World Book Day: Australia’s oldest library works to promote reading

 

On the celebration of this year’s World Book Day, The News South Wales State Library, Australia’s oldest library, said is making efforts to promote reading and literacy throughout the community.

The official made the remark on Monday to mark World Book Day or World Book and Copyright Day, a yearly event celebrated on April 23 by UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation to promote reading, publishing and copyright.

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A wide range of activities took place on Monday at the library to mark the World Book Day, held on the anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death for lovers of literature to promote reading, publishing and copyright.

The library’s Manager of Research and Discovery, Maggie Patton, said “with collections of more than six million items including books in foreign languages in particular Chinese, a lot of them are available to read on site, but we also lend them through our public library network.

“We also have some much older manuscripts and rare books in Chinese as well.’’

Dating back to 1826, the library located in the centre of Sydney, Australia, showed off some of its rarest and most iconic works of literature to the public, including Shakespeare’s four folios, first edition of Jane Austen’s Emma and various editions of Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote.

Apart from holding some of the greatest works of literature, Patton said the state library was often flooded by students looking for non-fiction as well.

She said “we have lots of students coming in to look for books on business, economics and commerce.

“We have our traditional services, where we expect people to come in and have a look at the materials here, but we also have online service through our website and we subscribe to numerous electronic journals and electronic books.

“We also have a massive digitisation programme, where we’re digitalising some of the materials so it can be viewed online from anywhere in the world.’’

The library is also working to promote reading and literacy throughout the community.

One of the roles of the state facility is to help fund a public network of 300 libraries across New South Wales.

Patton said “Onsite in the library we have a fantastic learning services team and they do a lot of programmes for young people, from kindergarten through to high school graduation.

“The students read, do author talks, and there are lots of activities through reading here in the library,’’ he said.

NAN

 

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