Supporting Library and Reading Engagement for Book Trust

Ongoing

community

Storytime

programme

Families

audience

Ongoing

community

Storytime

programme

Families

audience

The challenge

Improving habit-building programmes for lower-income families

Book Trust, the UK's largest children's reading charity, launched a pilot programme called Storytime to encourage less advantaged families to engage with their local libraries. The challenge was to understand why some families rarely visit libraries and identify how to improve the programme to make it a central part of their reading journey.

Industry

Charity, education

Solution

Social research

Format

Ongoing community

Participants

Families close to the programme

Methods

Discussions, concept evaluation

The approach

Longitudinal collaboration on our platform

We suggested an ongoing research community made up of the individuals closest to the programme to identify areas for improvement.

Diverse task types

Research activities ranged from broad public discussions to granular concept evaluations of public events.

Direct suggestion loops

We created a space for families to share what was currently working and provide specific suggestions for habit-building.

Appealing content testing

We tested various programme concepts to see which would be most successful at driving real-world library engagement.

The result

A programme shaped by the families it serves

The community provided Book Trust with a direct line to their target audience, helping them address key misconceptions and refine their approach. By identifying the most appealing concepts for public events and habit-building, we helped the charity improve the programme to better support reading journeys among lower-income families.