Reading Groups, Libraries and Social Inclusion

Experiences of Blind and Partially Sighted People

Eileen Hyder

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9780815399919
• eBook ISBN: 9781317071198
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Library & Information Science
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Reading groups have grown rapidly in popularity and continue to be a significant cultural phenomenon. Reading groups in public libraries, linked to the learning and social inclusion agenda, have expanded to include a wide range of groups within society, including people with visual impairments (VIPs). This under-researched area is the focus of this book. Library-based VIP reading groups are interesting on many levels. Given that these groups predominantly use audio versions of the text (rather than print), this links to debates about the changing nature of reading in a multi-modal age. This book discusses whether contemporary society still defines reading as a visual activity or whether technological developments have led to a broadening of the definition of reading. The author goes on to discuss how policy is translated into practice within the library context and whether the wide range of reading groups linked to libraries suggests that libraries understand and are taking the social inclusion agenda seriously. She also explores how effectively libraries are using reading groups as a tool for delivering on the agenda for learning and how this sits within wider priorities for post-compulsory education and lifelong learning. Finally the book suggests ideas for future development for these groups, outlining ways in which their potential could be maximised for the benefit of both the library and the reading group members. The book will be of great interest to professional librarians as well as students and scholars of librarianship. It will also be of interest to those working on the emerging field of reading groups in literary studies. Those interested in the role of reading in education, as well as disability scholars, will also find the book useful.

Chapter 1
Introduction

The choice of leisure interests available to people today is wider than ever before. The 2012 Olympics aimed to inspire a generation to take up sport. People have been drawn to ballroom dancing over recent years, influenced by television programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing. The bestsellers lists are often full of books on baking and cooking written by celebrity chefs. Such pastimes can seem attractive, exciting or fascinating to people looking for a new hobby – a good way to relax in a busy world. However, some hobbies can seem mysterious, strange or baffling to outsiders. Why would anyone want to do that? What on earth is the appeal?

These questions certainly represented my attitude to reading groups some years ago. Reading has always been my main hobby. The idea of not having a book on the go is simply unthinkable. You might imagine that I would have been the obvious person to join a book club but this was not the case. I had no interest whatsoever. My attitude at the time was based on stereotypes and ignorance. A friend had once told me that reading group members had been described in a newspaper as ‘chardonnay-swilling, middle-class women’. I pictured pretentious people, posturing, pontificating and point scoring. I wanted no part in that. What could it add to my reading experience? Surely that would only spoil the magical relationship between me and my book.

Then a colleague at the school where I was teaching at the time made a suggestion that forced me to reassess my attitude. She was taking a group of children to the local library to read some poems to the reading group for visually impaired people (VIPs) and she invited me to go along. At the time I was trying to think of an idea for my MA dissertation and the idea of this reading group seemed interesting. It is embarrassing to admit that, with very little knowledge of visual impairment at that time, I went along expecting everyone to be reading books in Braille. I was, therefore, surprised to find that no one in the group was using printed text of any sort; instead they were all using audio. However, this was not the only surprise. This group was far from the stereotype of ‘chardonnay-swilling, middle-class women’ that I had imagined. It was impossible to miss the strong sense of community. The room was filled with warmth and there was much laughter. The discussion of the book was animated – no affectation or pseudo-intellectual babble here but lively debate with strong opinions expressed and moving personal stories shared. This was not what I was expecting at all and I was hooked. Since then I have participated in three library-based VIP reading groups and also set up a reading group at the school where I worked. Despite the fact that many of us have since left the school, the reading group is still going strong, our commitment to the group greater than the link between work colleagues.

My research over a period of years has tried to capture the spirit of the reading group experience. Until recently reading groups have been under-researched, perhaps because, as small groups predominantly for women, they were not part of the serious world of politics, religion or work (Long, 2003). However, researchers from a number of disciplines are now investigating reading groups. Examples include projects to study the discourse of reading groups (O’Halloran, 2009), work with prison reading groups (Hartley and Turvey, 2009) and the Beyond the Book project¹ which has investigated mass reading events in the UK, US and Canada. Other work has focused on the impact of TV Book Clubs, such as the Oprah Winfrey Book Club in the US (Hall, 2003; Konchar Farr and Harker, 2008; Rooney, 2005) or the Richard and Judy Book Club in the UK (Hounsome, 2005; Ramone and Cousins, 2011; Rehberg Sedo, 2008).

Current interest in reading groups has also led to fictionalised representations in books, films and TV shows. These representations often show the characters both within and outside of the book club, allowing their current and back-stories to be linked to and interwoven with the reading group meetings. Because of this, they allow the members of the book club to be known by the reader or viewer in a way which much research does not allow. However, what about the characters in real reading groups? Surely our understanding of reading groups would be enhanced by knowing more about the stories and lives of those who participate in these groups.

