Publishers urge library support on par with national defence

The Estonian Publishers Association has called on the state and local governments to give more attention to libraries and the written word, saying libraries’ continued operation is as important as national defence, ERR reports.

The association said the Ministry of Culture had recently announced a 100,000-euro cut in state funding for public libraries to buy publications. With smaller print runs and rising costs pushing up the average price of books, the reduction will significantly limit libraries’ ability to buy new titles and make them available to readers, it said.

The association also warned that declining in-depth reading among children and young people affects vocabulary, concentration, imagination, academic performance and the ability to understand oneself and others. These skills are important for learning, working and taking part as an informed citizen, it said.

The reading study “Estonian Reads 2025”, one of whose compilers is Marju Lauristin, found that active and varied readership was reported by 22 percent of people aged 50 to 60 and older, compared with 11 percent of those aged 15 to 24. Young people’s strong interest in books is usually formed in homes with many books, the association said. Public libraries can help offset differences between households by offering every child free, age-appropriate reading material, recommendations and the chance to discover books.

Libraries are also an important source of literature for people who cannot afford to buy new books or live far from bookshops, as well as community centres, the association said. It called for funding that would allow libraries to offer a modern and varied selection of new literature and support readers, authors and publishers. Libraries and literature in Estonian are also vital to the survival of the language, it said.

“If we do not have a culture in our mother tongue, what exactly are we defending?” the association said.