In recent years, libraries in Da Nang have tried to renew themselves in many ways to attract more readers, thereby contributing to promoting reading habits, and developing an extensive reading culture in the community.

The entire public library system in the city is now offering more than 354,800 copies of paper books, more than 6,900 copies of cassette tapes and disks, more than 7,460 copies of e-books, and about 500,000 digital documents.

Visitors are seen at the Da Nang General Science Library.

Connecting and developing information resources

Ha Thi Thanh Truc, Head of Readers’ Office of the Da Nang General Science Library, said that the library is open from Tuesday to Sunday every week between 7:30 am and 8:00 pm daily.

Visitors to the library can read books on site or borrow books with a variety of good and new books.

In addition, there is also a special room featuring a variety of e-books, and a S.hub sharing space.

Most recently, a reading room dedicated for the visually-impaired officially made its debut at the Da Nang General Science Library.

The freshly-inaugurated reading room features a total of more than 3,900 copies of information resources which are diverse in genres such as 897 copies of Braille books, 1,511 copies of CDs, and 1,491 copies of cassette tapes.

Also, there are some specialised machines to assist blind readers to access documents such as Smart view machines, victor readers, cassette readers, etc.

The library’s Director Le Thi Bich Phuong admitted that the pandemic caused disruption to many of the library's activities, including serving readers, circulating books and newspapers, etc.

However, as a role of building, processing, storing, preserving, connecting and developing information resources suitable for readers, the Da Nang General Science Library constantly strives to find ways to best serve the needs of readers.

Aside from upgrading facilities, and applying modern equipment and technology in various forms and services, the library has taken the initiative to innovate its services with the aim of creating friendliness and convenience for readers, thereby gradually developing reading habits in the community. Included are the renewal of library card issuance; the linkage between the Da Nang General Science Library and district-level libraries; the launch of e-book reader web application; and the organisation of reading promotion activities.

In addition to the Da Nang General Science Library, districts across the city have been focusing on investing into infrastructure and equipment, and gradually boosting the IT application in the library's professional activities to serve readers.

Since its inauguration before Tet 2022, the traditional house combined with a library in Lien Chieu District has become a favourite destination for a large number of students and workers in the locality.

The VND14.8 billion, 2-storey work is built on an area of​​​​about 800m² in the campus of the Lien Chieu District Culture - Information and Sports Centre.

The first floor of the house features a traditional room, a conference room, an e-library, and an outdoor reading space. Meanwhile, the second floor has a reading room, a book store, and a community library space combined with a book café. The library is now offering more than 5,000 books to serve readers of all ages.

Meanwhile, a public library in Son Tra District has constantly introduced new books and newspapers, and organised many activities to raise public awareness of the importance of reading, in order to develop reading habit among local people.

Towards development of an extensive reading culture

On September 27, 2021, the Da Nang government approved a project to boost the development of the Da Nang public library system for the 2021 - 2025 period, with a vision towards 2030, at a total of over VND 432 billion.

As for the target set for the 2021 - 2025 period, each citizen will read at least 0.8 copies of electronic and printed books at the city’s public library system.

At least 50% of the city's population will access public library services.

Heed will also be paid to strongly applying the latest scientific and technological tools into libraries’ professional activities and significantly develop e-libraries in the whole system.

Mrs. Nguyen Thi Hoi An, Deputy Director of the Da Nang Department of Culture and Sports, expressed her hope that the implementation of the project would help the city build reading habits and develop an extensive reading culture in the community in order to contribute to creating a future generation with a good reading culture background.

Reporting by THANH TINH - Translating by M.DUNG