People's Book Centres: a new South African initiative
Bridget Impey
Bridget Impey is an independent publishing
consultant based in Cape Town, South Africa. 21 671 4790 (tel), email:
impey@iafrica.com
A proposal is being developed in South Africa that will
develop capacity in communities and create new jobs through adding value
to the work being done by South African librarians to encourage reading
and develop a book culture. It sets out a strategy for working in partnership
with libraries to support reading promotion initiatives and to extend
them into new areas. In particular, it seeks to popularise the concept
of owning and buying books, as well as reading them.
Who will benefit? In the first instance it will
be the members of the book clubs who will come to share in the pleasure
of reading, who will have access to books at affordable prices, who
will find their lives enriched through book-related social activity.
Librarians will gain through increased usage of their libraries. In
the ripple effect, publishers will gain through new opportunities to
sell their products, and eventually other booksellers will gain new
customers who have acquired the book buying habit.
The proposal looks at how one could set up a number
of 'people's book centres'. These will be located within libraries and
will work within the communities served by those libraries. They will
promote book owning through the concept of book clubs. They will also
be encouraged to develop the commercial side of the business by selling
textbooks into local schools. The proposal is not aimed at replicating
traditional retail bookstores. But the people's book centres will need
to become self-sustainable and it will be necessary to develop a commercial
angle while they are developing and growing in this emerging market.
A number of innovative ideas, many of which involve working closely
with local and international publishers, will offer ways of reducing
the recommended retail selling price of books to the community.
The managers of the people's book centres will
be drawn from the local communities and will receive on-going training
in the setting up, promotion and facilitation of book clubs and reading
circles. These book clubs will cater for the needs of a wide range of
people in the community and will reflect different interest groups:
book clubs might be set up focusing on business and entrepreneurial
skills, self-improvement, health and well-being, cooking, crafts, hobbies,
sport, religion, health and fitness, travel, women's or men's interests,
or children's story-telling. Learners' book clubs linked to local schools
are likely to have a special place within the centres. The people's
book centres will encourage all these ways of expanding reading and
book buying.
The book clubs will operate on similar principles
to traditional book clubs: members meet once a month, and pool resources
to buy books which will be shared, discussed and enjoyed within the
group. Eventually, the books will become the property of individual
group members. The exact 'rules' of each book club will differ from
community to community depending on local circumstances and buying power.
The installation of computers will provide not
only access to the internet and e-mail facilities - a kind of Internet
caf� - but also added value to the book clubs by providing links to
publishers' websites, Oprah Book Choice discussion groups, and other
on-line forums.
The proposal is to test the feasibility of the
people's book centre strategy with a pilot project of three centres
situated in disadvantaged community areas of Cape Town set up by March
2002. These will be assessed after 12 months, and drawing on what has
been learnt we will move on to establish three more centres in the Western
Cape. After year two the pilot project will move into the next phase:
the development of further centres in other parts of the country, in
both urban and rural areas.
The centres will be 'franchised', although the
franchisees will not be required to make a capital investment in the
centre. Rather, they will take ownership of the franchise operation
as the business becomes profitable. A franchise will ensure that the
business operations adhere to certain standards, and will give the operation
greater buying power. The `head office' or franchiser will provide training,
mentoring and ongoing support.
We need to develop and grow the book market in
South Africa - the primary target of this project aims to benefit both
the publishing and bookselling sectors. At the same time the project
has other advantages; it will enable previously disadvantaged people
to assert their rights in the world of retail bookselling and will uplift
and strengthen previously neglected communities through capacity building
and job creation. For further information, or to obtain a copy of the
proposal, please contact either:
Bridget Impey: impey@iafrica.com Tel (0) 21 671
4790;
Lavona George: asardien@law.uct.ac.za Tel (0)
21 7974235; or
Margaret Ling: margaret.ling@geo2.poptel.org.uk
Tel (0) 20 8348 8463 Fax (0) 20 8348 4403
[end] [BPN, no 28, 2001, pp 4-5.]
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