Recently, the Da Nang authorities have paid special attention to opening more reading spaces in the city to promote a reading culture amongst local residents. 

The Da Nang General Science Library attracts a large number of readers

Since early this month, the Da Nang General Science Library at 36 Bach Dang has started opening its doors to the public between 8.00am and 9.00pm from Tuesday to Sunday every week.  In addition, visitors to the library no longer have to pay annual fees for membership cards.  The intention is to attract more readers to the library.

As a result, the library welcomes a daily average of 745 readers.  By the end of last year, the library had granted over new 6,000 membership cards, a 13-fold increase from previous years.

Visitors to the 2017 Hai Chau Book Festival

This year, over one billion VND from the city’s budget has been spent on buying new books and documents in order to meet the reading demand of locals.

In addition to the Da Nang General Science Library, a book coffee shop has recently opened in the public park for children in Son Tra District’s An Hai Bac Ward.

Funded by the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the around 1 billion VND coffee shop includes a room for reading books, newspapers and magazines. 

Visitors to the coffee shop can participate in free English courses, and a wide range of attractive folk games for children such as mandarin square capturing, skipping, dragon and snake up to the cloud, and hopscotch.   There also are various meaningful activities and exhibitions to help local residents, especially school pupils, raise their awareness of protecting the environment.

Finally, a book garden is scheduled to be built near the city’s Administrative Centre in Hai Chau District’s Thach Thang Ward.  Covering an area of over 1,900m², the venue will introduce new and interesting books on a weekly and monthly basis, and organise exchange activities between famous writers and local readers.  Local publishing houses and book stores will also sell their books there.