Book Aid to be LBF 'Charity of the Year'

Book Aid International has been named the London Book Fair's first "Charity of the Year".

The book donation charity celebrates its 60th anniversary  in 2014, and has launched a new campaign, Open Doors, to mark the anniversary.

LBF director Jacks Thomas said: "The London Book Fair has always supported charities from within our industry, and it seemed logical to put a more formal programme in place. Book Aid International's work is essential to those who would otherwise be deprived of the opportunity not only to discover stories but also to gain access to critical knowledge."

Director Alison Hubert [pictured] said being named Charity of the Year "gives us a unique opportunity to celebrate our 60th anniversary by demonstrating the great work British publishers make possible in public, community, school, prison and refugee camp libraries in Africa when they donate books and money to Book Aid International."

Book Aid is also looking to increase its overall capacity, with the target number of book donations raised to 600,000 this year (from 560,000 in 2013). The charity's Camberwell office has just reorganised, creating additional space for book storage, with a new head of operations hired, and an electronic inventory system, Swiftbooks, installed. Its overall fundraising target for 2014 has risen from £1.4m in 2013 to £1.6m this year.

Hubert has been experimenting with a Kenya project which uses tablets pre-loaded with locally published digital content, and hopes to increase Book Aid's e-book initiatives. "There's a lot of excitement around digital and I'd love to do more so we're looking to develop a model of sourcing digital content from UK publishers," she said.

The charity has a fundraising target for its Open Doors project of £200,000 this year, and has already raised £50,000 including a £10,000 single donation from Hachette.The project focuses on library spaces specifically for children, and will expanding Book Aid's Africa operations into Malawi for the first time, as well as reviving its presence in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Open Doors will also operate in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania, where the charity already has well-established programmes.

Hubert said children often don't have special provision in Africa's libraries. "There is no child-friendly furniture, and librarians might not be trained to work with children," she said. "They are often no spaces where children are welcomed, as opposed to thought of as noisy and messing the books about. Our support for a library might involve a donation of 2,500 books, and funds to buy 500 locally published books (in local languages, or with local cultural reference), a refurbishment of space, with chairs the right size, and librarians trained in teaching activities with children."

The charity is looking for 150,000 children's books to donate for Open Doors, including board books, primary readers, children's fiction and non-fiction and phonics texts.