The government wants to encourage public libraries to extend their opening hours to evenings and Sundays, to encourage the French to come back, Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak announced on Wednesday. “We have set up a library plan. We amplify it, to continue to support these places, ”said the minister, interviewed on France Info.
She did not quantify the budget for this plan, but it must be accompanied by a poster and audiovisual campaign. And the Ministry of Culture, which lists 15,500 “libraries and reading points” in France, reminded AFP of having “provided more than 120 million euros to local authorities for their libraries” in 2022.
A promise from candidate Macron in 2017
Some 300 libraries are offering events on Wednesday to attract residents again. Asked about the possibility of bringing in young people who have moved away from reading, Abdul Malak said he trusted those who knew them. “The actors in the field know how to do it: associations, librarians, artists, who are in these neighborhoods and who know how to talk to these young people”, she said.
“It is also by opening the libraries more. The more a library is open in the evening, on Sunday, the more these young people will have opportunities to find spaces for meetings, calm, work, reading, music,” she added. President Emmanuel Macron had pleaded in favor of extending opening hours as early as the presidential campaign for 2017.
Collateral victims during the riots
Some libraries were collateral victims of the riots which followed the death at the end of June in Nanterre of Nahel M., killed by a policeman at the age of 17.
“There were about fifty libraries that were set on fire, attacked, vandalized during the urban violence at the beginning of the summer. And seeing images of books going up in smoke in 2023 is reminiscent of the worst pages in our history, it’s intolerable,” said Abdul Malak.
“I don’t think they specifically targeted libraries, that they absolutely wanted to burn books. It was blind anger in a surge of violence, and libraries were on their way,” she said.