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This paper contextualizes the issue of reading in Brazil based on government and society initiatives and on the impact of this phenomenon as the baseline to improve human development indices. The authors describe the Extended Studies Project of the Information Science Institute of the Federal University of Bahia--the ''Livro Livre Salvador'' [[Salvador Free Book]] which is intended to encourage the habit of pleasure reading and the will to improve knowledge with a view to achieve social inclusion and human development. The project gathers together a broad spectrum of government and civil society joint efforts to promote democratic access to books and reading, and uses the strategy of moving books around based on an annual scheduled among places of large concentration of people in central, popular, and peripheral districts of the city whose population has varying opportunities to access this cultural asset. The paper also presents the deposition of individuals who benefited with this initiative and shows the progress and the weak points of the initiative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the process of connecting volunteer work and public service, by identifying the impact of the volunteer work upon the context of a traditional Brazilian government cultural institution -- the Public Library of the State of Paranáá. The author highlights the culture volunteer worker as a social player and an agent of change committed to society, and points to the transforming potential of volunteer actions in the context of public service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussion of the function of the Community Library, considering one of the areas of Information Science dedicated to reading programs, and use of this resource to enable the individual to be closer to the library. The paper also approaches the library as a place where citizenship and opportunity generation can be encouraged. This is the proposal of AAAAH -- Associaççãão Abre-Alas -- Ampliando Horizontes, through educational and social activities in low income communities, intended to foster visiting and promote the understanding of individuals who go to the library. At the library, educational support, leisure, citizenship, income generation activities and opportunities are developed mainly for the teenager population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]