The Boots Books for Babies Project: Impact on Library Registrations and Book Loans

Abstract

The Boots Books for Babies project was a partnership between The Boots Company, Nottingham City Council, Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottinghamshire Health Visitors.The project’s stated aims were to deliver book packs to the parents or carers of babies attending hearing checks at local health centres, via the health visitor, usually at around nine months old, in order to increase awareness among parents and carers of the importance of sharing books with babies, and to increase the registration of babies with local libraries and use of the library service. Over the period of the roll-out of the project (1998–2000), in libraries associated with the project, the total number of babies under 2 years old registering as library members rose by 54%. Baby registrations for a comparison group of 7 libraries showed an increase in baby registrations in a similar period of 6%, concentrated in the first 4 months of the year. Over the last 9 months of the year, the number of baby registrations in non-project libraries was lower than in 1998. Health visitors, other health care workers and library staff were very supportive of the project’s goals and willingly gave extra time to support the project. Many respondents spontaneously shared the view that the project’s work should be continued and sustained, and it has since attracted supplementary funding to continue this work.