The Ministère de la Culture rencontre les acteurs du libre et de la lecture en Hauts-de-France

The director in charge of the book and the lecture at the DGMIC did not have the opportunity to return to the meeting of the actors of the Hauts-de-France since 2017. The time of the day, on Tuesday 11 October, Nicolas Georges therefore went to the DRAC to exchange with different actors of the sector of the region.

The public lecture in the library

The matinée was placed under the theme of the public lecture in the library. On this occasion, Nicolas George, director in charge of books and lectures at the DGMIC, Charlotte de Kermel, responsible for the office of professional networks and territorial action and Hilaire Multon, regional director of cultural affairs met the curators of the municipal libraries. These agents, placed at the disposal of the Ministry of Culture, work in classified municipal libraries. Il s’agitita notably de revenir sur les conventions liant les collectivités au ministère, qui ont été reconduites cette année.

Nicolas Georges then met the actors of these libraries and those of departmental libraries whose importance he recalled. The discussions ont abordé l’actualité and notably the law of 21 December 2021 dite loi Robert, relative aux bibliothèques et au développement de la lecture publique.

This was the occasion to exchange around the obligatory competence of public lecture that falls to the departments and therefore to affirm the mission of the departmental collectivities to develop a scheme for the development of public lecture. The same goes for the public establishments of intercommunal cooperation (EPCI) having competence in the domain of public lectures.

The matinée ended with a dialogue on the life of municipal libraries, notably after the COVID19, allowing to feed the reflections of the Ministry of Culture.

Literary manifestations and reflection on the place of authors

During the afternoon, Nicolas George, Charlotte de Kermel and Arielle Fanjas, assistant regional director of cultural affairs resumed discussions with local actors around the literary manifestations. Il était notably question of the place of the authors in these literary manifestations and their remuneration. Une réflexion engagée depuis le rapport Racine de 2020 which testifies to the growing fragilization of the conditions of life of artist authors. The book and lecture service of the ministry has kept reminding the authorities of the importance of remunerating the authors during these events.

Finally, the day ended with the successive meeting of the Regional Agency of Books and Lectures (AR2L) Hauts-de-France and the association On a marché sur la bulle, center of regional resources on the band dessinée, pour échanger sur leurs respective actions.