On 28 November, 2019, guided by the Coordinating Office of the National Reading Activity Organisation, the 2019 National Reading Annual Conference of the National Publishing and Library Field, sponsored by the Library Society of China (LSC), the Taofen Foundation, and other organisations, was held in Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province. The OUC’s assistance in building the OUC “Taofen” library, part of its contribution to national poverty eradication, was recognised there, and a speech was given by an OUC representative.

The OUC library helps promote continuing education by promoting reading nationwide, establishing a long-standing and widely-linked system that has been recognised by publishers and librarians throughout the country.

The OUC has been promoting reading through activities for over 10 years. In 2006, the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, along with other departments, organised a nationwide reading activity, and since then the OUC has continued this on an annual basis.

It also attaches great importance to combining this with poverty-alleviation efforts through collaboration with its library system. Since 2017, the OUC has established 27 "Taofen" libraries, which in turn have established 204 regional libraries.

Its poverty-alleviation efforts have been as follows.

First, it has built libraries in poverty-stricken areas, with each book house donating approximately 6,000 volumes in 1,500 categories since 2017, totaling an investment of RMB 594,000. Based on incomplete statistics, the 27 "Taofen” libraries have directly benefited more than 30,000 people. To assist book-house construction, the school strives to select books that cater to local demand. Most books cover the social sciences and literature, but grassroots industries, economic development, and farming practices are also well represented.

Second, it emphasises activities that make reading come alive. For example, the Jiangxi and Hunan branches have been offering activities that connect reading to practical uses, on the basis of resources offered by the libraries.
Third, it focuses on digital materials and promotes content related to wealth creation. Apart from donating print books, the local study centres have been authorised to access the library’s literature data bank, aiming to have a practical focus, and target the poverty-alleviation efforts of specific areas in ways that have been well received there.

By Wang Zhaoguang and Cheng Gang, OUC