In Calabria and Basilicata, the reading indices are stopped at 58% (population over 15 years of age who declares that they have read, even partially, at least one printed book in the previous twelve months), 15 percentage points below the average of the North Center (73%) and the network of libraries manages on average 16 loans for a thousand inhabitants: in the center north there are many many (741 per thousand inhabitants). Furthermore, 90% of the municipalities of the two regions are devoid of a library in the area.
The data are part of a wider research that the Italian Editori Association (AIE) started at the beginning of the year and which will be presented on Saturday 20 September at 3 pm in Soveria Mannelli,
Province of Catanzaro, on the occasion of the Sciabaca Festival (Sciabaca – Mediterranean travel and cultures). The meeting books, libraries and policies for reading will be held at the Officina della Cultura and creativity and will see for the first time on the themes of reading and culture, moderated by the journalist of the Corriere della Sera Francesco Verdirami, the two candidates for the presidency of the Calabria Region, the current president Roberto Occhiuto and Pasquale Tridico. The appointment – which will be in live streaming on the Sciabaca Festival website and on the AIE website – will be introduced by Florindo Rubbettino, councilor in charge of AIE for the South, followed by the institutional greetings of the president of the AIE innocenzo Cipolletta, the presentation of the data by Rachele Marziolo (AIE Studies Office) and, before the comparison between the two candidates, the interventions of Nunzio Belcaro (UBIK bookcase of Catanzaro), Immacolata Cosentino (Professional Pole Ipsoa Ipsia Leonardo da Vinci Castrovillari), Antonio Curcio (Italian Association of Calabria Libraries) and Giacinto Gaetano (network of networks). It is the third appointment of AIE dedicated to the South, after a first presentation that took place in Naples last March in the conference for a spring of reading in the South. Dialogues and projects to grow the country and a second in Palermo, on the occasion of a navy of books, in June.
“Several international studies – explains Rubbettino – confirms that higher reading levels have significant impacts on GDP. A debate between the two candidates for the presidency of Calabria is necessary: we must discuss access to knowledge, opportunities for young people, of enhancement of libraries such as garrisons and strategic investments that can make Calabria a land that reads, study and innovate. Tourist. To the candidates we will ask to speak of infrastructure, of the work to be done on libraries because they are not only places of deposit of books, and on bookstores as points of disbursement of cultural services.
“As an association, we are committed to bringing the debate to the correlation between lack of infrastructure for reading and low reading indices in all territories of the South and Islands – explains the president of Aie Innocenzo Cipolletta -. This is a great limit to the development of the south that must be exceeded in the interest of the entire country, of its economic, cultural and democratic growth. On this issue, whose institutional competence is largely regional.
Reading data. According to the data released by AIE, processed in the context of an investigation conducted by Pepe Research on reading and on the cultural consumption of the South, he reads books on 58% of the population over 15 years in the South and in the islands against 73% in the center north. Basilicata and Calabria are aligned with the South and Islands average, 58%. Sicily records the lowest index together with Abruzzo and Molise (56%), follows Sardinia (57%). Puglia (59%) and Campania (60%) are just above the southern average and islands.
Libraries. In Basilicata and Calabria there is a number of libraries per thousand inhabitants greater than in the center north (0.16 against 0.13), but these have a much lower book heritage (1,127 books per thousand inhabitants against the 3,244 of the center north). This translates into minor access to the structures (48 per thousand inhabitants against 774 on average in the center north) and in a radical difference in the number of loans made: 16 per thousand inhabitants against the 741 of the center north, or 46 times a lot. Only one library every five (19.9%) in Basilicata and Calabria has a librarian or librarian in the staff, against 63% in the center north.
The bookstores
In the two regions 102 bookstores are operational. 90% of the Municipalities (482), where 52% of the Lucanian and Calabrian population lives. But even in the largest municipalities, the situation is problematic: 12% of the population residing in the city with more than 10 thousand inhabitants do not have a library in their municipality.