river in his sculling boat, and also likes to go sailing when he can. Jan Wigfield - Web SupportJan Wigfield has worked in many administrative jobs, including Midland Bank and Post Office Counters. After a varied and interesting career with the Post Office, a move to Planning convinced her it was time to move on! More recently, Jan worked as a trainer for mature students in computer studies, concentrating on Microsoft Excel, Access and Word. Jan now shares her week between her hobby, obedience training at a local dog club, and working part-time for Opening the Book managing databases and editing and inputting content into websites. Simon Cooper - Computer ConsultantSimon manages all the technical systems for our office. He's also our Excel whizz and was crucial in designing the spreadsheets for the Stock Quality Health Check. In the rest of his life, Simon is a Director of Matrix Telematics and MESL, companies at the forefront of vehicle management and security technology. Before setting up his own companies, Simon worked as Area Manager with Panasonic for 13 years. Richard Van Riel - Company SecretaryRichard is Company Secretary for Opening the Book. He works closely with Rachel on all library layout designs and is responsible for many of our key innovations such as the shape of our trademark 'propeller' shelving. Richard's previous career was as a museum curator and his knowledge of historic buildings is very useful in library projects. Richard is also appreciated in his capacity as resident chef for all staff and guests of the company. Terry Campbell - Web Testing and SupportTerry joined Opening the Book in 2006 and works closely with Tristan to test all our web projects, especially connections to local authority sites and the complex workings of the Frontline online training course. He previously worked for many years with a local newspaper initially in the production department and later as Systems Manager. His main hobbies are walking and photography |