Resource Roundup: Nine Resources to Promote Books, Reading, Literacy, and Indigenous Languages

World Book Day is celebrated annually on April 23. The day is dedicated to promoting reading, publishing, and copyright. It was first established by UNESCO in 1995 as a way to celebrate books and reading and to encourage people, especially young children, to discover the pleasure of reading. UNESCO has declared “Indigenous Languages” as the theme for 2023. On World Book Day, people of all ages and backgrounds come together to celebrate the power of books and the impact they have on our lives. This resource roundup includes selections that recognize the importance of books, reading, as well as resources reflecting this year’s theme.

1. The Importance of Language of Instruction
A collection that explores why language of instruction is important and highlights useful resources from USAID to help guide policy, program development, and implementation around language issues. 

2. Guidance for Promoting Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in Educational Materials
This guidance equips development workers to identify and create educational materials promoting equity and inclusion across the education continuum.

3. Beyond Supply: Strategies to Promote Book Use in the Classroom and at Home
This research brief presents promising practices and considerations for promoting book use in schools and at home. 

4. USAID’s Global Reading Network
Check out and join the USAID Global Reading Network (GRN), a community built by and for its members—dedicated to connecting basic education stakeholders to the ideas, evidence, practices, and people that can help them improve their work and make an impact in their communities.

5. Ten Years of Early Grade Reading Programming: A Retrospective
This retrospective explores USAID early grade reading (EGR) achievements and key observations in the past ten years (2011-2021.) 

6. The Book Supply Chain
Learn more about the book supply chain and how the Global Book Alliance and its partners are strengthening the book chain, from accurate planning and forecasting to active use and visit GBA’s in-depth book supply chain analyses of eight partner countries.

7. Books for Every Child: A Global Pledge
Through the Global Book Alliance (GBA), the international community has committed to achieving universal literacy for the world’s learners by 2030. As a Steering Committee member of the GBA, USAID also hosts the GBA Secretariat, which determines the GBA's strategy, outreach, and other day-to-day functions. 

8. How the Global Book Alliance (GBA) worked to address the global shortage of high-quality children’s books in underserved languages
This blog provides an overview of how in Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru GBA-trained teachers are closing the book gap by translating early reading material from Spanish into indigenous languages including Kaqchikel, Miskito, and Quechua through the GBA’s Translate a Story initiative.

9. Global Digital Library
The Global Digital Library (GDL) is a key initiative of the Global Book Alliance and Norad. The GDL is an open-source library for schools, school systems, and other stakeholders to access high-quality reading resources—including reading instruction, storybooks of various levels, and interactive math games—in 90+ languages children use and understand.

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