[Photo] Seoul Bookstore Cooperative Donates 10 Million Won to Dongdaemun-gu

Seoul Bookstore Cooperative Growing with the Community Overcomes COVID-19 Challenges, Donates 10 Million Won to Dongdaemun-gu on the 19th... Dongdaemun-gu Surpasses 230,000 Books Purchased from Local Bookstores in 5 Years... A Wind of Coexistence Starting from Books

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] While the ‘Pause for a Moment’ campaign to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is in full swing, the wave of donations in Dongdaemun-gu (Mayor Yoo Deok-yeol) continues to spread without pause.

Warm sharing, including handmade masks, has been ongoing daily, and the Seoul Bookstore Cooperative (Chairman Kim Eui-su) also joined the donation movement.

On the 19th at 11 a.m., the Seoul Bookstore Cooperative visited Dongdaemun-gu Office and donated 10 million won to the COVID-19 relief fund.

The Seoul Bookstore Cooperative was established by local bookstores in Dongdaemun-gu to resolve management difficulties and revive the local commercial district.

According to the cooperative’s intention, the district decided to use this donation to purchase health masks to be distributed where masks are most needed.

So far, the district has steadily increased its book purchase budget every year, aiming to become a cultural city where libraries and local bookstores coexist. In particular, last year, about 1 billion won was invested in book purchases, which is a 56% increase compared to 650 million won in 2018.

Among this, the cost of purchasing through local bookstores accounts for about 90% of the total book purchase expenses. Over five years since 2015, Dongdaemun-gu has purchased approximately 230,000 books (worth about 2.9 billion won) from local bookstores. Exceptionally, out-of-district bookstores are used only when purchasing special books such as original foreign language books or e-books.

This year, the district plans to expand the book purchase budget to 1.2 billion won to actively support local bookstores, which have been increasingly struggling due to the prolonged COVID-19 situation.

The Seoul Bookstore Cooperative also contributes to the local community in various ways based on communication and personal networks that are hard to find in large bookstores. Leveraging the advantages of local bookstores, direct communication is easy, allowing for customized management and quick reflection of feedback from libraries and schools.

Additionally, the cooperative donates books for residents at the annual Dongdaemun-gu Book Festival and, as part of revitalizing local culture, has held book theater festivals together with other cooperatives.

Furthermore, they have participated in cultural volunteer work supporting theater viewing for vulnerable groups who usually have difficulty accessing such performances.

Kim Eui-su, Chairman of the Seoul Bookstore Cooperative, stated, “Local bookstores have grown together by helping each other with the local community, so despite the difficult economic conditions, we decided to participate in overcoming the COVID-19 crisis through this donation.”

Choi Hong-yeon, Deputy Mayor of Dongdaemun-gu, said, “We sincerely thank the Seoul Bookstore Cooperative for practicing beautiful sharing despite the national crisis and difficult circumstances, and we will do our best to help the local economy regain vitality quickly. The district’s public libraries have been temporarily closed since February 10 to prevent the spread of COVID-19, advancing the planned mid-year book inspection, and are conducting regular disinfection and environmental maintenance. All staff are working hard to reopen as soon as the situation stabilizes, so we kindly ask residents for their generous understanding regarding the inconvenience of not being able to use the libraries for the time being.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.