For the past two years, Nottingham City Libraries used our BookTrust Storytime programme to trial storytelling events at two different libraries. We asked two librarians about the impact they’ve seen
Hannah Clover, Nottingham Central Library, Image: Library’s On
When Nottingham Central library opened its doors in Nottingham city centre in 2023 – with a colourful, immersive new children’s area – Hannah Clover, Senior Library Customer Advisor, wanted to make it “one of the best children’s libraries in the world”.
The vision was to build up its programme of library events for the local community – including a regular story time. And being part of BookTrust Storytime provided an ideal opportunity to set this up from scratch.
Libraries who take part in BookTrust Storytime are provided with specially shortlisted books for children under five, and resources for creating their own interactive, memorable experiences for families that keep them returning to their local library, including stickers and certificates for joining the sessions.
“We hoped BookTrust Storytime would help us get a better understanding of what our visitors wanted. I also wanted to help staff from outside the children’s area feel more comfortable delivering story times to families, which can feel intimidating.”
Learning what local families want from their library
For five weekly sessions, Hannah and her team read one of the BookTrust Storytime books at Nottingham Central Library. Staff shared stories and rhymes with the families who attended and came up with craft activities connected to each of the BookTrust Storytime titles.
“BookTrust Storytime was helpful for choosing the best books for a library story time,” says Hannah. “Families really engaged with the accomplishment aspect of BookTrust Storytime, like the stickers and certificates.
“Parents also told us they really liked having something they’d made they could take away afterwards. I remember one little girl who came along to BookTrust Storytime. She kept asking: ‘When is the next one of these going to be?’ She still has a collection at home of the crafts she made. I’ve seen her in the library a lot more regularly ever since.”
Hannah Clover, Senior Library Customer Advisor, Nottingham City Libraries
Hannah adds: “As well as the books and the stickers – having something they’ve made themselves was really good for building that connection week by week and remembering each story. For children, they’re walking away with something they’ve accomplished, with a strong link to the stories.”
Spreading the word about BookTrust Storytime
In 2024, following the success of BookTrust Storytime at Nottingham Central Library, Library Customer Advisor David Beer used the programme as a chance to test-run regular story time sessions at The Meadows Library in Nottingham – which recently celebrated its 100th anniversary.
“The Meadows area has a strong community feel,” says David. “A lot of people that have just come to live in the UK end up in housing near there, so they’re fresh to what the city has to offer.”
To promote the launch of BookTrust Storytime at The Meadows Library, David found word of mouth was effective, as well as the BookTrust Storytime posters.
“Having the BookTrust materials to springboard BookTrust worked well,” he says. “I did a poster drop around the area to schools, community centres, cafes, the local fish and chip shop.
“We’ve got a family hub right beside the library, so I went over and had a chat with them about BookTrust Storytime. We’ve now built a relationship, and they’ll promote the library’s future events. For our first BookTrust Storytime session at The Meadows, we had about 50 attendees.”
Supporting children’s creativity through storytime
To best serve its local community, The Meadows Library hosted BookTrust Storytime for five weekly sessions at 3.45pm, so families could come along after school.
“We had families with lots of siblings of various ages, so we’d use each of the BookTrust Storytime books as our base, then pick four or five stories around it, pitching those at various age levels,” says David.
“The BookTrust Storytime stickers were a huge hit. Families really enjoyed the possibility of building up the sticker book.
“There was quite a lot of disappointment when we finished the BookTrust Storytime stories – so we kept sessions going, because people wanted to keep on recording what they were reading.”
David adds:“Inspired by BookTrust Storytime at Nottingham Central, we wanted to use the thread of the stories to try and discuss a moral or an idea with the children, then take that through to some hands-on thematic crafts.
“For Into The Wild[by Thomas Docherty], we made peg animals, where children were able to either create different animals from the story or imaginary ones. And for Whisper, Shout, Let It Out[by Madhvi Ramani, illustrated by Anuska Allepuz], we made stick figures out of pipe cleaners and gave them speech bubbles, saying things the children liked about themselves or positive things they would tell other people.”
David highlights the link between story times and fostering creativity. “For children, these craft activities after story times are about taking inspiration, ideas or images from the story, then bringing those into something they can physically produce, and putting their own personal voices into it.”
“It’s even just about discovering how they might express themselves – whether it’s scribbles on a page, or the colour of sequin they want to glue on. I think there’s a cyclical effect – they hear the story, use their imagination, create something, and hopefully that cycles back and happens with the next story.”
Boosting parents’ confidence to share stories
“We had several families that kept on attending and spreading the word, bringing more people and more children in,” says David. “They were huge advocates. With story times, it is about engaging parents. It can help them see the enjoyable side of reading.
David adds: “After the BookTrust Storytime sessions, I popped down to The Meadows Library for its 100th birthday. One of the parents from the sessions was sat there with a crowd of children around her, who had gravitated to listen to the story that she was reading. I’ve seen her and her family come into Central Library as well, and just sit down together to read out loud. There are other parents that come in now and tell stories in such a way that they gather groups of children around them. It’s really great to see.”
The legacy of BookTrust Storytime at Nottingham City Libraries
Hannah says: “Off the back of what we did with BookTrust Storytime, we’ve now got weekly story time sessions at Nottingham Central Library. In the school holidays, we also make story times include craft sessions. BookTrust Storytime really helped us understand what we could do and what worked well.”
David adds: “We’re now able to bring in sign language experts to support our regular story time sessions.
“Without the success of the BookTrust Storytime sessions, that wouldn’t have been an option. The fact we now bring in storytelling artists, we have authors coming in – it’s all been built out from those BookTrust Storytime sessions.”
