Shandong county promotes widespread reading in rural areas

People read books in a rural library in Qingyun county, Shandong province. [Photo by Xu Han/for chinadaily.com.cn]

Qingyun county in Shandong province has been bolstering efforts to promote reading in rural areas.

Qingyun county has involved multiple stakeholders to establish 195 rural libraries. With the county library as the main branch and the rural libraries as smaller branches, 27 of these libraries are now integrated into the library network system for supervision, with a unified system for the allocation, borrowing and return of books.

Each library has one full-time administrator, with a system where the public can order books for the government to buy.

The county also tailors the opening hours of these libraries to suit the work and study patterns of different people to increase the reading rate among the population.

For example, over 20 people were spotted reading in a rural library in the county's Zhongding village on April 7.

Ding Rui, a fifth-grade student, enjoys reading in the rural library after school. "The reading atmosphere here is great, and there is a wide selection of books," said Qi Jinli, Ding's mother. (Edited by Yang Yi)