The project “Building book streets, book spaces, and developing reading culture” will aim to create a cultural space for reading in the East, West, South, and North axes of the city.
For many years, Ho Chi Minh City has been vibrant with activities to develop reading cultural spaces. Following the success and development of Nguyen Van Binh Book Street, Thu Duc Book Street was inaugurated and put into operation in December 2023, initially achieving positive results. In addition, book fairs and annual Tet Book Street Festivals also contribute to bringing books to a wide audience.
Towards the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Liberation of the South, national reunification (April 30, 1975 – April 30, 2025), from February 2024 to March 2025, the city will implement projects “Building book streets, book spaces, and developing reading culture” and “Equipping 5 million books for facilities”.
Visitors on opening day at Thu Duc City Book Street. Photo: Duy Hieu.
Accordingly, the project “Building book streets, book spaces, and developing reading culture” will focus on designing reading cultural spaces on the 4 axes: East, West, South, and North of the city, alongside Nguyen Van Binh Book Street in the central area.
Currently, Thu Duc Book Street on the East axis is operational, and the book street in District 7 – the Southern axis will be constructed and possibly introduced to readers in 2024. The remaining two axes are planned for Tan Binh district (West) and Cu Chi district (North).
Mr. Trinh Huu Anh, Head of the Publishing, Printing, and Distribution Department under the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communications, said that the locality will coordinate with the Vietnam Publishers Association (Southern Representative Office) to conduct surveys, gather opinions, select suitable locations, and consult experts on the book street project, book space appropriate to the local situation.
At the closing ceremony of the 2023 book street activities, Mr. Lam Dinh Thang, Director of the Department of Information and Communications, emphasized the integration of the book street system into the city’s tourism, particularly considering the development of nighttime activities within the city’s nighttime economy framework.
Regarding the plan to equip 5 million books for facilities, the first program was launched on January 31 to provide 100,000 books to the community, organized by the Center for Youth Science and Technology Development in coordination with the Tam Nguyen Viet Charity Foundation.
In the near future, the city will conduct surveys on the reading rate of residents and students in Ho Chi Minh City in 2023 based on the number of books per person per year, in order to propose solutions to increase the annual reading rate.
Additionally, the city will review and evaluate the situation of book supply, management, use, and exploitation of book resources in school libraries, compile lists of books supporting teaching and learning at the primary school level, and build suitable book lists to serve teaching and learning at the secondary school level. Concurrently, it will equip local libraries based on the actual quantity, quality, access needs, and usage of books to meet the needs of readers.
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Source: Vietnam Insider