More than 5,400 rural libraries and 1,700 monastery libraries built in Tibet

Up to now, Tibet has 24 kinds of Chinese-Tibetan newspapers, 40 kinds of Chinese-Tibetan periodicals, more than 5,400 rural libraries and 1,700 monastery libraries, according to information revealed at a press conference held in Lhasa on April 22, which introduced the reading activity of "Building a Scholarly Tibet".

It is reported that through various measures such as improving the modern education system and implementing 15-year public education, the illiteracy rate in Tibet has dropped significantly. By 2021, the per capita education years of new laborers in Tibet has increased to 13.1 years.

Sun Xiangjun, deputy director of the Publicity Department of the Party Committee of Tibet Autonomous Region, introduced that Tibet had launched a number of excellent works that disseminate scientific theories, carry forward the national spirit, and tell the stories of contemporary China, and a number of themed publications that focus on strengthening ethnic unity and promoting ethnic exchanges and integration.

He said that with the continuous improvement and increase in the scale and number of infrastructure such as community libraries, staff libraries, campus book corners, and newspaper reading columns, and the continuous upgrading of content resources and equipment, the public service network for reading in Tibet has begun to take shape.

Chen Fang, head of the business section of Xinhua Bookstore in Tibet Autonomous Region, said that in the past five years, Xinhua Bookstore has donated more than 40,000 books on the "4·23" World Reading Day, with a total selling price of more than 1 million yuan (RMB, the same below); At the same time, the bookstore has donated about 20,000 books to schools, troop units, monasteries, factories and communities in the last five years, with selling price about 900,000 yuan.

According to Tseten Butri, director of the Tibet Autonomous Region Library, the library is open for 11 hours every day and receives readers on holidays. It receives an average of more than 150,000 readers a year, lends more than 20,000 paper books to readers, and a total of over 300,000 e-books are downloaded every year.

It is worth mentioning that the Tibet Autonomous Region Library pays special attention to the reading needs of special groups, such as organizing "Sunset Red" reading activities for the elderly, setting up a reading room for the visually impaired, and holding knowledge contests on the theme of "Reading Brings Brightness to You" and a Braille touching reading contest for visually impaired readers, etc.