From the CON IL SUD Foundation, the Center for Books and Reading and Anci.
The Libraries of the South are increasingly places of cultural exchange and social inclusion, of training and promotion of reading open to all, thanks to 12 new projects supported by the CON IL SUD Foundation and the Center for Books and Reading, in collaboration with the National Association of Italian Municipalities (ANCI).
The initiatives, selected with the third edition of the “Libraries and Communities” call, will involve 22 municipal libraries and will be supported with 1 million euros (500 thousand euros made available by the CON IL SUD Foundation; the other 500 thousand euros by the Center for Books and Reading).
Extension of opening hours, with evening and weekend appointments; art, creative writing and acting workshops for the elderly and disabled; exhibitions; literary aperitifs for young people; after-school activities and important attention paid to the 0-6 age group and families with readings aloud for children and the setting up of meeting and discussion spaces for parents.
Many activities will also be carried out outside the library walls, to bring reading closer to people who are usually far from the world of culture and to offer local communities spaces for meeting and discussion that did not exist before: itinerant libraries in the suburbs, bookcrossing actions for the exchange of books in prisons, in senior centers, in migrant reception centers; literary meetings in nursing homes; the possibility of listening to readings in ambulances that transport people to the hospital who need medical visits. And, again, school children, also thanks to actions of networking and strengthening of school libraries, will be involved in the creation of audio readings for children hospitalized and a "storyteller" will organize animated readings and recycling workshops during which books and illustrated albums will be created to donate. The purchase of audio books, books in Braille and alternative augmented communication will also make the library heritage accessible to people with disabilities.
Central to the bottom-up activation of communities through listening sessions and participatory co-design on which to base the definition of the new cultural offering schedule of the Libraries involved, also through a rediscovery of local traditions, encouraging contamination between young and old.
The projects will involve the municipalities that have obtained the qualification of "City that reads" for the two-year period 2022-2023: 5 will be launched in Campania (provinces of Salerno, Naples, Caserta); 4 in Puglia (provinces of Bari, Barletta-Andria-Trani; Lecce); 2 in Sicily (provinces of Enna, Palermo); 1 in Calabria (province of Catanzaro). “These new projects enhance the role of Libraries by allowing many people to take advantage of new services, to have a welcoming place in which to meet, study and read a book, to participate in cultural events and initiatives”Said Marco Imperiale, General Director of the CON IL SUD Foundation.
“The collaboration of the Con il Sud Foundation with the Center for Books and Reading makes it clear how the public and private social sectors, together, can really make a difference in generating change in our South. A joint effort that, in a mirror-like manner, involves local institutions and municipal libraries in the territories together with the world of the third sector and volunteering and other private organizations”.
“We strongly believe in public commitment in favor of the territorial network of libraries as strongholds of democracy, freedom and social cohesion”, he claims Luciano Lanna, Director of the Center for Books and Reading.
“Especially if this commitment involves the most disadvantaged areas of our South, where – thanks to the successful partnership with the Fondazione Con il Sud – For the third consecutive year, new projects will be funded that are capable of fighting child educational poverty, social exclusion and extending access to a basic right, that of reading, which is a founding element of active and aware citizenship, to difficult places such as suburbs, prisons, hospitals, senior centers and reception centers”.
With the 2 previous editions of the call, 22 projects were funded with approximately 2 million euros (half made available by Fondazione CON IL SUD and half by the Center for Books and Reading). According to Istat 2021 data, there were 7.425 public and private, state and non-state libraries open to the public in Italy in 2019 (excluding school and university libraries). 58,3% of all municipalities have at least one library; two out of three libraries (68,5%) are civic libraries owned by the municipality and more than half of the libraries are in the North (58,3%). In the North-East, library users (21,7%) are double that in the South (8,6%) and on the Islands (9,1%). At the bottom are Sicily (6,9%), Campania (7,7%) and Calabria (8,8%).
Sardinia is an exception, in line with the national average (15,9%). The geographical data is greatly influenced by the offer: in Sicily, where there is the lowest share of users (6,9%), there is also a low presence of Libraries (18,4 per 100.000 inhabitants).
According to the Observatory on educational poverty Con i Bambini – Openpolis, the Libraries that declare an opening to the public of more than 40 hours per week are 15,4% in central Italy, 9,4% in the north-east, 7,7% in the islands, 6,8% in the north-west and 6,6% in the South.
Article published on 19 January 2024 - 17:42
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