"It takes a whole community to teach a child to read.
Children who have never had a story read to them, who never hear words rhyme, who never imagine fighting dragons or marrying a prince, have the odds overwhelmingly against them."
Public Library Design Case Study:
It was an exciting prospect for us to be invited to work with Leeds City Council to design their new mobile children’s service vehicles. This was a first for Opening the Book and gave us an opportunity to explore how we could bring the same aesthetic of integrating books and play that we bring to our public library projects into a very challenging, much more compact environment.
The Story Buses were introduced to reach out to communities in Leeds where there is, traditionally, a low uptake of council services. The aims are:
Chief Librarian, Andrea Ellison said:
“Research has shown that the most effective way to increase the literacy of a community is to show parents and carers how to stimulate their children’s innate ability before the children are given formal reading instruction.
The Story Bus service aims to foster a lifelong love of reading through providing access to a broad range of books as well as staff expertise in an exciting, welcoming environment. An environment where reading and listening skills are shared, fostered and developed
If we want to give our children the best start in life and the best chance to lead happy, successful and fulfilled lives, if we want to keep our children out of a cycle of long term poverty and out of the criminal justice system –we need to make sure that they develop good literacy skills.
This is the outcome that we are working to achieve with our new Story Buses, Sam and Nelly as they travel across the city celebrating and sharing books and stories, generating fun and excitement wherever they visit.”
It was the inspiration of Chief Librarian, Andrea Ellison, to approach popular children’s book illustrator Nick Sharratt and his publishers (Penguin UK and MacMillan Children’s Books) for permission to use his work on the buses. It was a hard decision to narrow down the choices from all Nick’s fabulous work to Hippo Has A Hat and Chomp Stomp Big Roars Here Comes The Dinosaurs. Nick generously spent many hours adapting his original artwork where necessary to fit on the sides of the buses.
Local children contributed to the project by choosing names for the buses - Sam and Nelly. Torton Bodies were appointed to supply and fit the buses and we worked very closely with them to adapt many of our children’s units to fit this new setting.
It was important for us that children visiting the buses would have the same opportunity to see colourful book covers face out so that they could browse for themselves so our Picturebook and Boardbook units were made narrower with higher dividers to help prevent books falling out in transit. We also wanted children to have quiet reading spaces to climb into as well as places to snuggle with parents/carers, so we built in Reading Hideouts and comfortable bench sofas.
Plenty of noticeboard space was provided for displays. High level cupboards provide loads of storage space. A face-out display unit for books aimed at parents and carers was built at adult level.
We maintained the same strong design elements as in our other projects, such as colourful fabrics and bright colours – staying away from the traditional primary blues/greens/reds. Nick Sharratt’s artwork featured strongly on the interiors, being used to decorate the walls and Hideouts. It’s fun for children to look into the Hideouts and see two little cavemen, or a gorilla trying on slippers!
To support staff into working in this new-style mobile children’s space, our Training and Schools Co-ordinator, Fiona Edwards, led a session with staff on how to make the books look good.
The first new library built in the County for 20 years meant expectations were high at Thame for the library service and politicians as well as the local community.
The 4th floor of Boots Library is the most heavily used computer space in the university. The brief was to raise the quality of the student experience while maintaining the required number of computers and supporting 24/7 opening.
The new Library and Customer Service Centre at Risca is built as a modern extension behind the restored façade of the old Palace Cinema which had been derelict for many years.
Opening the Book was contracted to deliver an interior design which made the space lighter and brighter, implemented a successful transition from staff-led counter service to self-service via RFID and improved the customer experience for over 500,000 people visiting the library each year.
Opening the Book was first appointed by Mace to work with the architects, structural engineers, project managers, landscape architects, mechanical and electrical designers at Stages A-E of the planned new building.
Transforming the old chapel in a 19th century school into a contemporary, practical library was an exciting challenge for our design team.
Werneth School in Stockport moved to a new purpose-built home on the school site. How could all the successful library activities be fitted into a smaller space?
Opening the Book first visited St Mary’s Church, Lichfield, in 2016 to consider the feasibility of the library being part of a larger refurbishment project.
At Gateshead, Opening the Book created a successful MakerPlace in their existing Sound Gallery.
Opening the Book refurbished Gateshead Central Lending Library, including children’s and young adult areas, in 2009 so we were delighted to return to complete the work with a transformation of the computer and reference areas into the new Gateshead Archive.
In 2020 Conwy CBC had an opportunity to provide a new community hub for rural Conwy when the building which had been the Glasdir Business and Conference Centre in Llanrwst became available.
Opening the Book was excited to work with Doncaster MBC in creating the new Danum centre, bringing together the Central Library, the Museum and the Art Gallery to one site.