Emilia-Romagna's readER digital library reaches 468 schools

The Emilia-Romagna region's readER digital library project has expanded to 468 schools, providing students, teachers, and staff access to 2 million educational materials, 70,000 ebooks, and 7,000 newspapers and magazines from around the world. Accessible 24/7 via desktop, smartphone, and tablet, the platform has registered over 171,000 individual users across all provinces in three months, with 29,000 transactions including 8,000 ebooks. Regional culture assessor Mauro Felicori described it as a revolution placing readers at the center. The region has launched the "Qui si legge!" campaign to promote readER, featuring a podcast by writer Mauro Missiroli. USR deputy director Bruno Di Palma emphasized the project's role in supporting learning and overcoming pandemic-related gaps. The initiative aims to integrate school libraries with public libraries and the education system. Digital library usage in Emilia-Romagna surged 100% in 2020 and 90% in 2021 compared to 2019, with consultations rising from 2.5 million to 5.2 million, loans from 192,000 to 318,000, and users from 31,000 to 51,000.