Books, Literacy and Libraries Front Page News List Topics Library Info Links Help Publisher Info Feedback . In 1998 the Ministry of Education set up a Working Group on Literacies for the Information Society, to look at changes in the media environment and their likely effect on literacy, and to make recommendations. The Group mapped the obstacles to the further development of a literary culture by interviewing some 20 groups representative of the book trade and about 50 expert witnesses. The Group's full report will be published in 2000, but some preliminary findings are already emerging. Prime among these is confirmation of the central, vital role of libraries.
Books tend to have increasingly short life-spans and older literature soon becomes unavailable.
The bookshop network suffers from lack of capital and is unattractive to new entrepreneurs.