The action titled National month of joint reading will be first time organised in Slovenia from 8 September (International Literacy Day) to 8 October 2018 (end of Children’s Week).
It was initiated by Reading Association of Slovenia, Reading Badge of Slovenia – ZPMS, Union of Library Associations of Slovenia, City Library Kranj, Association of Slovenian writers, Slovenian section of IBBY, Association of general libraries, Maribor Library and City Library Ljubljana. The project is supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Republic of Slovenia and Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia, while the Honorary sponsor of the National month of joint reading 2018 is the president of the Republic of Slovenia Borut Pahor.
The events are published on a website (https://dogodkovnik.acs.si/nmsb2018/) while organiser hope that their interesting programme will bring together many people of different age. The objective is to raise reading culture and readers’ literacy. Considerable visual support to the project is provided by works of art of top Slovenian illustrators, who are ambassadors of the National month of joint reading. There joined Suzana Bricelj, Zvonko Čoh, Jelka Godec Schmidt, Marjan Manček, Matija Medved, Andreja Peklar, Peter Škerl and Ana Zavadlav.
The action is also joined by students of supply teaching lessons of Slovenian. The whole month we will read magazines, books and brochures and on that occasion meet parts of Slovenia, their history, cuisine and customs. The project is part of the project United in Variety. The year 2018 is the year of cultural heritage, and from 22 September to 6 October is the week of cultural heritage, and therefore we will pay special attention to raising awareness of importance of preserving customs and buildings, telling stories of rich past of the area, and the importance of the language. Slovenian cultural heritage will be compared with the heritage of environment where we live, and our work will be presented at the end of the project United in Variety in October in Slovenia and at two events in Banjaluka – at the gathering of minorities on 22 September and European Language Day on 26 September at the National Library.
Barbara Hanuš
