EIBF launches campaign to celebrate bookshops as "inclusive spaces"

The European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF) is launching a new campaign under its flagship project RISE Bookselling highlighting bookshops as welcoming and inclusive spaces. 

The campaign launched on Europe Day (9th May), a few weeks before the European elections, and runs until 10th June highlighting a different positive aspect of bookshops each week. 

EIBF said: “Bookshops are open, inclusive, welcoming spaces for everyone. However, amid growing polarisation and censorship, they are being targeted all over the world for doing what they do best: providing a space where literacy is promoted, and a diverse range of books and ideas can coexist and thrive. 

“To defend bookshops, promote their unique role in fostering values of peace, democracy and tolerance, and remind policy-makers of their need for support and book friendly policies... this campaign will give voice to booksellers from across the RISE network who go above and beyond to ensure that their bookshops are welcoming and inclusive spaces for all.” 

Each week, the campaign will spotlight different booksellers who will explain how bookshops make people feel represented, how they are safe havens where all are welcome, they foster a sense of community and belonging, and are spaces for education, dialogue and literacy promotion. 

Organisers said that “while this campaign is framed in a European context, given the European elections on 6th-9th June 2024, we recognise that all bookshops across the globe embody the same values of openness and tolerance, and will therefore also seek contributions from our wider network, to showcase the universality of these values in the bookselling trade”. 

For more information, follow #MYbookshopOURspace on social media.