JOHOR BARU: The Johor Public Library has seen an increase of visitors by at least 25% since opening its doors seven days a week.
“This is a good sign as it shows that the library continues to be a point of reference for the community to gather for activities,” said state education and information committee chairman Aznan Tamin.
The library, located in Jalan Yahya Awal here, started operating throughout the week in December last year.
“As of May, about six months since changing its operating hours, a total of 70,620 visitors had visited the library – a rise of 25% compared to the same period last year,” he said.
Aznan said about 50 programmes have been lined up this year to attract more people to the library.
This included the Russian Kazan Muslim Film Festival from June 13 to 15 and Benih Karya Arts Festival, which took place from May 19 to 26.
He said Johor was ranked first in this year’s “Jom Baca” (Let’s Read) programme, a national campaign to encourage good reading habits among the people.
“We recorded 2.1 million participants during the programme held in April, making us the state with the highest participation.”
Aznan said Johor would play host to the Malaysian Library Convention from July 12 to 16, during which 800 to 1,000 people from libraries nationwide will convene in Iskandar Puteri to exchange ideas.
“We are also planning to organise a book fair in October.
“So there is no excuse for people not to read,” he said, referring to The Star’s June 5 article titled “Reading for pleasure a dying culture”, which highlighted the decline in reading habits among Malaysians.Johor Public Library Corporation director Ungku Noorakmal Ungku Sulaiman said the public is welcome to visit the library from 9am to 5pm daily and become a member for free.
“Aside from books, we want to make the library a place for the public to have access to other media such as films.
“(This) was why we held a film festival recently to expose locals to other cultures through movies.
“During the festival, the library also signed a letter of intent to partner with the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Kuala Lumpur to exchange and share ideas, knowledge and experiences in areas of publishing, education and science training,” she said.
The collaboration would lead to cultural projects including exhibitions and movie festivals and open up more opportunities to use the library for community engagement, Ungku Noorakmal added.
“We are also discussing the possibility of having an exchange of books that reflect local life to extend our culture to the people of Kazan in Russia and vice versa.
“Perhaps we can start by having bilingual children’s books and gradually move to other genres,” she said, adding that the books could be digitised for easier sharing.
Ungku Noorakmal said the idea of screening Malaysian films in the library for free had also been discussed with the National Film Development Corporation Malaysia to attract more people of all ages to spend time at the library.She said the Johor Public Library was the first library to collaborate with Petrosains where visitors could touch, feel and experience science through interactive exhibits.
The library will be embarking on an urban farming project soon to promote sustainability and environmental awareness, she added.
