With support from this Partnership there are now a number of new layers of service being offered through the library service (homework support; motivational reading packs distributed via health links; improved library facilities in schools; more and better opportunities for under-fives and their families; more appropriate stock to encourage teenage readers; annual reading festivals etc).

In addition to building up their core services, libraries are also engaged in a range of outreach activities targeting specific groups.

Outreach work in the city centre, focusing on increasing use of the central library’s vast resources by particular groups of young people is having great successes. Groups of young people at Behaviour Support Centres are using the resources to build up information portfolios on topics as diverse as local athlete Denise Lewis; Japanese pavilions; history of Soho House etc.

Members of Birmingham’s Young People’s Parliament have been encouraged to use the library resources to research specific topics, such as Human and Children’s Rights, for forthcoming debates.

Local library resources are being built into Saturday morning support sessions for young people on the margins of the school system. Librarians are increasingly starting to work with school learning mentors and local youth workers to ensure that evening and weekend support is available in appropriate ways. Library resources and services thus become one key support element to disengaged young people.

 There are a number of small or medium sized estates, scattered across Birmingham, where library usage is relatively low. The Library Service has been supported so that it can do extra outreach work in these areas – making links with key local intermediaries; encouraging community groups to use the library services; linking local people into wider library events; and establishing some library loans at local community venues. This outreach into specific areas will also help to bring together, locally, the variety of library support services – Bookstart; Homework Support; Reading Groups; Under Fives activity etc. in closer conjunction with other local authorities.

Over the last decade libraries have, through strategic policies, seen changes in the way they provide services. Traditional methods work well for confident users but new approaches need to be constantly tested out to attract less confident users. The Library Service increasingly promotes and delivers things that meet the needs of all communities, usually by working together with other agencies.

Libraries in Birmingham have had resources to research the needs of communities that are socially excluded and start to use alternative methods to target new users and improve access for all people to develop their own reading habits. These have included developing new links with community groups; purchasing more appropriate stock; setting up a mini-library at a local leisure centre where users will be given the opportunity to join the library; and allowing some target groups to meet informally and build their confidence in using library services, resulting in them becoming regular users and readers. These developments have moved from being separate ‘projects’, based on external funding, to being continuing parts of library support to people in all areas.