No other library interior supplier offers the same range of integrated services as those listed below. Opening the Book library designs are based in 20 years of professional work with libraries on programmes of change management and the promotion of reading and lifelong learning. These include major national initiatives in staff training, stock management and web development for libraries.
When you appoint Opening the Book, we work with you to achieve deep and lasting change. We see designing a library interior as more than a freshen up with a new paint or carpet or even the installation of new shelving or IT equipment. This is an opportunity to review the fundamentals of the service, to look at how you convey key messages to key audiences, to change the custom and practice of ‘we’ve always done it that way’ and to plan how best to use your greatest resource - the skills and energy of your staff. Long after the designers and fitters have moved on, library staff will operate the new library.
Opening the Book has brought new approaches to the design of shelving and display furniture; the positioning of shelving to draw customers into exploring the space; the dynamic use of colour; and the introduction of retail-style signage and artist-designed graphics. But it is the way these connect in to deliver deeper structural change which makes our offer unique.
Working with Opening the Book to create a new library interior brings these unique benefits:
Supporting library managers
- Opening the Book has delivered strategic consultancy to more than 100 library management teams in the UK. When we fit a library, senior and middle managers are able to access this expertise without charge. No other interior supplier offers consultancy at this level.
- Opening the Book led the 8-year Branching Out initiative for the Society of Chief Librarians to invest in key librarians as agents of change. This experience shapes the way we work with librarians when designing interiors.
- Director Rachel Van Riel is an internationally renowned speaker, in demand at library conferences in the UK, Europe and Australia. She also advises on library design in Sweden, Norway and the Netherlands. Rachel is the key consultant on all Opening the Book interiors. No other suppliers involve consultants with this level of track record.
Training staff in new roles
- Opening the Book has been the largest single provider of library staff training in reader development over the last ten years.
- Library services throughout England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland have contracted with Opening the Book to supply online training for frontline staff.
- Staff training is included as part of every library interior design undertaken by Opening the Book. This is a unique offer, unmatched by any other supplier.
Supporting stock management
- Stock planning and advice are a central part of an Opening the Book interior design. We give library staff detailed tools to support capacity planning, shelf by shelf performance planning and top-up routines. No other supplier offers this level of detail.
- Opening the Book was commissioned to create the Stock Quality Health Check for the Audit Commission, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and Arts Council England. Opening the Book holds a unique bank of comparative stock data for 125 authorities.
Successful self-service
- Opening the Book is the only consultancy offering advice on the location and management of self-service in relation to book flow, people flow and staff clearing stock.
- Opening the Book designed the highest performing self-service in the UK (95% at Ashford in Surrey)
- We work with the supplier of your choice to ensure that self-service runs smoothly
- We support staff to work off-counter with customised training
Finding out what library customers want
- Opening the Book introduced the market research methods of Paco Underhill to the UK library service, working with 150 library authorities.
- Data on library customer behaviour gathered by Opening the Book is used by all UK library authorities.
- Opening the Book is the only organisation in the UK offering libraries market research based on user observation.
Engaging communities
- Opening the Book created the concept and practice of reader development, recognised by government and professional bodies as having changed the way libraries engage with their customers over the last 10 years.
- Opening the Book is the only interior design supplier able to offer community consultation, including facilitation of focus groups and arts-based consultation
- Opening the Book is the only interior design supplier able to draw on community arts experience to involve and represent local library users in interior design through words and images.
Marketing and PR
- Opening the Book offers advice on marketing and public relations for the new /refurbished library including how to grab media interest
- Opening the Book can present the new library to elected members in cabinet or committee meetings
- We train frontline staff to be confident in marketing the library to customers
- We present the library strongly in planning co-located and shared service facilities