What is the National Year of Reading?
The 2008 National Year of Reading aims to help build a greater national love of reading and a better understanding of its power as a fundamental life skill that opens doors - for children, families and adult learners alike. Most of all, it needs to convey the ways in which reading is a part of daily life, part of all the things you enjoy.
It needs to reach hesitant readers, reluctant readers, those who do not consider themselves readers (but who are!), and those who are in a position to influence someone's future reading potential - and make a compelling case to them all for greater engagement with reading.
This means reaching and engaging every parent and carer, as well as extended family members, in order to promote the central role of the family and the home environment, as well as the impact of education, on any child's reading life and future potential. NYR will also need to engage CEO's nationwide and encourage them to support reading and literacy development within and outside of the workplace.
The 2008 National Year of Reading celebrates books, but is also a celebration of words in every form and through every possible media. We are at a cultural crunchpoint - at a moment when we need to embrace whole new networks of reading through digital media, and at the same time celebrate everything that is relevant about traditional forms of reading and access to reading.
Most of all the 2008 National Year of Reading is about the power of words and reading and the ideas they can illuminate - it will celebrate the fundamental founding principle behind our network of public libraries; ideas available for free, to everyone, offering reading as a tool of personal emancipation, and an expression of a democratic society.
The Year aims to inspire everyone to read more, with a particular focus on unconfident or reluctant readers, as a pathway to educational attainment and personal development - and to enable greater participation in society and democracy.
The NYR will encourage and enable people to read in homes, businesses and communities around the country, by providing new opportunities to read and helping unconfident readers access support.Click on the links on the left to find out more about the PA's support for the National Year of Reading and how YOU can get involved with the campaign.
For further information about the NYR, contact Pippa Vlietstra