The Directorate General for Books and the Promotion of Reading presents the Plan to Promote Reading in the six official languages of Spain

Under the slogan «Infinite Reading», the new Plan for the Promotion of Reading is presented with 12 challenges.

Coinciding with the celebration of International Mother Language Day on February 21, the Directorate General for Books and the Promotion of Reading, through the Subdirectorate General for the Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish Literature, made the document of the Plan for the Promotion of Reading 2021-2024 available to the general public in the six official languages of the State: Spanish, Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Basque and Aranese.

Legal obligation to promote reading

Under the slogan «Infinite Reading», the new Plan for the Promotion of Reading is presented with 12 challenges.

Coinciding with the celebration of International Mother Language Day on February 21, the Directorate General for Books and the Promotion of Reading, through the Subdirectorate General for the Promotion of Books, Reading and Spanish Literature, made the document of the Plan for the Promotion of Reading 2021-2024 available to the general public in the six official languages of the State: Spanish, Catalan, Valencian, Galician, Basque and Aranese.

Legal obligation to promote reading

The competencies attributed to the State with regard to the promotion of books, reading, and Spanish literature are based on the provisions of Articles 44 and 149. 2 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 which, respectively, recognize that the public authorities shall promote and protect access to culture, to which all citizens have the right; and that, without prejudice to the powers which may be assumed by the Autonomous Communities, the State shall consider the service of culture as a duty and essential attribute and shall facilitate cultural communication among the Autonomous Communities and in agreement with them, subject to the framework of powers established in the Spanish Constitution and the Statutes of Autonomy.

The aim of these plans is to help citizens to exercise their right to education and culture and to reinforce the interest in reading in everyday life through public policies aimed at promoting and agreeing to
This habit among the Spanish population, paying special attention to the needs of libraries and the needs of children and young people, groups at risk of social exclusion, and people with functional diversity.

Plans for the promotion of reading

The General State Administration has been immersed in the task of promoting reading since 2001 through three plans for the promotion of reading.

The first Reading Promotion Plan in the history of our country was developed with the slogan «Reading gives you more» on a national scale between 2001 and 2004, as a tool to promote the strengthening of the reading habit in society.

The second plan, with the slogan «Si tú lees, ell@s leen», was launched in 2005, insisting on the promotion of reading as a task common to all citizens, with special attention to the role played by families in the acquisition of this habit.

In 2017, a new plan was drawn up, valid until 2020, which with the message «Reading gives extra lives» sought to increase the reading demand paying singular attention to three population groups: the youngest, the population with the lowest reading rates, and those collectives that presented greater difficulties in accessing reading.

In short, the plans to promote reading in Spain began with an approach and understanding of the initial situation, with the visibility and support of cultural and educational spaces, mainly libraries and schools, conceived as places where the taste for reading could be encouraged.

Other agents mobilizing reading

During the last two decades, together with the reading promotion plans implemented by the General State Administration with the competent departments on each occasion, the progressive involvement of other public and private agents in this field should be highlighted.

In this line, special mention should be made of the important work carried out by the networks of public libraries, which have developed programs to stimulate the cultural and social life of their neighbors through reading, focusing especially on groups with specific needs or with greater difficulty in accessing reading.

In addition, the important work carried out by the General State Administration has been reinforced by alliances with other cultural institutions and private organizations that have allowed the development of events, fairs, and festivals. Alliances that, in any case, should continue to grow until they form a large network of reading ambassadors.

All in all, this new plan, which was presented in December 2021 and will run until December 2024, proposes the need for a conceptual change, which allows visualizing the new line of work of the administration, focused on collaboration between all social agents to ensure that reading breaks all structural gaps and becomes a real social habit.

Find out all the details of the plan!