According to the demographics of the National Development Commission, Taiwan will enter an ultra-aging society in 2025, when one in five people will be over 65 years old on average. To meet the challenges of the aging wave, the National Library of Public Information has recently used picture books as a medium to create a warm space for reading that can be enjoyed by anyone between the ages of 0 and 100, allowing readers to quietly experience the beauty of picture books in a corner.

When most people think that picture books are for children, Kunio Yanagida, a Japanese writer, believes that “picture books are not just for children”. He has returned to picture books in the second half of his life, and he further proposes the concept of “three readings of picture books” in his life, which includes leisurely wandering between pictures and words when he was a child, reading them together when he was a parent for the sake of parent-child upbringing, and reading them in the twilight of his life, after he has accumulated large and small life experiences for himself.

“Picture book is an art that combines literature and aesthetics, especially the feature of many pictures and few words, which lowers the threshold of reading and brings more imagination to the story.” Xiang Ping Ma, Director of the National Library of Public Information （NLPI）, said that reading picture books at different stages of life will bring different feelings to the heart. To let senior citizens also feel the charm of picture books, the NPLI has created a warm and comfortable “Silver Power Picture Book Garden” in the Aging Area, which is combined with the “Children's Learning Center”, the “Dream Picture Book” online database, and the newly opened in October 2024, and the “Silver Power Picture Book Garden”. In October 2024, the new World Picture Book Center will open, inviting readers of all ages to enter the world of reading through the medium of picture books.

Read for Yourself - Silverlake picture book garden 

“As Taiwan enters an ultra-age society, it means that one in five readers may be silver-haired,” said Xiang Ping Ma said that NLPI has been thinking about what services it can provide for the aging readers. In addition to setting up an aging learning resource area on the 3rd floor, it has recently revitalized the space and picture book resources in the library and set up a separate “Silver Power Picture Book Garden” in the aging area, so that the library is not only a place to borrow books, but also a friendly social area for the silver haired.

The newly inaugurated Silverlake picture book garden utilizes its spatial advantages to bring in natural light through the rows of floor-to-ceiling windows and glass curtains, while the greenery outside the windows extends the field of vision, bringing the most beautiful visual feast for reading, and has significantly increased the number of books borrowed from the Lok Ling District since its opening in May.

In terms of the motion planning, Silverlake picture book garden can be further subdivided into five exotic reading spaces, including the simple and soft Scandinavian living room, the passionate and colorful Italian area, the romantic and relaxing South French area, and the English living room created by comfortable sofas and carpets; and along the windows, there are conveniently planned reading tables for reading and leaning, so that all readers can find a comfortable and cozy corner for reading in the pictures books garden.

Xiang Ping Ma said that NLPI not only hopes to provide a quality reading environment for the aging community, but more importantly, to promote intergenerational communication and understanding through picture books. Therefore, Silverlake picture book garden has cooperated with the Post-Youth Picture Book Library, which has been promoting mature reading for a long time, to select about 200 books for silver-haired readers, with themes centering on the elderly's concerns about health, family emotions, nostalgia, and life exploration, etc. In the future, it will continue to expand the themes of different aspects in the hope of arousing the resonance of more readers.

Through the “Silverlake picture book garden”, NLPI combines thematic courses and reading lists to enhance the health, technological and aesthetic strengths of the elderly, as well as to enrich their spiritual and cultural life. In the future, we plan to combine picture book seminars, invite authors to share their creative experiences, and organize “Life Story Workshops”, so that under the guidance of professional teachers, the elderly can portray their own life stories through the creation of picture books.

“Many studies have shown that reading enhances happiness in life. We hope to use picture books as a bridge to accompany our young readers in expanding their social circles, keeping their minds active, and maintaining their mental health through reading.” Xiang Ping Ma observed that in the past, we have seen many elderly people who love to read, but with the deterioration of their eyesight, they must put down their books, “If they are willing to go into the picture books, they will be able to enjoy their life and enjoy their life.

If they are willing to enter the world of picture books, they will be surprised to find that picture books are no longer just children's books, but another window to the world.

Read around the world - World Picture Book Center

On the other hand, the all-ages “World Picture Book Center” was officially opened in late October. According to Xiang Ping Ma, NLPI has a collection of illustrated books from more than 30 countries or regions at home and abroad, and through the establishment of the World Illustrated Book Center, it can systematically display illustrated books from all over the world, so that readers can learn about the world through reading.

