In Binh Dinh province, activities to mark Vietnam Book Day took place under in forms such as honouring and introducing highlights from the reading movement; strengthening communication on Vietnam Book Day and reading culture; organising the Book and Reading Culture Festival; organising Vietnam Book Day in the school system, the library system and the armed forces.
Meanwhile, Hanoi focused on communication work for Vietnam Book Day. In addition, the city continues to promote the efficiency of book streets, thereby creating connections between reading activities with community cultural activities, attracting readers to participate.
The city also focuses on organising Vietnam Book Day in disadvantaged areas, while at the same time, at specialized training colleges, activities of Vietnam Book Day were primarily associated with training, cultural activities of students.
One of the highlights of this year's Vietnam Book Day is the National Online Book Festival 2021 which is taking place on book365.vn from April 17 to May 15. The event was organised by the Ministry of Information and Communications, Department of Publishing, Printing and Issuing, supported by the Vietnam Publishers Association.
Joining the online book fair, readers have the opportunity to exchange and talk with famous authors and scholars; participate in seminars; book introduction programmes; programmes on reading culture; and join big promotions.
This is the second year the National Online Book Festival has been held with the message “Bringing books everywhere”. It can be said this is a quick adaptation of the publishing sector to the new situation. In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic affected many sectors, a lot of activities were stopped and interrupted. The annual book fairs could not be organised, many book streets stopped working.
The initiative on the online book festival has been deployed in a short time and obtained positive results: attracting nearly two million hits; receiving 11,000 orders with more than 13,000 books delivered to readers, 51% of readers having bought books in remote areas; achieving revenue of more than VND 1 billion.
With the results of 2020, this year's National Online Book Festival is expected to attract at least 10 million visitors, bring 30,000 books to readers, serve more than 60% of readers in localities outside Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.
Not only as a band-aid solution, the online book festival opens up a new direction for the publishing sector. It has taken advantage of information technology applications to bring publishing activities to better meet the increasingly diverse needs of readers, helping narrow geographical distances between regions, and create opportunities to access books on many subjects.
The publishing sector’s efforts to innovate and adapt to the new situation are remarkable. However, in order to promote the effectiveness of Vietnam Book Day, it is necessary to have the synchronous participation of all levels and branches from central to local.
The spirit of Book Day should continue to spread in depth and breadth throughout the year, with diverse and practical activities, aiming to have more and more reader access to the content of the new books, precious books, thereby helping improve the knowledge of everyone in society. That really is the long-term and sustainable hallmark of Vietnam Book Day.
