Ladies and gentlemen,
Dear friends,
If we are gathered here today – if I am standing in front of you and if you are taking part in this Congress – it is because we have, I believe, one thing in common: an ambitious passion. The passion, of course, is that of culture, and the very special passion of reading. I would like to share with you a sentence from Proust that I came across when I read my newspaper this morning: Every reader is, when he reads, the reader of himself. The writer’s work is only a kind of optical instrument which he offers to the reader in order to enable him to discern what, without this book, he might not have seen in himself». I said “ambitious passion”, because behind our shared passion is the ambition to see it shared. There is no love of culture without ambition for culture. It is this double engine that made you choose your profession: the desire to be near the works. But also the will to transmit: to help these works to progress from the hands of their authors to those of their audience. All this, I know, I understand, because it is what guided me every day, in my profession as an editor. And that is also what prompted me a few weeks ago to accept the honour and responsibility entrusted to me by the President of the Republic. Everything that unites us, you and I, of passion and ambition, must mobilize us. More than ever.
More than ever, because our country is in a state of cultural emergency. Our society is facing a multitude of challenges – economic, safe, ecological – that blur its bearings. We must bring back “meaning” in political action and in the project of society. That is the role of culture. Our country needs it. And more than ever, it needs those who fight to make it accessible. To share it, to spread it, to spread it. More than ever, he needs you. And he needs the libraries and media libraries that you run. I am here today to tell you why they are at the heart of our project. And I came to tell you how, with you, we want to move forward to develop them.
I want to begin by telling you why libraries have a fundamental role to play in the cultural reconquest that is beginning. For two reasons: because they nourish, first, the proximity of the French to Culture. It is essential. To improve the dissemination of culture, we have a priority challenge: to facilitate access to it. In particular, geographic access. The library and media library network is a tremendous lever for this. For many of our fellow citizens, the public library is the first way to culture: the first in time. For it is the first cultural place they attend, through school; and the first in space. Because the library is often closer to home than the first cinema, the first museum or the first concert hall. To bring Culture back to the heart of society, it must be brought back to the heart of the City. It must be brought back “close” to our fellow citizens: everywhere, in all the territories. Libraries must help us.
Libraries can play a fundamental role in restoring trust between citizens and culture. Beyond the problems of access, it is the “big challenge”. Culture is still intimidating, as we know. We still hear this phrase too often: "It’s not for me." The proportion of the population that never goes to the show, never to the museum has not changed in thirty years. Libraries are a privileged place to unpack the relationship, to foster public trust. Because you do essential work there. You make them cultural places of welcome, not just visiting. You make them cultural places incarnate, and therefore warm. You provide mediation: our fellow citizens know they can count on your availability, your advice, your support. The latest major survey on the public and uses of libraries confirms that they have a special place in the cultural landscape. It will be published tomorrow on the website of the ministry. But I would like to take the opportunity of this Congress to give some lessons. This study shows that far from being deserted, libraries remain a place of reference for many of our fellow citizens. They are probably one of the only cultural spaces to see an increase in attendance: 40% of French people over the age of 15 attend, compared to 25% in 1997.
Contrary to popular belief, this trend also affects younger generations: 70% of 15-24 year-olds attend a library.
This is why the network of libraries and media libraries can be the spearhead of the country’s cultural reconquest: because it affects all territories; and because it affects all audiences, especially young people. The potential is there. Our responsibility is to grow it, to amplify it. And to make our fellow citizens more open to culture, libraries and media libraries must be more open themselves. The challenge is twofold: it is both to open better and to open more.
Opening up better, to begin with. Opening up better at the national level is first and foremost addressing the issue of territorial inequalities. That is one of the issues you are addressing today. These inequalities persist. France already has a very dense public reading network, with more than 16,000 libraries and reading relays. But our country’s equipment is not finished. Nearly 20% of the population does not have access to public reading in good conditions. The investment effort of local authorities must therefore continue. And in particular, in rural and peri-urban white areas, as well as in priority neighbourhoods, which are today poorly equipped territories. The General Decentralisation Fund is, of course, an instrument to be preserved. I will work on this, together with my colleague, the Minister of the Interior, Gérard Collomb, who manages it. As mayor of Lyon, he built the largest reading network in the region, so you can count on his commitment to these issues. Opening up better, in order to fight inequalities of access, also means relying on digital technology. I know the debates that animate your profession, particularly around the loan of e-books. These are thoughts that we must continue. But whatever happens, we must continue to invest in the modernization and digital development of your institutions. It is an exceptional opportunity to broaden the dissemination of works and knowledge.
