COLOMBIA:
Open Your Books, Please, Bogotá
Helda Martínez

BOGOTÁ,  (IPS) - For the first time, a Latin American city has been named World Book Capital. Bogotá will have this honour in 2007 by courtesy of UNESCO, with the main aim of promoting a dying habit: reading.

The government's target is Bogotá's population of 6.8 million people, in the knowledge that this is not a population that reads very much.

Sixty-five percent of Colombia's 42 million people stay a long way away from books, according to researcher Germán Rey, co-author of the study "Reading Habits, Use of Libraries and Book Purchasing in Colombia, 2006", which was launched on Dec. 14 in Bogotá's venerable National Library, founded in 1777.

According to Rey, the proportion of readers in the population has fallen in the last five years, while Internet users have increased, from 4.9 percent in 2000 to 11.9 percent in 2005.

Although the study does not report statistics on reading levels in Bogotá, the population density and the fact that it is the capital city means that it has the highest concentration of readers and book purchasers in the country, of whom 35 percent buy books for school and university studies, 30.8 percent out of interest or a need to know, and 16.6 percent for entertainment.

In addition to Rey's statistics, there is information about visitors to 102 city libraries and three megalibraries, including the Luis Ángel Arango library which has 1.1 million volumes and 380,000 visitors a month, according to the figures published on its website.

The Luis Ángel Arango Library is the chief of 19 libraries in other cities, all sponsored by the state Bank of the Republic and belonging to the network of public libraries.

The public libraries are connected to the Internet, thus offering the poor access to the worldwide web in a country where computers are only just now being introduced in public schools.

Bogotá is the country's least illiterate city, with an illiteracy rate of 2.5 percent, compared to a national average of 7.6 percent and a 20.1 percent illiteracy rate in Chocó province, on the Pacific Ocean, according to Ministry of Education statistics.

These indicators should further improve when cultural and reading programmes are initiated within the framework of Bogotá's designation as World Book Capital. The official launch date is Apr. 23, 2007, when Spanish-speaking countries celebrate Spanish Language Day, in memory of Miguel de Cervantes (d. 1616), author of "Don Quijote of La Mancha".

"On that date, Bogotá will turn to one of the most important pages of its history: the confirmation of its vocation to become a reading city, and a well-read city," Ana Roda, head of literature at the government District Culture and Tourism Institute (IDCT), told IPS.

The July 2006 "designation is a recognition of the work done in favour of books and reading in this city, and also, as UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) has said, a commitment to carry out activities related to literature and the publishing world in the year that is about to begin," Roda added.

In January, during the annual "Hay Festival" in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena, to be attended by writers, journalists and poets, the "39 under 39" competition will invite that number of Latin American writers to participate in an international meeting in April.

Also in January, the IDCT will call on artists, cultural organisations and groups from the capital to present projects designed to enrich the celebrations, Roda said.

And on Apr. 23, as well as the traditional International Book Fair from Apr. 19 to May 2, there will be more activities such as book exchanges, a Seminar on Creative Writing and the Children's and Young People's Literature Fair.

Furthermore, free book loan stands will be set up at Transmilenio public transport stations, and the headquarters of the Economic Culture Fund will be inaugurated, providing libraries and cultural facilities in the heart of the city.

These actions and activities "must last beyond the 2007-2008 celebrations," Roda said, out of gratitude for the selection of Bogotá over other candidates, like Amsterdam (the Netherlands), Coimbra (Portugal), Dublin (Ireland), Rosario (Argentina), and Vienna (Austria). Previous World Book Capital title holders include Madrid (2001), Alexandria, Egypt (2002), New Delhi, India (2003), Antwerp, Belgium (2004), Montreal, Canada (2005) and Turin, Italy (2006).

The designation is also seen as rewarding the strategy of Bogotá Mayor Luis Eduardo Garzón, who in April 2006 issued decree 133 regarding the adoption of public policies specifically aimed at fomenting reading.

This policy "is part of the goals proposed by the 'Bogotá Without Indifference' Development Plan: A social commitment to combat poverty and exclusionàwhose 'Culture for Inclusion' programme aims to connect cultural policies with an emphasis on the lowest-income sectors, and the areas with the highest levels of poverty and vulnerability," the decree stated.

The Bogotá city government also intends to bring down the cost of books, which is higher in Colombia than in most other Latin American countries.

In an interview with IPS, the head of production of the publishing house Editorial Voluntad, Jairo Gutiérrez, said that the average price of a school textbook was between 15 and 29 dollars.

He argued, nevertheless, that the high cost of books is a myth that has been on the way out in the last decade.

"Prices vary according to the target population of the product. The same textbook, with 160 pages, costs less than a different edition with 300 pages, for example, which is aimed at higher-income sectors. The difference lies in the space devoted to exercises and examples of the contents," Gutiérrez said.

"However, parents tend to make an effort to buy their children books, even if only two or three per academic year, and even against government policies which insist on providing the libraries with enough copies" so that low-income families need not face this extra expenditure, he said.

"Bogotá's designation as World Book Capital will make a major contribution to reducing regional differences in illiteracy rates and combating the difficulty of acquiring books, because other regions will tend to follow the literacy programmes, especially at the functional illiteracy level, and because the more books that are published and sold, the lower the unit cost," said Roda.

Also, she concluded, "it's a golden opportunity to show the world that this is a serious, responsible and creative city."