광주가 읽고 톡하다
Chonnam National University (CNU) has started a new community reading project, ‘Gwangju Reads and Talks (GRAT)’, which is supervised by the CNU Library to communicate with Gwangju citizens through social reading. It is rarely possible to form a connection among civilians, but by reading the same books, they can exchange their opinions with each other easily and it will eventually make a strong tie among them, and that is the reason why CNU has organized this project as a regional hub university.
This project is based on the form of ‘One City One Book’ that commenced in 1998, named as ‘If All of Seattle Read the Same Book’ by the Seattle Public Library’s Washington Center for the Book, United States of America. In Korea, Seosan City and the Korean Library Association started this kind of project for the first time in 2003, followed by Suncheon, Busan, Seoul, Wonju, Daegu, and finally, Gwangju will join them. But, Gwangju’s reading project is special. “Many cities have been doing the community reading project, but the GRAT is considered to have historic importance as it is the first time a university library will lead this pan-regional project not only in Korea, but all over the world.” said Lim Yeo-jin, the team leader from CNULIDT.
In preparation for the project, 10 members of the Book Selection Committee (BSC), including four CNU professors, chose 10 candidate books from a wide variety of genres, which they thought to be appropriate for citizens’ reading based on eight standards. Chang Woo-kwon (Professor, Dept. of Library and Information Science), one of the committee members, said, “In my case, those books that identify with Gwangju as the shrine of democracy and as a human rights city were what I rated highly for selection. As a member of the BSC, I recommend citizens, especially students, to read good books and enrich their intellectual nourishment.” Gwanju citizens can join in a vote for choosing the best book for reading this year. The poll is available both online (www.ktalk.jnu.ac.kr) and offline (seven public libraries in Gwangju except Sansu Library) from May 16th to June 6th. On June 18th, there will be an announcement of 2013 Gwangju Book of the Year. Also, an extra 10 books for the advanced reading process will be added.
As one way to participate in the project, citizens can enroll in a reading club with a maximum of 10 people through the GRAT website. What the self-regulating reading club does is to read the selected book given by GRAT, discuss the text and share their thoughts or opinions. GRAT will help them as a ‘reading buddy’, for example, they will answer people’s questions related to the books. All the groups will receive an evaluation about their reading activity and the best reading group will get a prize in December. Also, people can attend lectures given by the author of the book once or twice a year. The first meeting with the author is on June 18th. The author will explain the book and its themes and audiences can ask questions about it. In November, a reading discussion with the writer about the book and its theme is scheduled at CNU.
Jung Bong-nam, who has been doing a reading movement known as ‘Small Library Movement’ since 2007, revealed her expectation for the CNU Library’s project with Gwangju Metropolitan City. “There is lack of cultural exchanges between citizens. I hope that the GRAT members will dedicate themselves to relating to the Gwangju citizens and form a close community through reading the same book. For that, the GRAT should listen to what citizens want carefully.” The Chonnam Tribune wishes the GRAT success, which will empower CNU as the regional hub university.
By Pyun Ja-seong, Student Editor
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