Promoting reading 1
literature, gathers it and makes it available, bu
t the library also acts as a mediator of literature (Thorhauge 1995). Norwegian library researcher Åse Kristine Tveit (2004) understands the term literature mediation to mean informing about literature, making it visible, generating the desire to read, and guiding the reader in the selection of literature. Seen in this way, literature mediation is a specific type of reading promotion. In other words: literature mediation is a reading promotion activity, but all reading promotion activities are not about literature mediation. Running a campaign about the importance of reading, for example, is a reading promotion activity, which need not necessarily be about literature mediation. Sometimes a distinction is drawn between direct and indirect literature mediation. For example, Tveit distinguishes between direct mediation through a personal meeting, and indirect mediation in the form of reading tips on a website, for example. Examples of indirect literature mediation are subject departmentalisation, exhibitions, literature lists and written book presentations, while conversations between borrowers and librarians, traditional forms of book talks and other oral presentations of literature would be regarded as direct mediation. Such distinctions between “direct” and “indirect” can be problematized, particularly if you take into account those forms of mediation that combine the immediacy of speech with the permanency of writing, such as filmed book presentations published on websites. Litteraturutredningen (The enquiry into literature) (2012) shows that approximately one third of county and regional libraries’ total financial resources are used for reading promotion interventions. Public education organisations are also significant actors in reading promotion efforts in the country. They conduct reading promotion activities for adults in the form of book circles, for example. In international comparisons, nonprofit organisations running larger-scale reading promotion projects and campaigns are unusual. The Swedish association Läsrörelsen (The reading movement) is the foremost example of a Swedish non-profit organisation that runs campaigns and programmes aimed at children, adolescents and adults with various sponsors. Another example of a Swedish non-profit reading promotion organisation is Berättarministeriet (The ministry of storytelling), which runs writing workshops for children and adolescents between the ages of 8 and 18 years in areas with high unemployment. Several Swedish book publishers also run reading promotion activities. Bonnier Carlsen has been actively involved with promoting the desire to read among children and adolescents, and collaborates for this purpose with Berättarministeriet and sports clubs. Publisher En bok för alla runs a substantial number of reading promotion activities in conjunction with clubs and associations, schools, libraries, and children’s and youth organisations. Internationally, there are a very large number of organisations working with reading promotion. Recently, South African organisation Project for the Study of Alternative Education (PRAESA) won the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for its reading promotion efforts with children and adolescents in South Africa. This is the third time since its inception in 2002 that the prize has gone to a reading promotion organisation. Previously the prize has gone to the Tamer Institute for Community Education, which runs reading promotion activities for children and adolescents on the West Bank and in Gaza, and to Banco del Libro (Book Bank), which works to promote reading among children and adolescents in Venezuela. The reading promotion orga12