Campaigns, projects and programmes promoting reading aloud to children from an early age

Abstract

Since 2013, several local programmes have been conducted in Croatia with the aim of promoting and stimulating reading to children at an early age; however, no such project or campaign had previously existed at the national level. Prompted by this information, the Children and Youth Services Commission of the Croatian Librarian Association contacted potential partners with the suggestion of using the occasion of the European Year of Reading Aloud (2013) to launch the first Croatian national campaign aimed at promoting reading aloud to children from birth. The campaign would gradually expand to include librarians, paediatricians, maternity wards and associations dedicated to the rights of children from the earliest age. This paper provides an overview of all global programmes and projects aimed at promoting reading aloud to children from birth and empowering parents. National libraries play an important role in such programmes and projects. The paper also briefly presents reading programmes in Croatia conducted at the local level. Special attention is given to the Croatian national campaign promoting reading aloud to children from the earliest age, Read to me!, launched in 2013. The paper presents the results of the campaign in its three years of existence.