Interviews
Interview with Jean Williams
Managing director of Biblionef South Africa
Reading promotion in South African schools is normally subject to teaching languages and literacy. The teaching of reading ideally takes place in the child’s local indigenous language and after three years, the English language will be added to this. Biblionef donates books for children who are are unable to purchase books, provides funds for the printing of books in African languages and prepares Braille and large print books for visually impaired children.
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Interview with Miyoko Hida
Characters Culture Promotion Organization, Japan
Ms. Miyoko Hida is the Managing Director of the Characters Culture Promotion Organization. The Organization was established to perform operations to support reading activities in schools and local communities and to promote type-culture in local communities. Ms. Hida reports of the “Law to Promote Children’s Reading” and of an educational guidance that prioritizes language-related activities throughout all subjects.
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Interview with Dr Helga Hofmann
South Tyrolean Reading Forum, Office for Libraries and Reading
The framework regulations for primary and general secondary schools in South Tyrol highlight the special role of libraries as a learning sphere. A special training for teachers contributes to anchoring the school library and reading promotion activities in lessons. The Lese Forum Südtirol (South Tyrolean Reading Forum) provides an open platform for sharing projects and networking activities from institutions and organisations engaging in reading promotion.
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Interview with Gerhard Falschlehner
Managing director of the Austrian book club
The Austrian book club is a socially active, non-profit network for promoting reading as well as a publishing house for issuing and disseminating youth media and reading promotion products. Gerhard Falschlehner reports about practice materials the book club has prepared for primary and secondary school education, and talks about “knowledge suitcases” packed with prized books, which provide an incentive for fact-based reading in all school subjects.
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Interview with Isabel Alçada
National Reading Plan - Portugal
The National Reading Plan was launched in June 2006 by the Portuguese Government – Ministries of Education, Culture and Minister of Parliamentary Affairs - to promote reading in schools, as well as in public libraries and other social organizations. The main goals are the development of skills in reading and writing, as well as the broadening and deepening of reading habits.
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Interview with Aad Meinderts
Managing Director of the Stichting Lezen of the Netherlands
The Dutch Reading Foundation aims to foster a "strong reading culture" and it accordingly endorses the concept of a continuous reading pathway. Hence, it organises and supports (educational) activities for children and youths of all age groups (0 to 18 years). Aad Meinderts, director of the foundation, talks about the objectives and particularly successful projects and initiatives, such as the national reading competition, with more than 85,000 participant children each year.
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Interview with Majo de Saedeleer
Director of Stichting Lezen, Belgium
All matters concerning reading promotion are given into the care of Stichting Lezen. The Ministry of Culture set out the mission of Stichting Lezen when it started (modelled after the Dutch Stichting Lezen). Recent policy stresses the attention for specific target groups: handicaped, young families, prisoners, low income groups, etc. Not only for reading of course but for all matters concerning participation in culture.
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Interview with Prof. Dr. phil. Gudrun Marci-Boehncke
Professor for German Literature and Didactics at the Pedagogical University of Ludwigsburg
Professor Marci-Boehncke would wish for considering reading promotion against the background of a conjunction of media right from the start. In her view, reading promotion should set in right after birth. Parents should provide their children with opportunities to come into contact with diverse reading media and first and foremost, they should talk to their children about what they have read.
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Interview with Dr Roland Marden
Booktrust Research and Development Manager
Diverse activities organised by Booktrust aim to establish a contact to books and to kindle a motivation for reading by this and other means. Dr. Roland Marden, the research and development director, talks about book donation campaigns and a project for eleven-year-old children who can choose a book amongst a selection and keep it.
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