In an era of ever-changing technology, public libraries continue to take "people" as the core and "books" as the carrier, linking with diversified spaces such as art museums, bookstores, cooking, creativity, and even long term care locations, and using cultural affirmative action as the core to create a reading brand that belongs to the city, and leave behind a library of which every city can be proud.

The "2024 ASIA-PACIFIC PUBLIC LIBRARY FORUM" not only invited librarians and managers from Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam to share and introduce the current status of their libraries, but also the directors of Taichung Public Library（TCCB）, Tainan Public Library（TNPL）, and Kaohsiung Public Library（KSML） to share their characteristics and services. National Library of Public Information（NLPI）Deputy Director Zhong Qin Lai said that the participating public libraries in Taiwan are all large libraries that have been merged with counties and municipalities to become large libraries that extend their service scope to both metropolitan areas and remote villages, so narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and promoting equal rights to reading have become the challenges for the three librarians.

Taichung Public Library　Creating a city reading brand

For two consecutive years, Taichung has been honored by the Ministry of Education as a "City with Excellent Reading Performance", and the number of books borrowed by each person in the city is the highest among the six cities in the world. The key to this is TCCB's Reading Monopoly program, which aims to cultivate the city's reading power.
 

"We use the concepts of reading passbook and digital point collection and turn the pricing of books into the cost of knowledge, so that the public can actually become a reading monopoly," said Huei Jun Tseng, director of the TCCB. Huei Jun Tseng said that the points accumulated from borrowing books can be exchanged for gifts, lucky draws, and even offset some of the costs of the activities, so that the public can turn their reading habits into visible wealth.
 

In addition, the Taichung City Government is committed to improving the reading environment, and the style of libraries is not confined to their own locations, creating thematic libraries with special characteristics, such as the Salu Shamble Branch, which is film-themed, the Qing Shui Branch, which is deduction-themed, and the Houli Branch, which has a successful track record for music, attracting a lot of music lovers from other counties and cities.
 

In 2025, Taichung will welcome the "Taichung Green Map", a landmark of international scale, which will combine art and reading in a library and art museum structure and is expected to inject more cultural energy into Taichung.
 

Tainan Public Library　 Reading life with local culture

TNPL, with the concept of "reading and living", is the first to create a variety of special spaces, including an independent bookstore, an city “zao ka”, and a space for entrepreneurs, which will subvert the outside world's impression of libraries.
 

TNPL Director Fu Ling Yang suggested in the forum that "libraries are the cradle of intellectual innovation", therefore, libraries use books as the carrier, linking different spaces and introducing independent bookstores, no matter buying books or borrowing books, to promote reading in different forms, and to give book lovers an additional channel to get close to libraries.
 

TNPL is also the first library to have a cooking classroom, which introduces culinary culture through experiential activities and strengthens Tainan's image as a "food capital". The library also has a space for creativity, which provides a wide range of machines such as 3D printing, laser engraving, and photography equipment, allowing the public to learn digital skills independently between reading and doing, making the library not only a library, but also the cradle of inspiration for creativity.

Kaohsiung Public Library　Cross-regional co-operation and promotion of equal rights in urban and rural areas

"Kaohsiung is the most extensive county and city in Taiwan, and it has become a challenge to shorten the gap between urban and rural areas!” Yi Cheng Lin, Acting Director of the KSML, said that the KSML is the first and only public library in the country to be "administratively legalized", and because of its relatively flexible organization, it has been able to recruit a large number of specialists with expertise in a wide range of fields such as literature, publishing, and art curation in order to give full play to the creativity of the industry and serve the public, in addition to recruiting a librarian.
 

KSML is committed to shortening the gap between urban and rural areas through many cross-domain co-operation to proactively reach out to different types of readers and provide age-segregated services. For example, the Cao Ya Branch has created an age-appropriate thematic library for the silver-haired through a three-way cross-boundary collaboration on culture, education and healthcare, and has introduced corporate resources to launch an "Art in the Countryside" program that combines a bookmobile and storytelling tours to create a cultural affirmative action vision for the city.
 

In addition, KSML has the largest international picture book center in Taiwan, which is also an important base for fostering local picture book writers. Through the biannual “KPL Picture Books Sprouting Award”, KSML connects local creators and publishers, and allows award-winning works to enter the market, enriching the energy of local picture books.