Public book policies are a set of measures, standards, frameworks and laws that structure and support the book field in a given country : they must strengthen a given country’s book sector, help to support local production, the dissemination and access of all to the book, in particular through the implementation of adequate regulatory and tax measures and the multiplication of reading spaces (public libraries for example). Public book policies need to be developed and implemented with all book professionnals, in each country. It is also necessary for these national policies to be extended by regional and international policies.
Publishing professionals charter and code of ethics, produced by the Organisation malienne des éditeurs de livre (OMEL), Mali, 2017.
This charter was produced by OMEL (Organisation malienne des éditeurs de livre) in April 2017, which authorized the Alliance to publish it on its website.
In partnership with the Tunis Book Fair and the Union of Tunisian Publishers, and thanks to the support of the Fondation de France and the French Institutes of Tunisia and Lebanon, the Alliance organised a day focusing on public book policies in the Arab world on Thursday 30 March 2017.
Publishers from Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia presented a panorama of book public policies in their respective countries : Chilean and French publishers spoke on what is being implemented in their countries – a dialogue and exchange between professionals and public authorities, between continents, between cultures.
This day was initiated in the context of the Bibliodiversity Observatory and the mapping of public book policies in Latin America and the Arab world, on-going at the Observatory.
The sixth ordinary session of the Conference of Parties->https://en.unesco.org/creativity/convention/governing-bodies/conferences/6th-ordinary-session] to the Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (Paris, UNESCO 12 - 15 June 2017) has approved the Operational Guidelines on the Implementation of the Convention in the Digital Environment.
Langue(s) :
italien
“« Protect” the Book » by Markus GERLACH, a report from the collection “Reports on the Publishing World”, is now available in Italian from the Italian Federation of Independent Publishers (FIDARE), which translated and published this new edition.
This reference book has been translated into several languages (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian).
Year of publication : 2010, 68 pages, 15 X 21 cm, 8 euros.
Massively used by small publishing firms to distribute their products to bookstores, libraries, and readers, the postal service is the most popular means of circulating books throughout the world. However, the absence, suppression or questioning of special postage for books is an impediment to bibliodiversity in many countries.
In Latin America, with a huge territory to cover and limited circulation, a large share of publishers ensures the delivery of their products themselves. For these publishers, preferential postage rates for shipping books are all the more vital.
This study, available in Spanish, was carried out as an International Alliance of independent publishers exclusive by Elena Enríquez Fuentes (Mexico) in 2008.
Her work demonstrates that there is a considerable bias in the trading of books between Spain and Latin America. This assertion is based on the analysis of exports and imports between Spain and Latin America in 2006 and 2007.
As the official campaign for the next European elections is being launched, the Alliance has decided to get involved in a positive fashion by formulating three proposals that would be very simple to implement.
These proposals have furthermore been published on the website http://challengeforeurope.blogactiv.eu, with dozens of others, on the initiative of the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation in the framework of its “What kind of Europe do we want ?” program. Let us hope this impressive corpus of proposals will be a profitable inspiration to the EU’s future elected representatives !
Why did the large majority of European countries choose to protect the book, setting its price through trade agreements or legal measures ? How were these protection mechanisms, which make the book into a cultural exception permitted by the European Commission, gradually implemented ? Markus Gerlach offers a broad analysis the price-fixing of books in Europe : he begins by relating the background of this measure and then analyzes the economic effects. In the end he shows the extent to which the price-fixing of books, apart from its cultural and economic importance, also assumes an eminently political dimension.
« Protéger le livre » by Markus Gerlach (in French) - available in Spanish (« Cómo proteger el libro »), in Portuguese (« Proteger o livro ») and in Italian (« Proteggere il libro »).
Year of publication : 2006, 160 pages, 15 x 21 cm, ISBN 10 : 2-9519747-2-8 ; ISBN 13 : 978-2-9519747-2-2
In 2017, publishers who are members of the Alliance along with academics and experts united to collectively produce some research on Public Book Policies in Latin America and in Sub-Saharan Africa. This has since been converted into a unique digital, graphic and interactive tool for informing and centralising data on the public support systems for books and reading in 22 countries.
In 2024, the International Alliance of Independent Publishers, thanks to the support of Open Society Foundation, extends this project to the Arab world for a better understanding of public authorities’ commitment to books and reading in the different countries of the Arab world. To this end, data is collected in 10 countries based on a common questionnaire. The data will then be presented on the dedicated website for each country. A cross-sectional analysis will be carried out on the basis of these data ; the Alliance is looking for an author to draft this cross-sectional analysis.
Deadline to apply (equipe@alliance-editeurs.org) : 13 May 2024
This unique and important work ! The mapping and the analysis will be presented publicly in December 2024 or January 2025 to professionals and representatives of public authorities in the countries.
Read more here (in Arabic) / see on the right the English version for download
An unprecedented mapping of policies supporting reading and books in 22 countries, which can be consulted and downloaded online : publicbookpolicies.alliance-editeurs.org
Arising from the observation of the lack of data on public book policies in regions where the member publishers of the Alliance operate, particularly in Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa, the public book policy mapping project is the result of several years of collaboration between book and publishing professionals, academics and experts on public book policies. It relies first and foremost on the investment and involvement of the Alliance’s member publishers, who are its primary actors. It is one of the flagship projects of the Bibliodiversity Observatory.
The mapping proposes several items : one entry per country (country fact sheets listing existing mechanisms for public support for books at the national level) ; a regional entry (comparative data through cross-cutting analyses). It is interactive and evolving : the fact sheets presenting the institutions and national public book policies can be amended and modified as the systems evolve. This mapping is thus intended to be extended to new countries in both regions, or even to integrate a new region in the long term (the Arab world in particular). For now, the mapping exists only in Spanish and French for lack of financial means to carry out a translation into English. The Alliance hopes to find the necessary funds to translate the mapping into English soon.
The objectives of the mapping are to :
• make available data on the public book policies of the respective countries ;
• offer an overview of public book policies, freely accessible, consultable and reusable by professionals and public authorities ;
• promote dialogue and exchanges between public authorities and publishers ;
• develop advocacy tools for independent publishers ;
• contribute to the establishment and consolidation of public book policies in developing countries (among others, for a greater circulation of books and ideas, for the appropriation of digital tools by book professionals, for balanced exchanges between North and South) ;
• affirm the role of civil society (book professionals and particularly independent publishers) in the development and implementation of public book policies.
The Alliance warmly thanks the partners of this project : the Fondation de France and the Swiss SDC.
See the complementary issue of the Bibliodiversity journal “Public book policies”.
Press release
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the Alliance team at : equipe@alliance-editeurs.org
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