Australian Reading Hour nominated for international literacy award

The Australian Reading Hour is one of six projects shortlisted for the US$10,000 (A$14,340) Joy of Reading Award, established by Systematic and the Next Library conference to recognise initiatives that encourage reading.

Australian Reading Hour was cited for its aim to ‘help people discover and rediscover the joy of reading and to understand that literacy is an essential life skill and catalyst for wellbeing’.

The other nominated projects are:

• African Storebook, South Africa: a project working with local educators to develop, publish and make storybooks and support material available for children.
• EDU’KENYA, Kenya: a mobile library working on improving reading by creating access to reading books in schools.
• Nal’ibali Reading for Enjoyment Campaign, South Africa: a campaign to strengthen young people’s literacy by focusing on the reading culture in homes and in communities.
• OSU Children’s Library Fund, Ghana: a project that has built and furnished eight libraries, creating safe and fun settings under the guidance of a librarian to inspire children to enjoy reading.
• The Travelling Reading Sofa, Germany: a bilingual reading sofa, a grandma lamp and a box of books travel Bremen to engage citizens to come together and enjoy the readings.

The award winner will be presented by International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) president Glòria Pérez-Salmerón on 2 June in Aarhus, Denmark.

For more information about the Joy of Reading Award, click here.

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, this year’s Australian Reading Hour will be held on 19 September.

Category: Awards Local news