Territory-reading contracts (CTL)
Set up in 2010, the territorial-reading contracts (CTL) allow to initiate partnerships between local authorities and the State around reading development projects.
The flexible framework of contracts allows it to adapt to different territorial contexts and to implement various projects, supported by libraries of local authorities. The CTL aims to respond to the needs identified by the community during a state-of-the-art phase, while being part of the Ministry of Culture’s broad guidelines for reading policies. The contracts are based on co-financing between the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) and one or more local authorities, as well as on a methodology including a diagnosis, the regular holding of a steering committee and a final evaluation.
As of December 31, 2020, nearly 179 contracts were deployed across the territory. Most of them are signed with an intercommunality or a department, which are relevant levels to create leverage at the territorial level. They are focused on the least well-endowed territories, in particular the City Policy Districts (QPV). The CTL are generally signed for three years with an average annual state funding of €19,700 per year per contract.
The CTL make it possible tosupport and structure very varied projects :
- establishment of an intercommunal public reading network
- actions in or outside the walls for audiences far from the book
- digital development in a territory, usually departmental
- support for construction projects during their prefiguration phase
- experimentation with new services or partnerships
Subject of an evaluation carried out in 2018 by the DGMIC/Book and Reading Service, the contracts were identified as a particularly useful tool to support and frame actions of networking, especially in the case of the intercommunalities that seize competence public reading. A well thought-out CTL project can in fact allow the construction of a common policy between the various institutions of the intercommunality.
This flexible tool adapts to a wide variety of projects and territories and, thanks to the DRAC’s expertise and the involvement of library professionals, allows communities to increase their influence on public reading.