In short, books help “people live more humanly” (Karl Marx) in a society that is always complex and full of changes. In the flow of human civilization history, in many countries around the world, libraries and the organization of reading books and newspapers for all classes of people have appeared for thousands of years.

Events in response to Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day always attract a lot of attention from readers.

Over the past 100 years, in Europe, America and Asia, national reading days and reading festivals have emerged as cultural symbols, such as reading festivals and reading weeks in France, Germany, Italy, Russia, the US, Japan, Singapore... to honor reading culture in the community. At the same time, affirming the value and role of reading culture, encouraging and promoting the development of libraries in those countries.

Internationally, book festivals and book days have brought about positive effects and great value. Every year, these activities have attracted the attention and interest of thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of readers, writers, researchers, managers, etc. in each country.

In particular, in the context of the information explosion, audiovisual culture has been overwhelming reading culture for many years now, so organizing reading festivals has contributed to affirming that reading culture will last forever and nothing can replace it.

In Vietnam, realizing the importance of books and reading culture, considering the development of reading culture as a driving force and an important tool to contribute to building an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 284/QD-TTg on February 24, 2014, taking April 21 every year as Vietnam Book Day.

Then, on November 4, 2021, the Prime Minister issued Decision No. 1862/QD-TTg on organizing Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day.

We know that choosing April 21 every year as Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day has great significance and is very important. Because, on April 21, exactly 100 years ago, leader Nguyen Ai Quoc launched his book in Guangzhou (China) to propagate the Vietnamese revolution, that is the book Duong Kach Menh .

Developing a reading culture in the community in recent years has brought many positive signals. Photo: Duong Lieu Library

Since then,   Book and Reading Culture Day in our country has received increasingly active participation, response, attention, and sponsorship from domestic and foreign organizations and individuals with thousands and tens of thousands of books and many valuable equipment and facilities.

At the National Library of Vietnam alone, from 2010 to 2020, each year the library received thousands of books from the Department of Publishing, Printing and Distribution and major central publishers, domestic and foreign organizations and agencies with a total value of up to hundreds of millions of VND and equipment for library work...

Thereby, helping libraries and bookcases in localities with many difficulties such as Hoa Binh, Son La, Dien Bien, Thai Nguyen, Tuyen Quang, Yen Bai, Lao Cai, Lai Chau, Nghe An, Quang Tri...

Although there are no specific statistics on the number of people participating in the reading festival in all 63 provinces/cities as well as the amount of money, artifacts, books and newspapers received from organizations and individuals at home and abroad for maintaining and developing the reading culture in Vietnam, it is clear that the number of participants is very large and the amount of money, artifacts, books and newspapers, and documents received can be estimated to be worth up to billions of VND/year.

In particular, the number of books and newspapers donated through the reading festival in the provinces of the Northwest, Southwest, Central Highlands, etc. were quickly brought to reading points, libraries in remote areas, ethnic minority areas, where people are "thirsty for knowledge". This can be considered a positive result, meaningful in the efforts of the Vietnamese library industry to promote reading culture and library work in our country.

To continuously improve the reading culture for all people, so that Book Day and Reading Culture in Vietnam increasingly attracts a large number of readers, has a strong influence in society and so that our country's library industry increasingly develops, librarians hope that   Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism   and the Departments, Ministries, functional branches, and localities   The whole country continues to strongly implement Directive 42/CT-TW dated August 25, 2004 of the Secretariat on improving the overall quality of publishing activities and Notice No. 19-TB/TW dated December 29, 2016 of the Secretariat on continuing to implement Directive No. 42.

At the same time, actively implement the Library Law and legal documents on library work; maintain the organization of the Book and Reading Culture Day on April 21 every year at the central and local levels, in order to gradually build and develop a learning society, build a cultural environment of reading and lifelong learning among all classes of people.

In addition, it is necessary to have a market research strategy, research the reading needs of all classes of people, to have a plan to publish good books, good books, to meet the needs and tastes of consumers. Pay special attention to the quality of the content of the publication .

Books are inspiring positive lifestyles for young people. Photo: THUY TRANG

It is necessary to minimize the publication of useless books with bland content, which not only waste readers' money but also their time. In addition, it is necessary to research to have more e-books and audiobooks to serve people in the fourth industrial revolution.

Continue to research to propose a plan to reduce book prices, so that the prices are reasonable, suitable for the payment ability of the majority of workers and intellectuals in our country. It is said that book prices must be reduced because currently, each book is often printed in low quantities (some books only print a few hundred copies), so the price is difficult to reduce.

However, the problem is that some publishers and printers have not managed the printing process well, so some "brokers" have secretly printed copies and then released them at quite high discounts (in some cases up to 50%), affecting the book distribution market nationwide.

Book promotion, propaganda, and introduction need to be strengthened and more frequent. As a cultural product, also a commodity, the cost of promoting books is still modest, much less than promoting other products. Book introductions in newspapers are not many, scattered, and have not become a business strategy like many other commodities.

If there is a daily news review section on television, there should also be a daily and weekly book review section, and the news can be broadcast for free or at a discount… In addition, publishers should have a more extensive, multi-dimensional, and practical plan to promote books before publishing.

For library activities, we   It is necessary to do better in promoting and introducing books and newspapers and helping the publishing industry investigate reading preferences, in order to orient the reading culture for the whole society.

Increase the supply of books, newspapers, information resources, build an increasingly rich archive with the motto of closely following readers' needs, promptly supplementing valuable documents and digital collections that have a positive effect on economic, cultural and social development, hunger eradication and poverty reduction in the locality.

Furthermore, it is necessary to innovate the service method in the library, from closed storage to open storage, self-selection storage, so that readers have conditions to quickly access books, newspapers, documents, and information resources.

In addition, it is also necessary to organize well the guidance of readers, apply information technology to serve the reading, look up documents quickly and conveniently. Increase the circulation of books and newspapers to the grassroots, remote areas, ethnic minorities; diversify types of libraries such as post offices - communal culture, law bookcases, border station bookcases, school libraries...

During his lifetime, the late Prime Minister Pham Van Dong said : “Nothing can replace the culture of reading.” The late Prime Minister also repeatedly reminded responsible officials to strengthen the library system and publishing work so that books and newspapers can reach people in difficult circumstances.

With the attention and investment of the Party and Government, the national library system has been gradually promoting its role, including actively participating in Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day - to spread knowledge and disseminate information to all classes of people in society.

Even though today and tomorrow, when society develops, people can read books in electronic libraries or via the internet, certainly, books and reading culture will not lose their inherent traditional cultural values.

Because books and reading culture have been associated with humans for thousands of years of history. Books are still the most valuable source of life that no other spiritual food can compare to.

Although Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day has only been formed and developed recently, it can be affirmed that all that we have achieved, the feelings and responsibilities of readers, people, many social organizations, individuals at home and abroad for Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day in recent years have always been a pure, nutritious and most valuable "source of mother's milk" to contribute to nurturing, maintaining, developing and honoring the culture of reading and lifelong learning in Vietnam.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/xuat-ban/de-ngay-sach-va-van-hoa-doc-viet-nam-that-su-lan-toa-128751.html