Participants: Snježana Berak, Áine Ní Ghlinn, Petra Potočnik, Triin Soone
Moderator: Veronika Rot Gabrovec
Summary:
The panel will discuss the role of reading promotors in the contemporary media landscape by exploring national reading campaigns and the role of children's literature laureates in such campaigns.
Description:
It is a truth universally acknowledged that publishers and authors need lifelong readers: without readers, no books are bought; without a public demand for books, publishers wither and disappear. The aim of reading promoters is to build bridges between the publishing industry, the authors and the readers; to cultivate lifelong reading habits and support family and intergenerational reading; to raise awareness that there are a number of ways to read, and to encourage a positive attitude toward different kinds of texts; to highlight quality books, and help create an environment that treasures leisure reading and encourages young and teenage readers to become adults with lifelong reading habits. The panel will thus discuss the impact a national reading campaigns can have. Why are children’s literature laureates successful reading promoters? Which best practices can be passed along? All that and more in discussion with a panel of reading promoters who are experts on creating an interface that authors, publishers and the entire reading community can use.
Snježana Berak holds a Master's degree in Library Science and is a Senior Librarian. Her vision and ideas were instrumental in the design and implementation of the Croatian initiative to promote reading from early Childhood on.
Áine Ní Ghlinn is an Irish language children’s author and poet who has 36 books published. She was Ireland’s Laureate na nÓg/Children’s Literature Laureate 2020 – 2023 and has won many awards for her work.
Petra Potočnik is an associate of the Slovenian Reading Badge Society, where she edits Society's website, takes care for calls for proposals and trainings and is a liaison with related national and international organisations.
Triin Soone is a director of the Estonian Children’s Literature Centre since 2011. She is a member of the Board of the Literary Endowment Fund of Estonia, the Council of Public Libraries under the Ministry of Culture and Estonian Librarians Association. She has been active as a coordinator of numerous literary and cultural projects and a member of various juries.
Veronika Rot Gabrovec
Veronika Rot Gabrovec works at English department, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. Besides doing language exercises with stiudents, her main research interest are (inter)cultural studies and English children's literature. Sometimes she translates a children's book.