I was very fortunate that one of the libraries I was working with decided to set up a second VIP reading group as this presented a unique opportunity to work with a group from the very outset and to follow it for an extended period of time. I wanted the research to work on two levels. Firstly, I wanted to learn more about the individuals who belonged to the group. What were their histories as readers and what experiences did they bring with them to the reading group? Secondly, I wanted to explore the reading group experience to learn more about what motivated the members to join the group, what expectations they brought with them and what role the group played in their reading lives. This research forms the foundation of this book.

However, just as this book aims to set the experiences of the group members in context by tracing their histories as readers, it is equally important to set the group they belong to within the wider context of reading groups. For this reason the next section provides a brief overview of the growth of reading groups and libraries’ involvement with them to provide some background to the group which is the main focus of this book.

Growth of Reading Groups

Discussing the origins of reading groups is difficult to some extent. This is because reading groups can be defined in a number of ways, meaning that it is not absolutely clear what should or should not be included within any definition. Slezak’s The Book Group Book (1995), for example, contains some rather poetic definitions, with reading groups compared to ‘a well-made patchwork quilt’ or ‘a chorus, composed of four distinct voices that create harmonies and counterpoints for each other’ (p. 107). Some definitions offer a less rose-tinted view. For example, reading groups have also been described as ‘get-togethers for sad middle-class women’ (Colgan, 2002, unpaged). However, if reading groups are defined broadly as people coming together to share a book, then they have existed for a very long time indeed. As Hartley writes:

Reading in groups has been around for as long as there has been reading … The Romans did it, emigrants on board ship to Australia did it, Schubert and his friends meeting to read and discuss the poems of Heine were doing it. (Hartley, 2002, p. 1)

Manguel (1997) reminds us that in the Middle Ages, when literacy was not widespread, many people only had access to texts by hearing them read aloud, meaning that people came together in groups to listen to readings. Other examples of shared reading experiences would be the reading circles organised by the working classes as part of Victorian mutual improvement societies (Rose, 2002) or, more recently, in the 1960s, the network of book discussion groups which arose from the National Housewives’ Register to provide mental stimulation for mothers of young children who were isolated (Bell, 2001).² However, while it is true that reading has long existed as a shared experience, there has nevertheless been an explosion of interest in reading groups since the end of the last century. Indeed, Hartley’s foundational study of reading groups (Hartley, 2002) revealed that 67 per cent of the groups surveyed then had been set up within the previous five years, clearly indicating a growing rise in interest at that time.

The media is undoubtedly linked to this increase in interest and popularity. Television shows such as Oprah Winfrey’s Book Club in America and the Richard and Judy Book Club in the UK both had a huge impact on readers, book sales and the profiles of the featured authors. In fact, in the UK the phenomenon came to be known as the ‘Richard and Judy Effect’ (McQueen, 2006). When the Richard and Judy Book Club finally ended, TV’s interest in reading groups continued, however, through the TV Book Club launched in 2010. Reading groups are also supported by other types of media; for example, newspapers, magazines, websites and radio all support reading group activity. As a result of this popularity, a wealth of material has emerged to support reading groups. Publishers provide recommendations, lists of questions and guides for reading groups. Websites enable people to participate in virtual reading groups. Cityread London³, which in 2012 chose Dickens’ Oliver Twist to mark the author’s anniversary, aims (like other mass reading events) to turn the city itself into a giant reading group.

Reading groups are diverse in nature. They may read a wide range of material or focus on specific genres (e.g. crime, science fiction, manga) and they are known to meet in a wide range of venues: private homes, places of work, pubs, theatres. While they have been labelled as a ‘phenomenon that has become a near ubiquitous part of bourgeois life’ (Higgins, 2005, unpaged), this description still fails to acknowledge the full spectrum of reading group activity. For some time, Penguin supported a reading group prize⁴ and the shortlists, including groups that meet in prisons, schools and high security psychiatric hospitals, hint at the diversity of reading group membership and introduce the idea that reading groups in the twenty-first century are more than opportunities for people to meet and discuss books. For example, The Reader Organisation⁵ supports the Get Into Reading scheme (weekly read-aloud groups which meet in locations such as care homes, mental health drop-in centres, hostels and refugee centres, the aim being to improve the health and wellbeing of those who participate). Furthermore, prison reading groups can contribute to tackling poor literacy levels among prisoners and play a role in rehabilitation (Hartley and Turvey, 2009), while Bibliotherapy reading groups may use the power of books to help people overcome anxiety and depression.

Libraries and Reading Groups

Within the landscape of reading groups, libraries play a vital role. A key document, which helped to establish libraries’ understanding of the purpose of reading groups and to develop their agendas with regard to this service, was A National Public Library Development Programme for Reading Groups (MLA, 2004). According to this document, reading groups help to inform the main strands of the modern mission for libraries which was set out in Framework for the Future (DCMS, 2003) (the then government’s long-term strategic vision for public libraries) by building on libraries’ traditional core skills of promoting reading, informal learning and self-help. Furthermore, the document states that reading groups bring benefits both to individuals (for example, by widening reading, supporting learning, being empowering and giving a sense of belonging and inclusion) and to libraries in delivering on national and local government priorities such as learning and social inclusion. Library engagement with reading groups has had a significant impact. A Mapping Survey (The Reading Agency, 2008) found that the number of library-linked reading groups almost doubled in the four years to 2008. Furthermore, the data showed wide-ranging membership through a diverse range of groups, including groups for visually impaired people.

