For family and work reasons I have participated in dozens of book presentations and have always found great response and attention from the public, but the numbers in the book sector express a different trend even if book sales have grown in 2020. This is good news.
In 2018, people aged 6 and over who read at least one book for non-educational or professional reasons in the 12 months preceding the interview were the 40,6%: the figure seems high, but refers to at least one book in the period considered. In the same year, 75.758 new works were published and nearly 168 million copies were printed. A lot is produced and few read.
Perhaps, to increase the diffusion of reading, the services of the current ones could be promoted more 20.000 libraries that we have in Italy.
Maybe we should promote libraries as super-places of identity and memory in which the knowledge of a nation and beyond is preserved, disseminated and spread.
Perhaps, it is not necessary to increase the number of libraries, but it would be useful to evolve the positioning a reading rooms e of study.
Perhaps, some new libraries could be located in high-traffic hubs such as shopping centres, companies, railway stations, museums (public, private and corporate), historical centres…
The substance of the idea is to promote the place directly and the book and reading indirectly. Pretty much the simple concept of a library it should transform in place of socialization, of aggregation, of experimentation (co-creation, relationship and return), of learningas well as reading and studying.
I CHILDREN but also the smart worker, would have a safer and more suitable place to meet, to study and/or work together and to discuss.
These new spaces could be conceived as multifunctional and multi-service and could be the emanation of a public and private cultural project that can be financed with part of European funds (Recovery fund), from private and corporate foundations and with crowdfunding operations (collective financing).
All of this requires planning coordination, general modernization and technological adaptation with the availability of the latest generation computers, projectors, digital archives and wifi network, but also a planning of events and establishing relationships with publishing houses with the authors .
There are two phantasmagorical examples of libraries that could make us think about this new trend: Finland, Oodi Library and China, Tianjin Binhai Library.
To play at home I would say that the space of the Feltrinelli Foundation in Milan it is an excellent example to observe and to study for a possible cloning.
Trivially, the essence and objective of a project of this kind would be to make literary production more available and more accessible for pro-social and pro-cultural purposes with a positive impact on the whole of society.
"I read in self-defense." Woody Allen. All the best.
