Valenzuela City has new tack to get folks reading

No. In Valenzuela City, these plastic bins will not contain trash at all.

Instead, several of these containers will serve as repository for supplementary reading materials, which in turn will be found in the city’s new Library Hub in Barangay (village) Dalandanan.

The hub, which aims to encourage reading among students, will deviate from the traditional library setup that sees individual books placed on shelves and categorized by subject or author.

The new strategy will therefore allow individuals to borrow many more books than the old system allowed.

“We believe that reading is the foundation of learning, (that’s why we came up with something new),” Flordeliza Mayari, the city’s Department of Education division head, said.

Although the renovation of the two rooms in the Valenzuela City Astrodome, which will serve as the new library, has already been completed, the hub is expected to operate later within the year.

Aside from a storage area, it will house a reading area for browsing literary works and reference books, and a place where several activities, such as storytelling, can be conducted.

It will also have a broadband-connected computer unit for accessing sites.

According to local officials, the hub will be supervised by a trained librarian.