September 2, 2021 - IPA SDG Dashboard

Restoration of the McMillan Memorial Library and its branches, Kaloleni and Makaadara, in Nairobi

Book Bunk, an independent organization based in Nairobi, is working on restoring the McMillian Memorial Library and two of its branches, the Kaloleni and Makadara libraries. The founders were inspired to restore the library because they believe that public libraries are a cornerstone of so much, including fostering civic space and participation. The project injects a considered and inclusive programme of events into public centres of culture and knowledge.

The Springer Nature Grand Challenges Programme (GCP)

In 2017, academic publisher Springer Nature launched their Grand Challenges programme (GCP) aiming to help develop solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time with sustainable cities as one of their target challenges.
An example of this research includes a study that looked at 185 Chinese cities of different sizes over a period of seven years. It concluded that a reduction of air and water pollution had the effect of increasing direct foreign investment inflows.

Accessible Books Consortium (ABC)

In June 2014, the Accessible Books Consortium was launched in order to boost the number of books in accessible formats for people around the globe who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled. The ABC also encourages publishers to commit to accessible publishing, adopt accessibility features within their publishing processes, and include descriptions of the accessibility features of their products in the information they provide to others in the book supply chain.

The Diversity Baseline Survey

In 2015, Lee and Low Books released a survey on diversity conduced in 2015. The survey aimed to establish concrete statistics regarding diversity in the publishing workforce, and ask the question: if the people who work in publishing are not a diverse group, how can diverse voices be represented in books? It concluded that the workforce in North America was overwhelmingly white and straight. When the survey was repeated in 2019, the numbers reflected essentially the same demographic statistics.

2018 Canadian Book Publishing Diversity Baseline Survey

The Association of Canadian Publishers (ACP) released the results of its 2018 survey measuring diversity in the English-language Canadian book publishing industry – the first survey of its kind in the country. Key findings of the survey were that people with indigenous and non-white backgrounds are underrepresented in the industry, with 82 percent of the respondents having identified as white. The survey also included data on age, gender identity, sexual orientation and disability.

UK Publishing Industry Diversity & Inclusion Workforce Survey

In 2017, the UK PA launched an industry-wide 10-point action plan to ensure that publishing reflects the UK population. As part of this plan, the PA committed to do an annual survey of the workforce demographics of UK publishing houses, the first of which took place in 2019. The survey gathered information on diversity, inclusion, and workforce demographics – such as gender balance, women in leadership roles, disabilities/impairments, mental health, education level, sexual orientation, and more.

Boîte à lire (Box to Read)

RecycLivre has launched the collaborative project Box to Read, which features an online map with the location of more than 4000 free boxes of books. In February and March 2020, they collaborated with the clothing brand Des Petits Hauts to set up book boxes in all their shops for customers to deliver or take books for free.

Day: September 2, 2021