HILARY Wilce is right that there is no single call for specific action for the National Year of Reading, precisely for the reasons she outlines - we are trying to reach everyone, in a variety of different ways. Back in the 1970s I responded to the On the Move adult literacy campaign, and became a volunteer: a specific request for a specific task.
Now we’re hoping that people will be involved in any number of ways in their community, through their workplace, via the library or through a voluntary organisation, and many, many schemes and projects are already in place throughout the country that will make people take notice.
Through our own pump-priming fund we have sought to enhance the volunteering aspect, encouraging people to give their time, but we are also encouraging everyone to read more themselves, and read to their children more often, and this is by nature often a quiet and private activity.
All your readers should keep their eyes open for what is happening in their own area, and also look out for new national initiatives - on television, through newspapers and supermarkets, and in many different formats - which will be starting up throughout the year.
Liz Attenborough
Project director
National Year of Reading
National Literacy Trust, Swire House
59 Buckingham Gate, London SW1
Tel: 0171 828 2435 Fax: 0171 931 9986
e-mail: contact@yearofreading.org.uk
Internet: www.yearofreading.org.uk
