World Book Day in Switzerland
The Swiss Lobby of Books, network of the Swiss organisations of books, is the main organiser of the World Book Day in Switzerland. ‘In the long run, we’re planning further collaborations with the Swiss National Railways themed “travel time is reading time”,’ says Adi Blum from p&s network culture. In this respect, many activities already take place at Swiss railway stations. On World Book Day, rail travellers are given a book to encourage them to read on the train. The multilingual campaign of the Swiss Lobby of Books takes place in all parts of the country.
The main activities - themed ‘Hunger for Books and Thirst for Travel’ - took place at Bern, Lausanne and Zurich railway stations. From 21 to 23 April adverts for World Book Day are shown there on big screens. According to e-advertising, the three screens reach about 700,000 persons daily. Altogether, there are activities at 15 Swiss railway stations.
Another highlight of Swiss World Book Day is an MMS-competition that invites readers to present themselves with their favourite book and film it with their mobile phone camera. The pictures are published online at http://www.readme.cc. In addition, the greatest snapshots will be nominated by a jury. One day in advance of World Book Day, on 22 April, the actors from ‘Just call – The Story Home Delivery Service’ will be reading at several railway stations. On the day itself, they will travel around Switzerland presenting their stories in trains, book stores and libraries.
The city of Lausanne plans a ‘Fête du Livre’ on World Book Day which will be attended by 4000 students. Themed ‘Switzerland is Reading’, many book stores and libraries take part in the World Book Day. Last year, 700 book stores and libraries organised their own activities such as lectures, book presentations and exhibitions. On World Book Day, Zentrum Lesen likes to encourage schools to read aloud. Therefore they have installed an e-mail distributor to send out ‘Monday Tales’.
The Swiss Lobby of Books and the Culture Foundation Pro Helvetia invite personalities from the worlds of literature, politics, culture and bibliology to the Swiss National Library in Bern. Swiss author Peter Bichsel reads his travel stories and the Nah Trio composes Swiss sounds in an innovative way.
Swiss World Book Day partners include p&s network, Just call – The Story Home Delivery Service, Readme.cc, Culture Foundation Pro Helvetia, Cultural Centre Bern, Specialised Unit Culture Canton Zurich, City of Zurich.
From 23 March onwards, all activities are published on the website.
This project is run by Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Pädagogische Hochschule, Zentrum Lesen, Switzerland (Switzerland)