The Ønskebok website is the largest international project Opening the Book has undertaken. Eva Haga Rogneflåten of ABM-utvikling (the Norwegian Museums, Libraries and Archives Council) first discovered whichbook.net as part of a presentation Rachel Van Riel made at a conference in Reykjavik in 2002. She saw its value immediately – not just as a great new way to engage readers but also as a way to get librarians to think differently about their job.
In 2002, Opening the Book was contracted by SLIC/CILIPS to deliver a two-year training programme involving all 32 Scottish Library authorities, funded by the Scottish Arts Council and SLIC/CILIPS.
A Touch of... was a national project run by Opening the Book, Branching Out librarians and the National Library of the Blind in 2001.
This site for readers aged 11-16 was developed in 2002-3 with East Ayrshire Libraries with the support of the Scottish Arts Council through the Local Authorities Partnership project. The site divided into three separate sections to appeal to different audiences within the age group. School and children's librarians worked with young readers to help plan the content of the site.
This was the first dual language Welsh/English site for readers. The site enables readers to choose their books according to the kind of break they are looking for; eg, a break from the kids (rhag y plant) or a break from stress (rhag y bwrlwm).
The site was developed as part of a Welsh national libraries promotion to 20-40 year-olds within the three-year Estyn Allan programme of reader development training for all Welsh library authorities. Estyn Allan (Branching Out in Wales) was delivered by Opening the Book with support from the Society of Chief Librarians (Wales) and funded by Arts Council Wales.
All nine library authorities in the East Midlands participated in this project to attract readers between 16 and 25 as part of the East Midlands Reader and Library Development Project (EMRALD) which ran from 2000 to 2003. An editorial group of one young member of staff from each authority worked with an Opening the Book site manager to plan site content and development. They were supported by more experienced staff to develop the site. The site was groundbreaking in its style, content and the linking of online and offline services through ideas such as Blind Date.
Opening the Book won the contract to deliver the Read part of the People's Network service. Learning from the problems of involving library staff in content creation, www.reader2reader.net was built on the principle of readers recommending directly to each other.
Reader2reader is targeted towards the 45-65 age group, the rising retired, who were identified as a key library audience in the 2005 marketing strategy developed as part of the Framework for the Future, the government's vision for libraries.
Please note these projects are archived and are not under development. Websites were designed for older browsers so may not display correctly and information may be out of date.
