Mapping public book policies in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar

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.

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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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