Last year (2021), the Cultural Volunteer Team for Promoting Reading Habits of Kaohsiung Public Library received the 28th National Outstanding Cultural Volunteer Team Award from the Ministry of Culture, while two volunteers, Kuan Ts'ui-hua and Lo Hsiao-wei won the Silver Award and Bronze Award of the 29th National Outstanding Cultural Volunteer Individual Award for their work in promoting reading habits with a storytelling troupe in an remote area and the electronic version of Kaohsiung writers’ texts respectively this year (2022). The Ministry of Culture held an award ceremony at the Taipei Civil Service Development Institute -Howard Civil Service International House on Nov. 4.

The two volunteers who received the individual award this year have both been serving in Kaohsiung Public Library for more than 15 years, and this year, Kuan Ts'ui-hua, an activity volunteer at the Baoju Branch, received the Silver Award in the 29th "National Outstanding Cultural Volunteer" Individual Award. She is currently a member of the Tadpole Storytelling Troupe and the Donut Storytelling Troupe. She often performs storytelling at various branches, schools, and communities, as well as traveling with mobile libraries to school in remote areas. In addition, she also continues to participate in workshops on various fields in her free time to enrich her service capacity.

Kuan Ts'ui-hua believes that not only her own children but also others’ children should lead a good life to contribute to the overall benefits of the society. With this belief, she joined the library to promote reading habits. She participates in the team of weekly storytellers and attends the semi-annual Dragonfly Book Club which focuses on listening, speaking reading and writing. She also leads class trips to the library and joins the theater troupe to promote reading habits in elementary schools in remote areas. Furthermore, she takes part in the adult book club and helps with the creation of board games to serve readers aged 0-99.

Thanks to her expertise in word processing, Lo Hsiao-wei has helped with the establishment of the data and manuscript compilation of Kaohsiung writers. She has assisted in digitizing the data of nearly 200 Kaohsiung writers and has spared no effort in promoting reading habits. After learning that she would receive the Bronze Individual Award, she humbly said that she would continue to contribute to the library with "modesty, enthusiasm, care and patience".

The promotion of reading habits relies on our volunteers. During the pandemic, the library continued to provide outreach services through mobile libraries. In addition to providing books for loan, the library also collaborates with other organizations to promote the concepts of clean government, tax education, and traffic safety storytelling. We also offer on-line parent-child shared reading sessions. Monthly volunteer workshops are also held at different branches to provide opportunities for mutual learning and exchange,” said, Lin Yi-cheng, the Acting Director of Kaohsiung Public Library.

Kuan Ts'ui-hua received the Silver Award in the 29th "National Outstanding Cultural Volunteer" Individual Award.

Kuan Ts'ui-hua received the Silver Award in the 29th "National Outstanding Cultural Volunteer" Individual Award.

Kuan Ts'ui-hua received the Silver Award in the 29th "National Outstanding Cultural Volunteer" Individual Award.

Kuan Ts'ui-hua received the Silver Award in the 29th "National Outstanding Cultural Volunteer" Individual Award.

Lo Hsiao-wei received the Bronze Individual Award.

Lo Hsiao-wei received the Bronze Individual Award.