Amid the COVID-19 Crisis, Gwanak-gu Experiences a Reading Boom...

Contributing to the Spread of Village-Centered Reading Culture through Village Reading Club Activities and Consulting Support...Promoting Non-Face-to-Face Lectures such as Author Meetings and Writing Classes

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] Gwanak-gu (Mayor Park Jun-hee) is promoting various non-face-to-face reading activities to revitalize resident reading in celebration of September as Reading Month.

This aims to create a reading culture suitable for the post-COVID-19 era by supporting various non-face-to-face reading programs and online reading club activities for residents exhausted by COVID-19.

First, the "Meeting with Authors," held three times over three weeks starting September 9, will be conducted non-face-to-face. It is a collaborative governance project involving both public and private sectors, where reading club members directly recommend authors and take charge of recruitment and management.

This event, designed as a time to share various ways of life along with the author's book introduction, will be held entirely online via the video conferencing app ZOOM with the following themes: ▲September 9 - Author Hwang Jin-hee's "Healing and Communicating through Picture Books" ▲September 15 - Author Kim Ye-ji's "The Footsteps of the Millennial Generation" ▲September 23 - Author Lee Myung-shin's "Effective English Reading Guidance."

Each session will recruit 20 participants on a first-come, first-served basis. Residents wishing to participate can check the Gwanak-gu Integrated Library website and apply via a Google Form.

Additionally, the "Online Writing Course," which started on August 28, is being held in four sessions, and registration (limited to 25 participants) was closed early within three days.

Writing materials from residents who participated in the writing course will also be included in the reading club casebook.

This year, the district supports 147 village reading clubs with activity funds up to 500,000 KRW each and conducts online workshops for reading clubs, leadership capacity-building education, reading club leader training, and reading club operation consulting, providing various support to revitalize reading clubs despite the COVID-19 crisis.

Mayor Park Jun-hee said, "I hope various non-face-to-face reading programs will bring vitality to the homebound life that has become routine due to COVID-19," and added, "We will continue to steadily implement various reading culture promotion policies such as establishing a non-face-to-face reading culture, supporting small group reading meetings at the village level, and the Neighborhood Bookstore Direct Loan System, which allows residents to borrow new books for free from local bookstores."

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