Nurturing love of books, developing reading culture in the community

Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day on April 21 is held annually with the hope of becoming a festival, a forum, and a useful playground to continuously nurture the love of books and promote and develop a reading culture in the community. Ninh Binh Newspaper reporter interviewed Comrade Lai Thi Thu Ha, Deputy Director of Ninh Binh Provincial Library to better understand the development of a reading culture in the community.

Delegates visit the book display booth at the 4th Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day, 2025 held at Yen Mo B High School. Photo: Minh Quang

Reporter (PV): According to you, what content does the annual Book and Reading Culture Day held in Ninh Binh focus on to attract readers of all ages to the passion for reading?

Comrade (Comrade) Lai Thi Thu Ha: The annual Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day is always directed by the Provincial People 's Committee to organize with many rich and attractive contents and activities, focusing on young readers. With the hope that this will be a festival, a forum, a useful playground for readers and each reader coming to the event will contribute to the success of Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day, thereby continuously nurturing the love for books and building a reading culture in the community.

The main content of Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day focuses on propaganda and promotion ineducational and training institutions, libraries, cultural and information centers with the themes "Reading culture - connecting the community", "Entering the era of national development with books", "Reading books to enrich knowledge, nurture aspirations, promote innovation" through activities: Exhibition of documentary photos in the ASEAN community; exhibition of photos and artifacts on sustainable development of Vietnam's seas and islands; Digital exhibition on Vietnam's Hoang Sa - Truong Sa - Historical and legal evidence; organizing the awarding of bookcases and scholarships to schools, libraries, and poor students overcoming difficulties; discussion activities, exchanges with speakers with the theme of Books and Reading Culture; organizing reading experience programs on multimedia mobile library vehicles, games answering questions according to books, etc.

In addition, the Department of Culture and Sports has directed the Provincial Library to guide educational institutions to organize diverse thematic activities at schools in the province. Launch a reading movement in school libraries; organize book clubs with extracurricular activities to build and form reading habits for students. Other activities related to books, suitable to the functions, tasks and practical situations of agencies, organizations and localities. This is also an opportunity to enhance the responsibility of all levels, sectors, functional agencies and social organizations for building and developing a Vietnamese reading culture in social life in Ninh Binh.

PV: No longer limited to reading traditional books, young readers now access books through many innovative and creative activities. Could you tell us more about this?

Ms. Lai Thi Thu Ha: In order to encourage sharing and spreading the love of reading, forming effective reading habits, methods and reading skills among teenagers and children, every year the Department of Culture and Sports organizes the "Reading Culture Ambassador" Contest, "Children's Festival to promote books and reading culture in Ninh Binh province". These are extremely useful and meaningful activities to arouse passion, promote the reading movement, develop reading culture in the community, improve the ability to access information, knowledge, creativity, arouse the desire to contribute, develop the country, promote the building of a learning society, contribute to building a system of cultural values ​​and standards for Vietnamese people.

The competitions and festivals held show that many localities and schools are interested in organizing and encouraging students to participate. This is also a channel to educate, develop thinking, creativity, and nurture personality and soul for students.

More importantly, the competitions and festivals have truly become a playground, a forum to arouse the passion for reading for teenagers and children, giving them the opportunity to express their love for their homeland and country; their dreams and aspirations, thereby encouraging and promoting the movement, forming reading habits and skills, nurturing creativity in the young generation, developing thinking, nurturing personality and soul, enhancing awareness of law compliance, forming a healthy lifestyle and promoting the building of a learning society, contributing to the development of a reading culture in schools and communities, which is an important factor in building the spiritual foundation of society, contributing to building a homeland and country that is increasingly sustainable.

Students of Luong Van Tuy High School for the Gifted read books at the school library. Photo: Dinh Minh

PV: To contribute to promoting the development of reading culture, what specific activities has the Provincial Library had in recent times?

Ms. Lai Thi Thu Ha: In order to effectively implement the Project on developing reading culture in the community until 2020 with a vision to 2030; Program No. 3239/CTr-BVHTTDL-BCA dated September 3, 2020, period 2020-2025 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.

Every year, the Department of Culture and Sports has directed the Provincial Library to focus on supplementing book sources and diversifying forms to attract and serve readers, especially implementing mobile libraries, circulating books to serve children and readers in rural, remote and isolated areas of the province. Organizing models of tours, reading room experiences, introducing books by topic, telling picture stories at the Provincial Library to attract readers, especially preschool and children.

In order to carry out the assigned tasks, the Provincial Library has innovated, created, and implemented activities to bring books to the grassroots in many practical and meaningful forms such as: Organizing mobile multimedia library vehicles to serve extracurricular programs at schools in the province with topics related to events during the year to arouse in students love for their homeland and country, gratitude and appreciation to previous generations who fought and sacrificed in the struggle to protect the Fatherland; organizing a summer reading festival for children; a reading festival to promote sovereignty over seas and islands; coordinating with schools to organize a reading festival on the occasion of Lifelong Learning Response Week; opening a children's reading room to serve teenagers and children on the occasion of International Children's Day and summer...

In 2024, the Provincial Library organized 292 trips of multimedia mobile library vehicles to serve at the grassroots level, circulating books and newspapers to 157 schools and 56 community cultural points with 39,138 books to school libraries and public libraries in the province; donated 580 books to school libraries and bookcases in communes, wards and towns; organized extracurricular activities at 79 schools at all levels in the province, serving 61,472 students with 307,360 books and newspapers reaching them; gave 1,580 gifts to students participating in extracurricular programs...

Through the organized activities, a joyful and exciting atmosphere was created, arousing in the children a passion for reading, exploring the treasure trove of knowledge, helping them see the importance of reading for the development of personality and soul, helping them gain more knowledge to meet the needs of learning and training. The happiest thing is that each trip of the library bus to serve at the schools received an enthusiastic welcome from teachers and students, contributing to creating good values ​​from books.

PV: Thank you comrade!

Phan Hieu (Implementation)

Source: https://baoninhbinh.org.vn/nuoi-duong-tinh-yeu-sach-phat-trien-van-hoa-doc-trong-cong-956666.htm