Sutherland readers support sustainable campaign to Read Mòr

A campaign with a sustainable message to encourage people to “Read Mòr” by borrowing from their local library was launched this weekend by a group of leading Scottish authors and a Sutherland community group.

Scottish authors James Robertson, Anne MacLeod, Clio Gray and leading environmentalist Sir John Lister-Kaye joined an audience of more than forty eager readers to discuss their books and writing on Saturday 15th September at the Sutherland Readers Day which was held at the North Highland College Dornoch Campus.

Sutherland reader groups worked with The Highland Council’s Library Service to apply for funding from Highland 2007 so that they could meet some of their favourite authors at the launch of the public libraries’ Read Mòr promotion which supports Highland 2007.

Read Mòr is a national book promotion timed to celebrate the contribution of the Highlands to Scottish culture.

From September to the end of the year, libraries across Scotland will be promoting books, both fiction and non-fiction, about Scotland and the Highlands, in particular.  The Read Mòr promotion has five themes titles: ‘to relax’; ‘on the edge’; ‘landscapes’; ‘on the move’; and ‘together’.

Books included in the promotion are: ‘A tale etched in blood and hard black pencil’ by Christopher Brookmyre, James Robertson’s ‘Joseph Knight’ and Clio Gray’s ‘Types of Everlasting Rest’. Library borrowers who are quick off the mark can get a specially designed environmentally friendly jute bag to carry home their reading materials in. The bags carry the message ‘Scottish Libraries: free book, less waste more trees’.

Christopher Phillips, Highland Council’s Head of Lifelong Learning and President of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals in Scotland (CILIPS) said: “Libraries have been ‘recycling’ reading for over 150 years. Our key activities are based on principles of sharing and co-operating with other library services to ensure that the public has access to a wide range of reading materials. Scottish authors are very popular with the public who are always delighted to find new or overlooked authors, as well as their favourites.”

He also commented on the fact that it was a  co-incidence that the environmentally friendly jute bags which will shortly be available in libraries across Scotland were launched in a house which had once belonged to a Dundee jute merchant!

The national reading promotion was developed as a co-operative venture with participation by all Scottish local authorities, co-ordinated by CILIPS, the Scottish Library and Information Council and Opening the Book.  It is funded by the Scottish Arts Council Lottery Fund.

Read Mòr is supported by the re-design of the readers web-site www.scottishreaders.net which offers more help to readers in choosing books from the reading promotion.  As well as providing information on all the books in the promotion, the web-site is also designed to help the reader find a good read.

Christine May, Chair of SLIC said: “The new web-site is a welcome and imaginative addition for readers in Scotland and those involved are to be commended for its development.  Readers will have great fun using it to find books that interest them.”

For further information on Read Mòr, contact: Rhona Arthur, Assistant Director, CILIPS / SLIC tel: 01698 458888 or email: r.arthur@slainte.org.uk

For further information on Read Mòr please contact: Rhona Arthur. Assistant Director, CILIPS / SLIC, Ist Floor, Building C, Brandon Gate, Leechlee Road, Hamilton ML3 6AU Tel: 01698 458888/ 07778 285659  Fax:01698 283170  email: r.arthur@slainte.org.uk