The World Picture Book Center is characterized by the rare presence of small-language countries. Classic illustrated books from Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Latvia, and Ukraine will be on display, some of which have not yet been translated, so they will be shown in their original languages. In the future, through thematic book exhibitions and lectures, readers will be introduced to the creators of picture books from different countries step by step.

The World Illustrated Book Center's first illustrated book exhibition invited Tomáš Řízek, a Czech illustrator living in Taiwan, to co-curate the exhibitions “Tomáš Řízek 's Fairytale World Illustrated Book Exhibition” and “Selected Illustrated Books from the Bologna Children's Book Fair in Italy.” In addition to displaying the relevant themed illustrated books, the exhibitions also featured themed lectures and readings by renowned authors, which added to the depth and breadth of the exhibitions. Xiang Ping Ma revealed that the next two exhibitions will be held in Germany, Belgium, and other European countries, and in 2026, the theme will be “The Netherlands and Sustainable Development,” in the hope of leading readers to travel around the world through reading in a relaxing and interesting atmosphere.

In addition, NLPI also has a collection of more than 10,000 picture books in Southeast Asian languages, mainly from Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines, and other countries with a high proportion of new immigrants and migrant populations in Taiwan, to help children of new immigrant families learn about the culture of their home countries.

Immersive picture book experience - Children's Learning Center 

The Children's Learning Center located on the 1st floor of the State-owned Information Technology Center is themed “Forest of Knowledge” and contains nearly 50,000 children's picture books. Inside the center, there are many software and hardware facilities tailored for children, such as a toddler area, a story house, a computer search area, a reading area, and an AR-enhanced real-world reading experience area, and a customized interactive book-searching interface designed in accordance with children's habits, which makes the reading experience easier and more convenient for the youngest users. The children's area has a collection that is not only suitable for children, but also for children.

In addition to hardback books, music books, and game books suitable for children aged 0 to 5, the collection of the Early Childhood Area also includes bath books and cloth books, which are rarely found in other libraries. In the Early Childhood Area, the library displays these books with pictures so that readers can go to the circulation desk according to the pictures and borrow them to have fun together with their children.

The Story House to be opened in 2023 will combine XR Extended Reality technology and AI Body Recognition to create an intuitive immersive environment and present three stories, including “Journey to the West” adapted from traditional literature, “The Adventures of the Dinosaur” and “The Turtle's Retribution”, which are very popular among children. Through the 270-degree circular projection wall and the interactive stories in the stories, children can feel as if they have stepped into the world of the stories and experience an immersive reading experience through the power of technology.

The Children's Learning Center not only categorizes books according to themes, but also plans a “Grade Level Good Book Fair” to recommend good books for children by age and grade, covering picture books, bridge books, and young adult novels, with picture books as the main recommendation for the lower grades. There is also a thematic book fair, which recommends books to children in a thematic way and is accompanied by simple extension activities such as bingo links, mazes, and matching, inviting children to learn in a fun way and develop a reading habit without stress.

Stimulating Taiwan's creativity 

In addition to the physical collection, NLPI has also built a large-scale online picture book database, “Dream Book Database”, which has collected nearly 1,400 volumes of original picture books created by students from all levels of schools nationwide since its establishment at the end of 2011, with a cumulative view rate of more than one million.

According to Xiang Ping Ma “Dream Book Database” is the most original resource that not only fulfills students' dreams of creating picture books, but also stimulates the original creativity of Taiwan's young generation by displaying them through digital platforms. In particular, “Dream Book Database” is not only a reading platform, but also develops many personalized functions, such as audiobooks, subtitle options, and adapting some of the best works into animations for display, in the hope of creating a barrier-free online database to provide services for users with different needs.

In the era of storytelling, NLPI also organizes regular “Picture Book Creation Workshops” with schools and foundations at all levels through the Dream Book Database. In addition to inviting illustrators to share their creative experiences and help teachers improve their picture book education, many students' works have been adapted into lesson plans by teachers through the platform of the Elements picture book and have even attracted school authorities to print and publish them.

In addition, NLPI also provides multilingual dubbing and subtitle hiding services for families who are eager to learn local languages, such as Taiwanese, Hakka, and several aboriginal languages. This multilingual support helps Taiwanese children understand their native language and culture during the reading process, and at the same time allows the charm of picture books to reach a wider audience and become an important companion for readers of all ages during their life and growth.