Solutions to promote reading culture in the digital transformation era

In the current context, many publishers have identified digital transformation as an important step towards promoting reading culture.
According to data from the Ministry of Information and Communications, Vietnam has only 30% of people read books regularly, 26% do not read books and 44% only occasionally read books. However, we have up to 70% of people using the Internet, in the top of the world. Facing this shortcoming, in the framework of the National Online Book Association in 2021, there was a seminar on “Reading culture in digital transformation trend” to discuss solutions to promote reading culture before the digital transformation trend. 4.0.

Digital library Until now, when referring to the library, people often think of the rooms filled with books and paper documents. But the digital transformation trend is gradually changing the way traditional libraries operate, opening a new era in which paper books no longer have a unique position. That method is electronic library, also known as digital library. Digital library is one of the solutions to promote reading culture In the past, documents and paper books in the library often did not have a long lifespan due to complicated preservation process and many difficulties. Each book has been used many times, as well as the negative impacts from the environment such as mold, insects, … On the other hand, some school units still have difficulty, so traditional libraries are only capable There are enough books for a certain number of students. The emergence of the digital library form is gradually solving the problems of traditional libraries. Specifically, the seminar on reading culture in the digital transformation period taking place on April 19 in Ho Chi Minh City mentioned the advantages of e-libraries in stimulating the reading habits of subjects. students and students of all levels. “Thanks to the electronic library, reading can now take place anywhere,” said Mr. Ibadulla Yoldas – vice principal of Horizon International School. It is not necessary to go to school to read books, students can read books at home ”. According to Mr. Yoldas: “Digital library is the solution, an idea for schools to apply in teaching and learning”. Audiobooks The digital transformation process in Vietnam is forming a new habit for modern readers – the habit of “listening to books”. This is said to be the result of real needs of modern young people who do not have much time but still want to cultivate their knowledge. In fact, many hours a day are wasted. It could be traffic jam, waiting for the plane, or even while doing housework … Instead of accepting lost time and feeling bored, many people have used audiobooks as a “countermeasure” solution. dealing with busy life. The seminar “Reading culture in digital transformation” took place at the opening ceremony of Vietnam Book Day 2021 mentioned the trend of “listening to books”. Currently, many Vietnamese audiobooks are constantly improving product quality to bring the best experience to readers. One of them is the application of artificial intelligence to create a reading voice suitable for each type of book. Also during the seminar on Reading Culture, Mr. Le Hoang Thach, Co-Founder of Voiz FM, shared: “In a recent test of the company with 800 customers. Up to 70% of them could not distinguish the artificial voice from books and real human voices ”. According to ICT Vietnam, our country is similar to the international audiobook market in general and the US market in particular in terms of the structure of listeners. Specifically, they are young, employed and educated clients. These subjects tend to spend a large amount of time using the Internet, using mobile devices to receive information. This can be considered as a prerequisite for the application of digital technology, developing audiobooks and forming Vietnamese books’ listening habits. Create reading habits for children With the attraction of programs on Youtube or games on technology applications, children are not currently able to form a habit of reading. This forces families and schools to have strategies for children to adapt to the reading culture. Instead of the time for children to watch entertainment programs, parents should join their children to access online reading applications, read interactive books with their children … At the same time, it is necessary to give children a reading space. New books, stimulate children to find books and help children feel comfortable reading. Online books with interactive programs are a solution to help form reading habits for children Talking about the issue of forming reading habits for children, Mr. Nguyen Nguyen – Director of the Publishing Department emphasized: The habit of reading books for children must originate from families and schools. It is necessary for the children to have space to read books, time to read books, and then form the reading habits so that they love books. And Mr. Nguyen Nguyen also affirmed: “Publishing capacity in Vietnam is not weak, but the reading culture is not high. Digital transformation will help narrow that gap and stimulate reading culture ”./.