Opening up “better” means opening up libraries to the outside world: to other institutions, especially schools. Arts and cultural education for children is one of my priorities. I met with my counterpart Jean-Michel Blanquer in the early days to initiate a collaboration in this direction. The library and media library network is a fundamental resource for us. And you are already mobilized, I know, around this educational mission.
I am thinking in particular of two great initiatives to which the AFB is associated: the “Night of Reading”, which will be – I am announcing – renewed next year. I invite you to remember the date: it will take place on Saturday, January 20, 2018. And our ambition for this second edition is to accentuate the place given to youth and education. You will be invited to multiply local partnerships not only with bookstores, but also with schools, colleges and high schools. The second event in which the ABF takes part, and which I want to salute: «Going in Book», organized by the CNL, which will take place from 19 to 30 July. It’s a great initiative. And I want to thank again all those who are mobilizing to make it happen. We need to think about how to systematize the bridges between Culture and Education through libraries. We need to increase collaboration with schools throughout the year: both on school time and outside school time. That’s how we’re going to make libraries real homes of cultural life. That’s how we’re going to open them up better.
Opening up the network also means opening up “more”. As you know, the key issue is adapting opening hours. This is a campaign commitment of the President of the Republic. And this is something I will be committed to implementing, I want to tell you. The AFB has been involved in this for a long time. And I want to thank his office and its president, Xavier Galaup, for this continued and courageous commitment. The challenge is to adapt the schedules to users' constraints. A library that opens from 10am to 5pm on weekdays, as is the case in many places, is not accessible to those who work. We must think about the opportunity to open more in the evening and at the weekend, as is already done in many of our European neighbours. The Ministry’s survey to be published tomorrow shows that demand exists, and that the impact would be immediate, in terms of attendance: the share of users could increase by 10 points, and thus exceed 50% of the population.
So much for ambition. The issue now is method. To start thinking about this, we’re going to have a big national debate. It’s going to be regionally driven by the dracs. This debate must allow us to bring together all the stakeholders: yourselves, librarians, but more broadly all the public officials concerned, and of course, your trade union organizations, and obviously, citizens, communities, elected officials. It’s about bringing everyone together at the same table, to address all the issues related to openness: societal issues; social issues for your profession. This debate can also allow us to address broader issues around libraries. The ministry’s major survey shows that they are less and less places of reading or lending: less than 15% of users go there to borrow a book. They are increasingly places of work, of meeting, of exchange. It is therefore necessary to consider ways of adapting the format and services of libraries to these new expectations. On all subjects: our goal is not to «impose» forced-march recipes. The goal of the National Debate is precisely to work together, to co-build. We want to take the time for dialogue and reflection.
In parallel to this debate, we will organize a national mobilization campaign with local authorities. To make them aware of the issue of schedules, and to define the modalities of state support. Some communities are already mobilized, and the State accompanies them. For a year now, it has put in place an operational support system. Each community that wishes to adapt the schedules of its library can benefit from assistance for staff costs and additional costs. Twenty communities have already benefited from this scheme in 2016, and more new projects are expected to be taken over this year. Our goal today is to go much further. Much further in terms of mobilization, already. First of all, you need your own: the State proposes to support projects. But these are your projects. We will do nothing without you. We won’t do anything without the elected officials. I suggested to Erik Orsenna, who agreed, that he be a goodwill ambassador to the communities. He will be accompanied by an Inspector General of Cultural Affairs. Both will therefore perform a «Tour de France», relying on the DRAC. And to go much further in mobilization, we have to face the means. A steering committee will be set up to ensure that State aid meets the expectations of local authorities. I will be chairing it myself. I hope that the ABF, the drac and the people mobilized around this issue will be involved. I am thinking in particular of Senator Sylvie Robert, whom I salute since she is here, who signed a report of which you know the quality. I have already started discussions with the Ministers of the Interior and the Budget to ensure that the means we have in the 2018 Finance Act are up to our ambition. In parallel with the communities, I would add that universities must also be involved in the effort to open up. They must, with their own libraries, make their contribution to strengthening the global reading offer in the territory.
Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, these are the different perspectives I wanted to present to you today. We have a lot to do. But we have a lot to do. If we have a strong ambition for libraries, it is because we have a strong conviction of their potential, their wealth, their future. And the reason we have that strong conviction is because we know you. We know the work you’re doing. We know with what passion you lead it. We know your voluntarism and your strength of action. Libraries today have a small revolution to lead, especially around schedules. But it is a small revolution that will bring about a great revolution for Culture and for society. We will need you to lead it. I look forward to that. I know that your discussions today are going to start to fuel that movement.
Thank you.
I really wish you a very nice exchange and a very nice day.