Book and reading
The Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs implements the policy of the Ministry of Culture, whose main orientations are defined nationally, in the field of books, by the Book and Reading Service of the General Directorate of Media and Cultural Industries (DGMIC).
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Field and principles of the action
The DRAC extends its activities in the field of books and reading to all sectors of the "book chain'that is, the general process from the design of a book to its availability to readers in bookshops or libraries. It intervenes, in particular, to support writers, libraries, bookstores, publishing houses, book promotion and reading development events, associations that work in this direction.
One of the essential foundations of the Ministry of Culture’s policy in the field of books and reading is assist in the development of the reading offerwhatever the medium.
If reading is an individual act under the free will of each, it is the responsibility of public authorities (local authorities and State)
- to set up a contracting policy with local authorities which aim to structure professional networks by developing contracts for reading territories or by associating all actors in books with cultural development conventions more wide.
- to give absolute priority to the strengthening and densification of the network of public libraries, bookshops and all economic and cultural actors in the book chain, throughout the region.
- support literary events, which enable a readership of readers to meet authors and books.
Book contract
The State - DRAC Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region and the National Book Centre are committed to developing a common policy to support and promote the development of the book sector in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region for the period 2020-2023.
This book function contract has three components: Authors, Publishers and Bookstores, and proposes new support mechanisms developed in consultation with book professionals and the agency Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Book and Reading.
Areas of intervention
The "special contribution from the general decentralization endowment for municipal libraries and departmental lending libraries" is the responsibility of the regional prefect, who each year has a significant budget (about 5 million euros) to help municipalities and groups of municipalities to create, equip, renovate, expand, make accessible, computerize and re-informate, equip their public libraries with shuttle vehicles and create new services to users, change or extend opening hours.
The DRAC examines all cases (between 150 and 200 per year) and prepares the annual programming of State aid.
These operations concern the 12 departments of the region, in urban and rural areas, for projects of varying size depending on the size of the municipalities (from 100 m² to 6,000 m²).
It can be judged that the policy of the State in this field, particularly visible and incentive, is not foreign to the generalization of the will of the communes, in recent years, to offer to their citizens public services of quality reading.
It should be noted that the aid for computerisation has adapted to technical changes and that multimedia and access to networks are now subsidised in the same way as the automation of basic library functions.
The adaptation and extension of the libraries opening hours will be subsidised.
The Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region has 7 classified municipal libraries with rich old collections, some of which are owned by the State, following the revolutionary confiscations. Twenty others have collections of heritage, old or modern (acquisitions of collections of artists' books and contemporary bibliophilia in particular and commissions for works of art bindings).
Regional acquisition funds for libraries (FRAB), financed at parity by the State (DRAC) and the regions were born in the 1990s
Since 1993, the DRAC and the FRAB (Regional Library Acquisition Fund) intended to help municipal libraries enrich their precious collections, old books and books of contemporary bibliophilia. They are intended to help libraries enrich their heritage collections with old, rare or precious documents or contemporary bibliophilia such as books by contemporary artists.
Since the inception of the FRAB Auvergne and Rhône-Alpes, more than 200 projects have been supported.
This financial support is not limited to written documents. The Musée de l'Imprimerie et de la communication graphique (Lyon) received aid for the acquisition of wood engraved according to the drawings of Gustave Doré for the illustration of the works of Rabelais.
Some libraries have been able to develop their iconographic collections (old posters related to industrial heritage, prints, engravings, drawings).
In order to improve the conditions for the conservation and presentation of heritage collections, the State grants aid for furniture and equipment as well as the layout of the premises, through the special assistance of libraries.
The intervention of the DRAC also concerns operations aimed at preserving the written heritage, either in the form of restoration of documents or through regional plans: plan for digitization of the old regional press, plan for shared conservation of periodicals.
Development operations (exhibitions, publications) of written heritage and mediation are also supported.
The action of the DRAC consists in helping these cultural enterprises to carry out development or modernization projects that allow them to consolidate their position. Projects may involve a wide variety of operations, such as expansion, computerization, equipment acquisition, etc.
The priority of a project is judged not only on its coherence and overall quality, but also taking into account the cultural influence of the bookshop or the corresponding publishing house. Compliance with the law and regulations relating to the single price of the book is an imperative criterion. Initial training in bookstores is mandatory to obtain a grant.
A study showed that more bookstores were being created in the region than were disappearing. However, the book trade is very fragile and the interventions of the Ministry of Culture cannot cancel the laws of the market economy, but only delay or soften the most damaging effects on the economic health of businesses. The Library Plan launched in March 2013 has effectively strengthened existing mechanisms and the complementarity of actors at the national level (Centre national du Livre, Association pour le développement de la librairie de création, Institut du financement du cinéma et des industries culturelles) and the DRAC in relation with the Region has allowed many interventions including the most important with the former bookshops Chapter including the Volcans bookstore in Clermont-Ferrand, taken over in SCOP with the help of all public partners.
