On April 22, a video conference of the Open University of China (OUC) national reading initiative summary and the kickoff of Tao Fen Foundation Donation Project (pilot unit), co-sponsored by the Library Society of China and the OUC, was held at the OUC headquarters in Beijing.
The leaders and guests present at the event were: Vice Investigator of the Career Development Office of Public Cultural Affairs Department of the Ministry of Culture, Zhang Jian; General Division Head of the Personnel Department under the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, Jia Tiepeng; President of the Tao Fen Foundation, Nie Zhenning; Vice President Wang Xiaoping; and Vice Secretary General Huang Guorong; Vice President of the Library Society of China, Yang Peichao; Minister of the Social Service Department of China Zhi Gong Party Central Committee, Li Wantong; Secretary General of the China Rural Special Technology Association for Science and Technology, Li Yanjie; Vice General Manger of the Beijing Founder Apabi Technology Limited Company, Liu Wei; Chief Inspector, Liu Chuntao; President of Liaoning Radio and TV University (RTVU), Xiao Kun; and Vice Presidents of the OUC, Li Ling and Zhang Hui. The Curator of the OUC Library Zhang Ruilin hosted the meeting.
Li Ling, Vice President of the OUC, delivered a speech at the ceremony
Li Ling, Vice President of the OUC, summarized developments on the project “Hand in Hand — Rural Adolescents Reading Activity”, co-sponsored by the Library Society of China and the OUC. Li wrapped up the characteristics of the reading activity: Educational units at all levels extended this activity to grass roots, rural areas, and minority areas. This activity highlighted the advantages of the OUC school system, which gained a good reputation and positive feedback from those involved. Organization units diligently and carefully worked to provide readers with various learning activities. In order to promote diversified reading methods, they not only focused on traditional paper reading but also on digital reading in order to help readers improve their computer and technology skills. Writing activities received active responses from professors and students in the OUC and rural adolescents. Li Ling pointed out that a number of rural adolescents enjoyed reading books and formed the habit of reading books during this nationwide reading activity. In 2014, the OUC will cooperate with the Library Society of China and Tao Fen Foundation to continue all kinds of activities organized in harmony with the theme “Hand in Hand — Rural Adolescents Reading Activity” and try to promote its positive development.
Yang Peichao, Vice President of Library Society of China
Yang Peichao, Vice President of the Library Society of China delivered a speech. He said, “Hand in Hand — Rural Adolescents Reading Activity”, co-sponsored by the Library Society of China and the OUC, was successful on a vast scale and reached a great number of people, giving it a long-term and far-reaching influence. He hoped that the Library Society of China and the OUC could share resources and complement each other’s advantages in order to broaden the coverage and promote the development of this activity.
Zhang Hui, Vice President of the OUC
2013 writing competition individual and collective prizes and awards
Zhang Hui, Vice President of the OUC, announced 168 award-winning works, eight outstanding organization awards, and four exemplary rural adolescent reading programmes, which was the basis for the opening ceremony of “Hand in Hand — Rural Adolescents Reading Activity”. During the programme, the awards were presented to the winners of the various prizes.
The writing competition topic was “Digital Libraries and Me”. Not only professors and students from the OUC, but also those from many diverse circles, especially including adolescents from both urban and rural areas, took an active part in this competition. In 2013, over 6000 works from professors and students from the OUC, as well as primary and secondary school students from rural areas in eighteen provinces and cities, were entered.
Experts invited by the OUC evaluated and selected four “exemplary rural adolescent reading programmes”, namely: “Rural RTVU Bookstore” in Liuhuyu Village, Dongtou Town, Yishui County, Linyi City, Shandong Province, donated by Shandong RTVU; Taiping Town Centre Primary School, Kazuo County, Liaoning Province, donated by Liaoning RTVU; Taiping Town Centre School, Shuangyang District, Changchun City, donated by Changchun RTVU; and Vocational and Technological Education Centre in Ayouqi County, Alashan City, Inner Mongolia Municipality, donated by Inner Mongolia RTVU. They also elected eight outstanding organization prizes, namely: Liaoning RTVU, Changchun RTVU, Anhui RTVU, Wuhan RTVU, Hunan RTVU, Guangdong Open University, Guangzhou RTVU, and Xi’an RTVU.
Nie Zhenning, President of Tao Fen Foundation
Wang Xiaoping, Vice President of Tao Fen Foundation, donated books to Hunan
The meeting marked the introduction of the Tao Fen Foundation Donation Project (pilot unit). It inherits and promotes Tao Fen’s spirit of sincerely serving readers. It carries out cultural poverty-relief and cultural educational activities in order to contribute to our cultural prosperity. The OUC and Tao Fen Foundation have joined forces in starting the OUC books donation project pilot unit, focusing on libraries at the grass-roots level, strengthening the construction of library resources to provide abundant good books to teachers and students in poor and remote areas.
Since the end of 2013, the OUC has already cooperated with Tao Fen Foundation and donated books to fourteen libraries at the grass-roots level and rural RTVU bookstores in Hunan, Chengdu, and Hebei, which improved local library and bookstores’ ability to guarantee access to written resources.
By Zhang Hongli, Yu Minsheng