The Vital Link is an improvement programme for building and promoting libraries' capacity to support the Government's Skills for Life strategy, leading ultimately to a consistent offer for adult learners across the country and to the embedding of reading for pleasure in the Skills for Life curriculum. Run by The Reading Agency in partnership with the National Literacy Trust, the Vital Link is focusing particularly on how creative reading activity through libraries can motivate students and engage new learners. It takes partnership between the library and Skills for Life sectors as its starting point.

NIACE is working with DIUS and the Vital Link to promote the adult agenda as part of its contribution to the National Year of Reading. You will be interested to see a series of downloads for use by professionals working with specific adult groups that we have produced and which can be found on the Vital Link and the NYR websites

The National Year of Reading (NYR) is a year-long celebration of reading, in all its forms. It aims to increase awareness of the many values of reading – anything, anytime, anyplace – for children, families and adult learners alike.

The NYR is being managed by a consortium of organisations committed to promoting reading, led by the National Literacy Trust and The Reading Agency, and on behalf of the DCSF

NIACE is working with DIUS and the Vital Link to promote the adult agenda as part of its contribution to the National Year of Reading. You will be interested to see a series of downloads for use by professionals working with specific adult groups that we have produced and which can be found on the NYR and Vital Link websites.

The new site contains a selection of schemes of work, lesson plans and resources to support Family Literacy, Language and Numeracy programmes.

It is dedicated to family literacy, language and numeracy (FLLN) and contains all the latest news about the QIA FLLN projects and the Skills for Families Conference on 8 May. It is constantly being updated and new materials are being added, so it is worth more than one visit.

You will find a selection of schemes of work, lesson plans and resources that have been developed through the various pilot programmes for Early Years, Bilingual Families, Children in Care and FLLN to Employment. The latest contextualised Step in to Learning materials for health professionals and for staff working in extended schools will be available by the end of May for you to browse and download.

In addition, you will find downloadable versions of the parent information packs that have been produced to support the free book offers Booktime and Booked Up for 5-year-olds and 11-year-olds. These are also available in eight community languages: Polish, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi, Chinese, Portuguese, Somali and Arabic.

Monday 17th March 2008 saw the launch of the new phase of the Get On campaign focusing on promoting Skills for Life numeracy courses. Advertising will appear on TV and radio. Expect to see print advertising in a variety of national press and youth and consumer publications.

For the first time, there will is a Get On website where potential learners, and their friends/family can find out more about the campaign and how to go about finding a course.

Do you sometimes worry about adding up on the spot or helping your child with their homework? Taking a free course could help you get to grips with your maths and English skills, and increase your confidence. You''ll be joining thousands of people across the country who have already transformed their work and home lives.

The Reading Agency is delighted to announce the launch of the latest website version of Their Reading Futures (TRF).

TRF is the online resource which provides training, information and news for all library staff, inspiring and supporting their reading work with children, young people, families and schools.

This new-look TRF website offers significantly improved usability, and a greatly improved search facility. It also allows site visitors to submit their own content for inclusion, and includes a TRF Coffee Break Discussion area for sharing ideas and experiences relating to all areas of users' work in libraries with young readers.

All the resources on the TRF website can be used in library service training programmes, for individual skills development, and for quick reference to get immediate information and guidance.