Bookstart Around the World 1
Bookstart Around the World grammes affect the fam
ilies’ relationship with these organisations? Is it possible to evaluate bookgifting programmes in financial terms? There is still limited research in these areas, but there are some indications that bookgifting programmes may have positive effects in addition to language development in young children. In one study, Needlman et al. (2019) examined whether the implementation of Reach Out and Read had increased attendance for young children’s medical checkups. They found that parents tend to be more inclined to participate in medical checkups after the implementation of Reach Out and Read, and reason that this is likely due to the visits being more memorable. Another effect of bookgifting programmes is connected with the way that employees view their professions. What is described in interviews with various employees within child healthcare services, libraries and preschools is that many find working with Bokstart and the like to be rewarding and enjoyable (the Swedish Arts Council, 2020). In a similar vein, Burton & Navsaria (2019) describe how the implementation of Reach Out and Read can aid the work of child healthcare services. Employees working at clinics that implemented Reach Out and Read perceived that they had better tools with which to promote reading, and that the book discussions served as a useful means for forming relationships and talking about other healthrelated matters with families. Many also felt that participation in Reach Out and Read raised morale and was enjoyable. Compared with clinics that had not implemented Reach Out and Read, employees felt that they had good conditions for supporting families in their children’s language development. The challenges of implementing the programme were also discussed in the study, the most common of which for clinics affiliated with Reach Out and Read was funding. There are also results indicating that parents who visited Reach Out and Read clinics perceived the staff as being more helpful (Jones et al., 2000). Another study that analysed the way parents responded to child healthcare clinics showed that parents demonstrated considerable gratitude for the programme. The clinic was located in a socioeconomically disadvantaged area in which a large proportion of families did not have English as their first language. The three common themes seen in spontaneous thankyou notes were that parents 1) expressed gratitude for the programme, 2) that they benefited from the programme, and 3) that they had a positive experience from their visit to the clinic. Although this material most likely represents responses from satisfied parents, and even though the sample size is small, the results indicate that parents feel that the programme is beneficial to them (Byington et al., 2008). In the evaluation of Bogstart in Denmark, it is highlighted that libraries benefit from their work with home visits and group activities within the scope of Bogstart (Espersen, 2016). Bogstart employees have been able to reach out to groups that libraries should reach. They have even gained insights into the circumstances of some citizens and formed relationships with them in local settings. They have also been able to apply this in library activities aside from Bogstart, such as by arranging activities for families with children. One challenge that has been identified in this context is that employees who make home visits have sometimes had difficulties communicating with families because of language barriers, which has also proven to be the case with Bokstart in Sweden. Closely related to the issue of whether the programmes are effective or not is the question of how much these initiatives cost. As Bondt (2020) mentions, personal contact appears to be important in order to achieve the desired results for families, but these also drive up the cost somewhat. It is always difficult to discuss costs for longterm initiatives. However, a financial analysis of the programmes has been conducted. A socalled Social Return of Investments Analysis (an analysis of the savings that can be made based of the size of an investment) was conducted for Bookstart, and the results show that each pound invested in the programme should yield four pounds in return (Bookstart, 2010). The total savings to society (extra support in school for children with reading and writing difficulties, other costs connected with low literacy in adults) were calculated to be many times greater than the cost of the programme. Needlman et al. (2019), too, notes that the costs for Reach Out and Read are fairly small as an effort to increase participation in medical checkups compared with other measures. It is difficult to say anything about the costs of the programme in this rather limited overview of current 30/52