1998-2000 The Reading Group ToolboxWaterstone's and Opening the Book were awarded £69,500 from the National Lottery, to which Waterstone's added a further £53,000, for the largest reading group project ever undertaken in the UK. The needs of reading groups were researched, then training and resources were developed to meet the identified needs and tested with 20 very different community-based reading group partners.
From this was created The Reading Group Toolbox – everything you need to run a reading group in one box. Every library authority in England received free copies of the Toolbox and copies were also sent to every prison library. A further 1500 copies were sold by Waterstone's through mail order. The Toolbox is still the only reader-centred resource for groups available. |
