Reading Association of Russia (RAR)
website http://www.rusreadorg.ru
President: Natalia Smetannikova: rusreadorg@gmail.com
RAR was founded in 1996 as a non-profit organization and the same year it was charted as a local council of IRA. In 2004 it got a status of an inter-regional Council of Russian Federation and in 2006 it was affiliated as a national Association of IRA. At present it unites 10 Local Councils from 6 out of 7 Federal Districts of Russia.
The members of RAR take READING and LITERACY as the questions of national priority and promote them in education and culture.
Our goals are:
- promote professional development of teachers and librarians in order to empower them to create competent readers
- encourage and maintain dialogue between educators, researchers , administration and others to build a nation of readers
RAR was among the initiators and creators of National Program for Reading Promotion and Development in Russia adopted in 2006.
RAR runs several national and international projects: “Schools Where Literacy Thrives”, “Reading from Print and from Screen”, “From the Day of Knowledge to Literacy Day”, and a publishing project “Homo Legens”.
In association with IDEC, RAR held an international conference “Reading and Literacy in Education and Culture” in 2009. The Second International Conference under the same name is upcoming on 29 -31 of March 2012, Moscow.