There is some debate about where and when the first VIP reading group was established. One of the first – if not the first – was set up at Winchester Library in 1998 as a response to the first National Year of Reading. This was in recognition of the fact that people who depended on alternative formats were effectively excluded from the book group experience at that time, largely because of the cost of commercial unabridged audio books. Through the local blind club in Winchester a group of blind and partially sighted people was recruited to launch the group, with clear ground rules established from the start:

• only unabridged books would be used, whatever the cost;

• no one would be excluded – sighted people were welcome to join but the starting point would always be blind and partially sighted people;

• titles would be selected purely on grounds of their recurrence in the reading lists of sighted groups nationally – there would be no censorship or selection based on assumptions around disability and/or age;

• everyone’s opinion would be equally valid.

As a large public library service, reading material for this group could be assembled from stock. However, not all libraries wanting to establish a VIP group could function in this way and this led to the involvement of Calibre Audio Library⁶, a national charity which provides unabridged audio books for adults and children who are unable to access print. When approached in 2001 by a library interested in setting up a VIP reading group, Calibre provided them with a set of cassettes. From this beginning their involvement has grown and they are now supporting over 90 groups, many library-based but some run by local societies for blind and partially sighted people. Groups pay an annual fee for this service which varies depending on the number of copies required. Because of changing technology, Calibre has now moved to providing groups with multiple digital copies of books on MP3 CDs.

The spread of VIP reading groups has depended on a number of factors. Some groups were established as more libraries became aware of Calibre’s role in supporting reading groups. The impetus for some groups came not only from librarians but from individuals or charities contacting libraries to recommend setting up a reading group. Other groups were established in places where an original group had reached capacity or to provide an additional group in a more accessible location. Yet more groups resulted from consultation into the needs of blind and partially sighted library users which established local demand for a reading group. One group was offered originally as a pilot as part of Make a Noise in Libraries (MANIL) (an annual campaign to bring public libraries and blind and partially sighted people together to improve access to books and information)⁷; however, the interest shown resulted in a permanent group being set up. While part of the rationale for these groups may be to address the needs of blind and partially sighted readers, they also provide an opportunity for libraries to respond to political agendas, such as social inclusion, lifelong learning and reader development.

One of the interesting things about VIP groups is the variety of names that are attached to them. They might be called reading groups, listening groups, talking groups or book clubs. In some ways this diversity can be linked to the fact that these groups operate using a range of formats and to social and cultural attitudes to these formats (this is explored further in Chapter 3). For example, if the members are listening to a book can or should the group be called a reading group? In some ways, such questions link back to questions asked in the nineteenth century when reading and writing systems for blind and partially sighted people were developed. Discussions at that time partly focused on how format impacted on the reader’s relationship with the text. The Indigent Blind Visiting Society founded by Lord Shaftesbury in 1834 sent out sighted readers to read the Bible aloud to poor Londoners but these human readers were gradually replaced by embossed books. This change reflected attitudes to ‘the word of God’ and the belief that private, personal engagement with the Bible, rather than a mediated experience, was important for achieving grace and salvation (Tilley, 2008). A system, therefore, needed to be developed to enable blind and partially sighted people to read independently. Braille was finally chosen from a number of systems and adopted in the 1870s.

However, it was not long before listening again became important as a form of reading for blind and partially sighted people. Many soldiers returned from the First World War battlefields with visual impairments. Although Braille was taught to enable individuals to read and write, some struggled to master the system so the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) began to explore formats and methods of producing books that could ‘talk’. The first Talking Books, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie and Typhoon by Joseph Conrad, were finally sent out in 1935.⁸ Since then, the RNIB has continued to develop this format and, in the late 1990s, began to explore using a digital format; by 2002 DAISY books (Digital Accessible Information System)⁹ were available. These books are designed to allow the reader to move around the text as efficiently as a print user and need less space than traditional audio books. More recently, the RNIB BookStream book club has enabled DAISY books to be streamed via an internet link and listened to on a computer. Other charities, such as Calibre Audio Library and Listening Books, also support people with print disabilities by providing material on audio. Meanwhile, developments in technology, such as text-to-speech facilities, allow more books to be experienced through audio. Nevertheless, the development of audio books has not replaced direct engagement with text for many blind and partially sighted readers. Recent research has found that blind and partially sighted people use multiple reading formats (Creaser et al., 2012) with Large Print books and Braille continuing to be used by many readers. This research also confirmed th...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Dedication
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of Abbreviations
• 1 Introduction
• 2 The Reading Histories
• 3 Reading Matters
• 4 Reading Groups and Social Justice
• 5 Libraries, Reading Groups and Lifelong Learning
• 6 A Broader Picture
• References
• Index