Books in the digital age
To encourage the development of the reading movement in the community, on February 24, 2014, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 284/QD-TTg naming April 21 every year as Vietnam Book Day. In particular, to make reading culture more widely popular, on November 4, 2021, the Prime Minister decided to organize Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day, replacing Vietnam Book Day. Thereby, affirming the role and importance of books in improving knowledge, skills, developing thinking, educating and training human personality; contribute to encouraging and developing the reading movement in the community, creating a favorable reading environment; Forming reading habits in families, schools, agencies and organizations; building a learning society.
Responding to Vietnam Day of Books and Reading Culture, ministries, branches, organizations, unions from central to local levels, schools, libraries… across the country simultaneously organize book festivals for all walks of life. people. Activities are organized synchronously, with many diverse and rich forms, attracting the participation of a large number of people from all over the country as well as domestic and international publishers. These include activities such as exhibitions, displays, propaganda, and book introductions; draw pictures according to books; art book sorting; exchange between authors and readers; seminars, discussions, knowledge exchange about reading trends… Many activities in response to the Day of Books and Reading Culture also mobilize contributions and support for libraries and bookcases in localities. hard. Many good models and effective methods have also been deployed by localities to develop reading culture.
In the Lang Son border area, over the past years, organizations, units, businesses, and individuals have joined hands to donate and support books and learning materials, build bookcases, reading spaces, and form reading spaces. internet access points in the province, especially in extremely difficult areas. Thereby, helping people have the opportunity to learn experiences, ways of doing business, production and business from everywhere to develop the economy, stabilize their lives and get rich…
Bringing books closer to readers, Thai Binh Provincial Library’s “Light of Knowledge” mobile library trips have gone to many schools in the area, bringing thousands of books to rural students, helping Children can easily access books…
In the Central Highlands, to serve the people’s need to enjoy spiritual culture, Dak Lak province strengthens the construction of law bookcases, commune post office – cultural point bookcases, border station bookcases… The province Lam Dong promotes the circulation of books to ethnic minority areas…
In Hau Giang, the Provincial Library continues to maintain and replicate the “Knowledge Light Journey” model of bringing books to remote areas by multimedia mobile library vehicles.
In addition, some large cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Vung Tau… have formed “Book Streets”, “Book Streets”, providing cultural rendezvous for book lovers; meet the need for regular reading; meeting, exchanging and interacting between authors and readers. From there, it contributes to attracting readers to books as a way of healthy entertainment instead of hobbies or electronic games that negatively affect their health, brain…
According to data from the Ministry of Information and Communications, in Vietnam, about 30% of people read books regularly, 26% do not read books, and 44% only read books occasionally. However, our country has up to 70% of people using the internet, among the top in the world. To promote the value of books, publishing and printing people have proactively converted and harmoniously combined readers’ habits to choose books, bringing books closer to them through the digital environment.
Talking about this issue, Director of the Department of Information and Communications of Binh Dinh province Tran Kim Kha shared: Digital technology is the shortest path to the future. Digital technology will also be a tool to help shorten the way for readers to access books. In a context where we don’t have enough time to read books of several hundred pages, but with the support of technology, readers can completely access good books without language, space and time limits. time.
In many localities, the Provincial Library flexibly organizes exhibitions and online book fairs on technology platforms; In-person book fair combined with online; The book fair pays without using cash; promote books and reading culture on electronic newspaper columns, social networks…
Actively responding to Vietnam Book Day, honoring the value of books, in addition to traditional activities, this year, the National Library organized a “Digital Library” for children. The library has over 10,000 books in more than 50 different languages to encourage young readers to access digital libraries, improve knowledge and skills, cultivate foreign language skills, and nurture reading habits. books anytime, anywhere. The library also organizes the activity “Sowing seeds of knowledge” combining reading books with practicing music, watching movies, and developing talents to provide fun experiences in addition to discovering interesting things from books.
Lao Cai Provincial Library deserves the 6th Reading Culture Development Award in 2024 when organizing large-scale annual reading culture development events and activities. To keep up with the trend of digital transformation, Lao Cai Provincial Library has actively applied information technology to user management and information resource storage, shortening the time to serve readers… Work Information and propaganda are continuously renewed with the display, exhibition, and placement of art book models in direct and online forms on media channels: Electronic information page, zalo, facebook, youtube Provincial library, newspapers, radio and television stations… Thanks to that, the number of visits to the Provincial Library’s electronic information page reached 652,447 times/year. In 2023 alone, Lao Cai Provincial Library will serve 251,200 users, an increase of 15,600 users compared to 2021.
Associate Professor, Dr. Ta Minh Tuan, Vice President of the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, shared: In the process of digital transformation, there are emerging forms of combining traditional manuscripts with technology. modern books such as e-books, audiobooks, book summary applications… New types of books such as Ebooks, audiobooks, videobooks appear more and more in the Vietnamese publishing market.
Minister of Information and Communications Nguyen Manh Hung once suggested that in the digital transformation period, when a book comes out, you must immediately think about its versions on Facebook, TikTok, Zalo or the version for Google to find. search… A printed book can reach thousands, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, but with a concise format on multiple platforms, the book’s content can reach millions of people and more. , the value of books thereby also increases…
At the Conference summarizing publishing activities and releasing publications in 2023 and implementing tasks in 2024, many impressive numbers were given such as: By the end of 2023, the whole country had 21 units granted Certificate of electronic publication publishing activities. In 2022 and 2023, total revenue from audiobooks has reached about 116.1 billion VND, exceeding the set plan…/.
Content and design: Minh Hue – Minh Anh