Austria Reads. Meeting-point Library

Obviously, PISA not only revealed young Austrians’ massive reading deficits but also a serious lack of perception of Austria’s libraries. The responsible authorities in the Austrian Library Association and in the ministries were, of course, aware that this situation called for immediate action.
To eliminate the deficits, the head of the Austrian Library Association decided to launch an Austria-wide campaign. The goal of the campaign was to be to make publicity for reading by means of entertaining, stimulating initiatives and to pool initiatives to improve the visibility of libraries.

With “Austria Reads. Meeting-point Library” the Austrian libraries launched a campaign that was unprecedented to date. Thousands of events in the libraries – 480,000 visitors in one week (Austria has 8.2 inhabitants), internationally renowned stars who volunteered to appear completely free of charge in a press insert campaign promoting the libraries.  Our goal to promote reading and libraries with the campaign “Austria Reads. Meeting-point Library” was reached. The campaign met with great enthusiasm from the very start and surpassed quite a few expectations and desires.
It is not possible to precisely assess the success of campaigns. However, it is no coincidence that after the campaign public libraries figured for the first time a post-war government of Austria’s 2nd Republic in a government action plan.
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