The First ASEAN-ROK Children's Reading Culture Development Committee for the ASEAN Childre's Reading Culture Development Project

SEOUL/ONLINE 15 December 2022 - The First ASEAN-ROK Children's Reading Culture Development Committee was convened by the National Library for Children and Youth Adults (NLCY) in Korea as part of the ASEAN Children’s Reading Culture Development Project, which is supported by the ASEAN-Republic of Korea Cooperation Fund (AKCF). The event was also simultaneously broadcasted through NLCY’s Youtube channel.

The ASEAN Children's Reading Culture Development Project is a three-year project which is aimed to raise awareness of reading culture, improve reading culture, and strengthen librarians' capabilities for both ASEAN Member States (AMS) and Korea.

This year’s meeting was not only to kick off the entire project, but also provided an opportunity for the participants, the reading experts from both AMS and Korea, to share their respective countries’ status of children's reading culture and status of children's libraries, relevant policies, and ongoing programs.  

With all these interactions and information-sharing among the participants, a foundation for cooperation was able to be formed; more importantly, the participants were able to discuss potential programs that could be jointly pursued and promoted in the future.  

At the end of the official program, Han Mi-hwa, a children's book critic, under the theme of "Let's Read Together with Children and Adults" gave a lecture on the importance of reading and the role of homes, schools, and libraries in promoting children’s reading.

In total, about 200 people were attended this meeting. Not only the members of the committee attended this meeting, but librarians from AMS and Korea, who are interested on the theme, also attended this meeting to learn more about the important topic of children’s reading culture.