A staggering 116,000 new books donated by publishers, 4,000 more than last year, are on their way to schools by the end of April thanks to #ioleggoperché, the Italian Publishers Association’s (AIE) major initiative to benefit school libraries throughout Italy.
An extraordinary event with the involvement of nearly four million students, 23,240 registered schools, 250 nurseries and 3,275 libraries. With this final phase and the delivery of the publishers’ contribution, the seventh edition of the project closes with a record-breaking milestone: more than half a million new books in Italian school libraries in the current school year, for a total of more than 2.5million books donated to schools in the past 7 years.
“With the contribution of publishers, another extraordinary edition of #ioleggoperché comes to an end, extraordinary because it brings to 2.5 million the number of books that have been donated to Italian school libraries over the past seven years thanks to the project,” explained AIE President Ricardo Franco Levi. “This is the result of an important team effort that today offers the opportunity for boys and girls to feel close and familiar with books in their daily lives and to have one more opportunity to fight educational poverty. It’s a long journey when you consider that more than one in four of those who participated in the last edition were without a school library before receiving #ioleggoperché books. But it is our contribution, made possible thanks to the support of the Ministry of Culture-Directorate General for Libraries and Copyright, the Center for Books and Reading and the Ministry of Education, this year also joined by the Department for Sport of the Prime Minister’s Office and Fondazione Cariplo. We hope that this synergy can grow again and again in the years to come and create a positive domino effect.”
The 20 prizes to the winning schools of the two 2022 contests were also awarded from among more than 700 entries. The prizes this year were doubled thanks to the support of SIAE and, for the first time, the Department for Sport of the Prime Minister’s Office: each of the 20 winning schools was awarded €1,000 in vouchers to spend on books to further enrich their school libraries. 10 vouchers were made available by SIAE for the Leggere per costruire un mondo più inclusivo (Reading to build a more inclusive world) contest, aimed at preschools, primary and secondary schools; another 10 vouchers were made available by the Department for Sport of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers for the Il libro e lo sport per un futuro più inclusivo (The book and sport for a more inclusive future) contest, dedicated to secondary schools.
With strong imagination and creativity, numerous students again this year demonstrated their passion for reading by devising the most original and engaging ways to raise awareness of donations for their school library.
Article and photo courtesy of Il Giornale della Libreria: www.giornaledellalibreria.it