About forty events, fairs, book festivals, major literary events, are organized each year in the region, about twenty of which are helped by the DRAC.
These include:
- “generalist” parties with a wide audience, such as the Feast of the book of Saint-Etienne
- Festivals with international reach Assizes of the novel in Lyon, the Meeting of the travel book in Clermont-Ferrand
-festivals that have been able to impose themselves by the quality of the meetings organized, such as the Bron Book Festival or the Literary cafés of Montélimar
-Events with an original theme have gained a reputation well beyond their city of establishment: this is the case of the Festival of the First Novel of Chambéry or the festival east-west in Die
-special events which have attracted the attention of their public, such as Readings under the Tree in Chambon-sur-Lignon
-book fairs for young people (Cantal)
Priority is given to events that are based on a real partnership between libraries, associative structures and the book industry and give rise to long-term work. Does the DRAC ensure that the local bookshop is involved in the projects and that the law on the single price of the book is respected for transactions carried out on the spot during these fairs. The many book fairs do not fit into this framework.
These operations aimed at broadening the readership are experiencing a considerable boom, linked in particular to the observation of a still relatively low library attendance rate, despite the commissioning of many high-quality equipment in recent years.
They primarily concern the socially disadvantaged populations and are set up, most often, by libraries, associations, reception or animation structures located in cities or neighborhoods qualified as sensitive, thanks to the presence of "mediators of the book".
They also address to the so-called prevented public : in-patient, prison inmates, homeless, rural residents at significant distances from any local library.
Finally, they reflect a desire to reach specific audiences that it is important to raise awareness of the book, first of all children, whether individually or at school and even from an early age (we are talking about baby readers).
The intervention of the DRAC is most often carried out in the framework of various collaborations, in particular with other ministries: Youth and Sports for the training of book mediators, Justice for the financing of a position of chargé de mission for cultural action in prison and inter-ministerial cultural policy culture/justice.
The DRAC’s activities are primarily aimed at fostering strong partnerships between public reading institutions and associations or structures without professional staff. The social role of libraries is now an accepted reality that leads to the emergence of new missions or even a new profession, that of "book mediator" which can also become a "digital mediator".
DRAC acts in the regions to negotiate the establishment of CTL signed with the territorial fabric (local authorities, library networks, associative structures) in territories where both the need for State aid to implement rewarding actions appears, and the emergence of local wills to develop actions aimed at the public.
These CTL, lasting 3 years, support a particular effort undertaken locally not all actors of the book chain federated around library networks, and to implement a particular cultural project.
The Region has two of the 12 regional training centres for library professions, MEDIAT, a joint inter-university service attached to the Pierre Mendès-France Grenoble 2 University and BIBLIAUVERGNE attached to the Blaise-Pascal University of Clermont-Ferrand.
The DRAC is in permanent contact with another national body, the National Book Centre (CNL), a public institution under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture.
Since 1991, the DRAC has been examining all grant applications from actors in the region on behalf of the National Book Centre in two areas: assistance for book promotion events and assistance for library book acquisitions. This policy of the CNL is indeed complementary to that of the Ministry of Culture and must be conducted in harmony with it.
Thus, support for the development of library collections complements the State’s action in the context of the special contribution of the general decentralization grant since it is granted in particular when libraries are created. For its part, the CNL’s assistance to the events strengthens the overall capacity of the public authorities and allows the existence of large-scale events in the regions, such as the Book Festivals of Saint-Etienne and Bron (in different registers), the «Readings under the Tree» of Chambon-sur-Lignon or the Festival of the First Novel of Chambéry.
However, the terms of the CNL’s support regularly change to adapt to the reality of the book economy and literary life. Consult the CNL website to follow these developments.
Mother tongue for some, language of the host country for others, the French language allows communication between all. With the aim of linguistic integration and the fight against illiteracy, the Ministry of Culture supports projects and forms of mediation adapted to people with insufficient proficiency in French, through the Cultural Action and French Language program (ACLF).
After five editions since 2015 and more than a thousand projects supported throughout the country with people with learning or practice needs in French, the ACLF is renewed in 2024 in the form of an annual program. An endowment of 500,000 € is allocated by the Ministry of Culture and will be renewed each year.
Find the call for projects (Application deadline: March 31, 2024).
https://www.culture.gouv.fr/Regions/Drac-Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes/La-DRAC/Organigramme
The advisors of the book and reading service are at your disposal:
Anne-Marie Boyer : for departments 26, 38, 73, 74
Tel. 04 72 00 44 82 -
Noëlle Drognat-Landré : for departments 01, 69, métropole de Lyon Tel. 04 72 00 44 16 -
Nicolas Douez : for departments 03, 07, 15, 42, 43, 63 Tel. 04 73 41 27 55 -
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