Stories from the Web
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/eb040705 |
| Date | 01 January 1999 |
| Pages | 3-11 |
| Published date | 01 January 1999 |
| Author | Lydia Matheson,Anne Everall |
| Subject Matter | Information & knowledge management |
Stories from the Web
Stories from the Web
by Lydia Matheson and Anne Everall,
Birmingham Library Services
This article describes Stories from the
Web,
a
Library and Information Commission funded
project investigating the use of
the
Internet as
a tool for increasing creative reading in three
children's libraries in Birmingham, Bristol and
Leeds. It discusses
the
project
aims,
the
website development and
content,
and the
Stories from the Web library clubs.
Background to the project
Children's libraries have always had a crucial role
in the educational development of
children.
In
early 1996 when the Stories from the Web project
was initially conceived it had become evident that
children's libraries needed to begin to explore how
they could integrate Internet services into their
traditional literature and literacy services.
Birmingham's Centre for the Child had opened in
1995 with a number of multi-media computers
available as part of its services. Use of this Infor-
mation Technology during its opening year
indicated both an overwhelmingly positive re-
sponse to its provision and a very high level of use.
Further evaluation highlighted the fact that by far
the highest demand was for the interactive story -
based CD ROM's. Children & parents were
enjoying interactively sharing the story experience
via a new medium. In 1996, the UK Office for
Library and Information Networking (UKOLN)
was exploring, on a very small scale, one possible
way in which libraries could manage this integra-
tion. UKOLN developed a Website based upon
Treasure Island which had the aim of getting
children to develop traditional literacy skills by
reading the novel and at the same time develop
electronic literacy skills through accessing the
story and related activities on the Website.1 The
Treasure Island site was heavily used and won a
number of 'site of the week' awards from prestig-
ious educational Websites around the world.
Encouraged by this success and the findings from
Birmingham, in early 1996 UKOLN became a
partner with Birmingham, Bristol and Leeds
library services to begin to develop a full-scale
project that would:
• Encourage greater creative reading among
children and young people.
• Increase promotion of modern children's
books, writers and publishing.
• Offer ideas for managing the effective
integration of the Internet into children's
library services.
• Provide a transferable model for other
library services.
In January 1997, the partners submitted a proposal
for Stories from the Web to the British Library
Research and Innovation Centre (BLRIC, now part
of the Library and Information Commission) and
the project commenced in autumn 1997.2
The project is headed by Birmingham Library
Services, Centre for the Child. It is managed by
Anne Everall, Director of Young Readers UK, and
the Project Co-ordinator is Lydia Matheson. The
Stories from the Web project is funded by the
Library and Information Commission with addi-
tional support from the partners.
What is Stories from the Web?
Stories from the Web is a research project which
aims to investigate how children's libraries can
stimulate the imagination of children and encour-
age them to explore, read and enjoy stories in a
geographically distributed, collaborative network
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