Bookstart Austria – Growing with Books
Nationwide. In-depth in four federal states.
December 26th 2023
Österreichisches Bibliothekswerk Austrian Library Service
Elisabetstrasse 10 5020 Salzburg, Austria
The Austrian Library Service was founded in 1947 and is supporting, representing and promoting approx. 1,300 member libraries. We offer further education for librarians, book reviews, digital services and run projects in the field of social integration and reading promotion in close exchange with artists of all disciplines.
Reinhard Ehgartner
Director
www.biblio.at | www.buchstart.at
National reading promotion organization
5 employees share 3.6 fulltime jobs
Bookstart Austria – Growing with Books
Nationwide. In-depth in four federal states.
2011
To reach every family by a wide network of partner institutions and thousands of involved colleagues (mainly in libraries).
Member fees, Ministry of Culture, Catholic church, Federal states. The production of the bookstart material is financed by the contribution of regional partners and libraries.
National
Not for profit
Co-financed by the Catholic church (30%), but no didactic religious purpose in the bookstart project.
Consistent in the central goal. Not consistent in the implementation under the federal states, which is varying. In Styria the distribution is closer to the municipalities, in Salzburg or Burgenland much closer to the public libraries.
Together with Austrian publishers, writers and illustrators we devise books of highest quality, all printed in Europe. We already offer more than 70 bookstart elements: http://www.buchstart.at/materialien/?product_cat=materialien
Yes.
Library – main contact; Hospital – very low; School – strong; Others: kindergarten, private initiatives.
Early literacy specialists – some; librarians – mostly; nursery school staff; volunteers – mostly (librarians in Austria often are volunteers)
About 10,000 volunteers work in Austrian libraries. Also, in our team there is a lot of experience in volunteer work. The librarians are offered free education, courses, participation in projects. 85% are female; all ages; the biggest group is from 40 – 50 years old.
Universal.
We don’t have reliable data on this because of the decentralised character of our project. Some federal states claim that they reach 70%; the very low budgeted but very ambitious project in Burgenland reaches 50% of the new born.
As the programme is very decentralised and autonomous in the realisation, you find all of these periods: Birth – 6 months; 6 – 12 months; 12 – 24 months; 2-4 years.
No.
Some books and brochures are multilingual – alongside German you find: Serbian, Bosnian, Turkish, Arab, English, Slovenian, Italian. Our “reading yardstick” is translated into 15 languages: http://www.buchstart.at/konzepte/buchstart_interkulturell.php.
The reading aloud programme was evaluated by the Institute of Sociology (University of Vienna) and published by the ministry for social affairs (who funded the project). The colleagues of “Buchstart Burgenland” have very profound documentations, evaluations and statistics: http://www.lvbb.bvoe.at/buchstart-materialien Evaluation by ELINET and published as good practice: http://www.eli-net.eu/good-practice/examples-of-good-practice/detail/project/buchstart-burgenland-mit-buechern-wachsen-bookstart-burgenland-growing-with-books The concept and realisation of the education of reading buddies was also evaluated and honoured by ELINET. http://www.eli-net.eu/good-practice/examples-of-good-practice/detail/project/ganz-ohr-all-ears-a-training-course-for-reading-mentors
