In Iceland, a new literary policy for 2025–2030 is in the making. According to a parliamentary decision, one of three main goals in the new literary policy is to promote reading as widely as possible in society with a special emphasis on young readers. Several of the upcoming initiatives that have been proposed are aimed at children’s and young people's reading. Extra funds will be directed to various projects that encourage reading and creativity, including for children and young people whose first language is not Icelandic. Additional funding will be temporarily provided from the Ministry of Culture and Business Affairs to the Children's Culture Fund to support projects that build on and promote increased communication of Icelandic folklore heritage to children and young people. Furthermore, initiatives aimed at school libraries are planned, and their collaboration with public libraries will be defined; the Ministry of Education and Children is the responsible party. The ministry will also establish a centre to assist school libraries with support and professional development (Althingi 2024a).
In May 2024, the Icelandic parliament also decided on an action plan concerning the Icelandic language for 2024–2026, where strengthening school libraries is one of the 22 points. The holdings and operations of school libraries will be mapped in relation to the primary school act and the upper secondary school act in order to achieve a higher quality of school libraries and better meet a broad student group (Althingi 2024b).
The Centre for Icelandic Literature will be responsible for many of the upcoming initiatives and has already been responsible for promoting literature in Iceland and promoting Icelandic literature abroad. The Centre is a government agency under the Ministry of Culture and Economy and maintains ongoing efforts to promote reading among children and young people. For example, since 2020, they organize author visits to secondary schools with the aim of raising students' awareness and interest in literature and reading and deepening their reading comprehension. The project is implemented in collaboration with the Icelandic Writers' Association and the Icelandic School Teachers' Association with funding from the Ministry of Education and Children (Centrum för isländsk litteratur 2024).
In 2020, the Icelandic government developed an education policy that highlights literacy as the most important skill for the future, and education policy will place particular emphasis on language comprehension, reading comprehension, expression, writing and listening, as well as measures aimed at meeting the needs of those struggling with reading difficulties. Efforts will be made to ensure that the whole of society works to improve literacy (Utbildnings- och barndepartementet 2024).