Providing knowledge that is relevant to the needs of the institution.

Việt Nam•29/01/2024

The project's goal in the coming period is to continue diversifying content, adapting it to local conditions, increasing the use of e-books, and attracting more readers.

The achievements of 15 years of bringing books to grassroots levels.

Over the past 15 years, the Project has provided communes, wards, and towns in 63 provinces and cities with 593 book titles (including CD-ROMs and audio CDs), totaling more than 14.4 million printed copies. The Project's electronic library website (thuviencoso.vn), built since the beginning of 2020, has digitized over 400 book titles. These books cover a diverse range of topics, including: Party building, government building, the Fatherland Front and mass organizations; dissemination of political , economic, legal, cultural, social, and scientific and technical knowledge, etc.

The effectiveness of the Project is demonstrated through survey figures: Over 75% of surveyed officials had accessed the types of books in the Project; over 50% of surveyed officials rated the quality of content and format of the Project's products as relatively good... Localities, upon receiving the books, distributed them appropriately according to target readers. Books intended as tools for officials and civil servants were kept at the headquarters; books on popular law, general science , agricultural extension, etc., were distributed to cultural centers and community learning centers to serve the people. In some localities, many good practices and models have emerged to promote the value of grassroots libraries, such as: competitions to learn about the Project's books, the "Legal Bright Spot" model bringing legal books to businesses and public places, and campaigns to donate books to enrich grassroots libraries... Notably, Ho Chi Minh City has 1,758 grassroots libraries with 13,921 titles. With many creative approaches, it has attracted over 1 million readers.

Residents of Dong village, Phu Da commune, Vinh Tuong district, Vinh Phuc province, read books included in the Project. Photo provided by the National Political Publishing House.

Despite the achievements, the implementation of the Project still faces some difficulties and limitations, most notably: the policy of streamlining personnel and consolidating administrative units has led to the continued merger or even closure of many district and commune-level libraries. The type of library, book collection, and community reading room managed by the commune government has had its funding cut from the budget and has been transferred to community management, making its continued existence very difficult. Furthermore, there is a lack of initiative in exploiting, using, and disseminating books; in many places, the physical infrastructure does not meet requirements, and there is a shortage of equipment to serve readers...

Continue to improve the quality of the Project.

To address the difficulties and shortcomings in the implementation of the Project, according to Ms. Nguyen Hoai Anh, Deputy Director and Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the National Political Publishing House: It is necessary to improve the quality of content and format of books, expand and increase the number and topics of books distributed to localities; invest in funding to ensure facilities serving readers; regularly survey, inspect, and evaluate the current state of the Project's implementation in provinces and cities; strengthen communication on press agencies and social media platforms to introduce the purpose and significance of the Project, and effective book usage models at the grassroots level; reward and commend good models and practical, effective methods that contribute to spreading the appeal of the Project to the community.

Against the backdrop of the rapidly developing Fourth Industrial Revolution, digital transformation has become an inevitable trend. Besides the need for traditional paper books, officials and people at the grassroots level also want access to digital publishing products such as: accessing and reading books on the internet and social media; reading books on software applications, etc. According to Associate Professor, Dr. Bui Hoai Son, Standing Member of the National Assembly's Committee on Culture and Education : It is necessary to focus on diversifying publishing methods, strengthening the publication of e-books, and disseminating book content on digital platforms. The project should publish more audiobooks, picture books, and multimedia books in multiple languages to serve online reading and research for officials, people at the grassroots level, and ethnic minority communities.

The most important thing for the Project to continue achieving its overarching goal is to improve and enhance the quality of the Project's materials. Many local Party committees and authorities have suggested that the Project Steering Committee should regularly organize working groups to assess the actual situation in localities to understand what areas people need to read. This would allow for the compilation of new books with content that suits the tastes and educational levels of the people and officials, minimizing the need to abridge books with inappropriate content.

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