Nghe An Library: Striving to be worthy of the information and document center of the province and region

In the Cultural Activities issue of the Cultural Publishing Department (No. 3, August 1957), there were several lines of assessment: “The work of Nghe An Library in the second quarter also had many advances. Vinh Reading Room from May 19 was completely transformed into a Library with more than 9,267 books, 500 borrowing and reading cards were issued to serve 8,991 readers”. Thus, up to now, the Provincial Library has had 65 years of formation and development.

Overcome hardship and fierceness

After the victory of the resistance war against French colonialism, the Resistance Bookcase of the Administrative Resistance Committee of Inter-Zone IV was handed over to the Nghe An Department of Culture and Information. In 1956, the department's reading room was established, called the Vinh Reading Room, and on May 19, 1957, it was converted into the Nghe An Provincial Library.

The Library was built quite spaciously with bricks and tiles at the flower garden of Vinh market intersection, becoming a reading center for cadres, teachers, students and people. It formed a habit.livingculture, adorning Vinh city in the early years of entering the construction of socialism in the North.

Reading room of Nghe An Provincial Library. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

The American invaders escalated their attacks on the North, Nghe An was one of the main targets of fierce attacks. State agencies had to evacuate from Vinh city, the provincial library had to be moved 8 times, and the cultural sector had to evacuate books to rural mountainous areas.

Books and newspapers were distributed to locations in Hung Nguyen, Nghi Loc, Yen Thanh districts, etc. The library remained to serve readers, officials, and people in the evacuation areas, even during the peak days of fierce bombing and shelling. Librarians, librarians, and readers sometimes worked and read books right in the trenches to avoid American bombs and bullets.

The forms of service to readers are very flexible and unique.resistancewere born, such as: Backpacks, book bags serving the battlefield, with slogans such as: Books looking for people, Books in the trenches of resistance...

Readers look up books and documents at the Provincial Library's book warehouse. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

In 1973, the North stopped bombs, the Provincial Library moved to Vinh but had no headquarters, had to temporarily stay in Tong Gia Liem church (the house of a reactionary landlord who informed the French to arrest the hero Doi Cung in the Do Luong uprising in 1941). In 1976, the country was unified, Nghe An and Ha Tinh merged into Nghe Tinh.Libraryhas a very large book collection, up to hundreds of thousands of copies, with a strong staff led by comrade Nguyen Duc Que as Director.

The library was given attention by the province to be moved to a new, spacious headquarters (at the current location of the Labor Culture House) and promptly served the 9th Provincial Party Congress (early 1979). Library work and the movement of reading books and newspapers were focused on.

The joy of students when finding necessary information at the Provincial Library. Photo: Dinh Tuyen

After 10 years of consolidation (1976 - 1986), the public library system in Nghe Tinh has grown remarkably. In addition to the Provincial Library, all 27 districts in the province have libraries and over 50 communal libraries and cooperatives have been built. The total book collection of the provincial library has increased from 150,000 to 250,000 copies. Every year, the library adds over 10,000 copies of books, 2,500 foreign language books and over 300 types of newspapers, magazines, etc.

Step forward on a new journey

In 1991, Nghe Tinh Library was separated according to the Resolution to separate Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces. Nghe An Library quickly stabilized to operate at a new spacious headquarters (45 Ho Tung Mau - now the Provincial Cultural Center). In 2004, the Provincial Library had to move to a new location (20 Quang Trung - Vinh City). And quickly stabilized to operate in an orderly manner, serving well forReaders.

The career of Nghe An Provincial Library is increasingly developing along with the economic, cultural - social and scientific growth of the locality, being one of the 6 provincial libraries nationwide pioneering in applying information technology to library work. It has been invested in computers since 2003 with Ilib software, processing books and accessing book databases, connecting to serve readers via computer networks.

Through donating, supporting and circulating books, the Provincial Library has promoted reading culture at the grassroots level. In the photo: People reading books at the Bac Son Hamlet Library, Bac Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh). Photo: Cong Kien

At the same time, it is one of three provincial libraries nationwide (along with Thai Nguyen and Tra Vinh) to implement the pilot project "Improving computer usage and public Internet access in Vietnam" sponsored by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, USA.

Up to now, the Provincial Library has had over 300,000 books and documents, adding about 10,000 books and over 200 types of newspapers every year.magazine; serving over 150,000 readers and 350,000 book circulations. The Provincial Library Board of Directors really focuses on building grassroots libraries with over 300 libraries, commune bookcases, grassroots units, border guards...

In particular, a fairly large Geographical Book Warehouse was built with 10,000 copies of books and hundreds of thousands of valuable documents, including Han-Nom Heritage funds, woodblocks, ancient Thai books, handwritten documents in French, documents during the resistance war against France, etc.

Provincial Library staff organized scoring of book display content on the occasion of Vietnam Book and Reading Culture Day 2022. Photo: Cong Kien

The library's propaganda and scientific research work is increasingly focused and constantly improved. The library has organized hundreds of thematic talks, attracting a large number of readers. The provincial library has received attention from the industry and the Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department to establish the Nghe An Han-Nom Club. The club has helped collect, translate, exploit, research and promote the local Han-Nom heritage quite effectively.

The library also focuses on compiling scientific works and bibliographies to serve the best exploitation of information and documents for readers.

With the attention of provincial leaders andCulture, The Provincial Library has invested in the Project to build a new, modern 7-storey headquarters, along with modern equipment for the electronic - digital library, the only project in Nghe An to celebrate the 1,000th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi. The Library organized the Opening Ceremony of the New Library and launched the Reading Movement among the people of the whole province on November 1, 2011, coordinated the organization of many events, linked to the competition to promote books... which resonated in the province and the whole country.

Provincial Library leaders awarded certificates to students who won the Reading Culture Ambassador Contest. Photo: Cong Kien

The library also received investment from the Central Government to support mobile library vehicles to serve readers in mountainous and highland areas, contributing to the development of an increasingly strong public library system.

With outstanding activities, Nghe An Provincial Library has been awarded many Certificates of Merit by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the People's Committee of Nghe An province, especially the Ministry's Excellent Emulation Flag in 2010, 2012 and 2015.

Currently, the Provincial Library is a trusted address for many readers to look up information.document,Books and newspapers serve research, study and enrich knowledge. The staff of the unit always strives to learn and improve their qualifications, worthy of being a modern library, the largest information and document center of the province and the North Central region.

Nguyen Vinh Quang