A group photo of distinguished guests at the press conference for the release of 2022 Annual Report on Reading Atmosphere and Reading Engagement in Taiwan.

3/29 The National Library issued the 2022 Annual Report on Reading Atmosphere and Reading Engagement in Taiwan. Kaohsiung was selected as the city with excellent reading engagement. The average number of borrowed books per person in Kaohsiung in 2022 was 5.94, the first place among Taiwan’s six special municipalities. The average number of visitors jumped from the sixth place in 2021 to the first place last year after the easing of the epidemic and the opening of the Cultural and Creative Industrial Co-Construction Hall. The average number of books that each citizen can borrow (size of collection/city population), the percentage of license holders, average frequency of website resource use are all ranked top three of Taiwan’s six special municipalities, which is an outstanding result. This also shows that the opening of the Cultural and Creative Industrial Co-Construction Hall has increased the flow of people in these two buildings and attracted many citizens to visit and experience the new reading field. Wang Wen-cui, chairperson of Kaohsiung Public Library and director of general of Bureau of Culture Affairs of Kaohsiung City Government, said that the co-construction of Kaohsiung Public Library and its business partners has brought a new model of innovations to reading in Kaohsiung. The first Kaohsiung Reading Festival was held in the second half of 2022 with other national cultural events including the "Creative Expo Taiwan" and "Taiwan Design Expo." Kaohsiung Public Library worked with BLEU & BOOK at the Cultural and Creative Industrial Co-Construction Hall, 18 local independent bookstores, and publishers to hold six book fairs and hundreds of events to make reading and cross-domain integration possible and create innovative experiences for readers. Lin Yi-cheng, acting director of Kaohsiung Public Library, said that the "2022 Annual Report on Reading Atmosphere and Reading Engagement in Taiwan" shows that Kaohsiung's reading ability has improved year after year. In 2022, the number of books borrowed from the Kaohsiung Public Library exceeded 16 million. Nearly 24% of the books, 24 books out of every 100 books, were borrowed and returned through inter-library loan & service. In short, inter-library loan & service has become a convenient service that readers rely on. Since the establishment of Kaohsiung Mobile Library Team, a total of more than 20,000 trips have been made. The number of books through inter-library loan & service has reached 32 million and the total mileage has exceeded 1 million kilometers. This team has enabled the books of Kaohsiung Public Library to circulate smoothly in the whole city and increase the number of borrowed books. Through book fairs, lectures, and various types of reading promotion activities, readers have a wider exposure to books on different topics. The number of books borrowed by Kaohsiung citizens has been the highest among Taiwan’s six special municipalities for two consecutive years. This year, the average number of borrowed books per person broke 5 for the first time. The diversified reading activities have contributed to a record high of 850 trips made by the mobile libraries. In response to the bilingual policy, Kaohsiung Public Library arranged 2 more English mobile libraries for the schools in the city. The library also resumed the service of "sending books to classrooms" and set up more community-shared reading stations and non-profit kindergarten libraries. It also launched dual e-book platforms, with over 120000 e-books available for the public to choose from. The promotion of Ireading platform and community activities during the summer vacation has been well received by the public. In the future, the reading promotion of Kaohsiung Public Library will not stop. More convenient reading channels and activities will be offered, so readers can easily obtain a rich reading experience, and the city's reading ability can be enhanced.

2022 City with Excellent Reading Engagement (special municipality group).

The city with excellent performance in terms of the number of books (size of collection/city population) that can be borrowed by each citizen

(special municipality group).

The city with excellent performance in the use of website resources (special municipality group).

The city with excellent performance in terms of the number of books borrowed by each citizen (special municipality group).

Cities with excellent performance in the number of visits per person to the library (municipalities group).