Kaohsiung Public Library is this year to expand its library on wheels initiative for Southeast Asian migrant workers by making stops at more locations across the city, officials announced on Thursday.
Since November last year, the “Mobile Library: Reading Southeast Asia” program has on a monthly basis delivered books to female migrant workers living at Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s dormitories in the city’s Nanzih District (楠梓), the officials said.
The mobile library is to add the migrant workers’ residential complex and Laborers’ Park (勞工公園) in Cianjhen District (前鎮) to its itinerary, they said.
Photo: Huang Chia-lin, Taipei Times
The collection of 1,400 titles in Southeast Asian languages is to be increased by 400 books, mostly works in English and Filipino to accommodate a growing population of Philippine workers, they added.
The residential complex has an estimated population of 1,000 Philippine migrant workers, 100 Vietnamese and some Thai workers, the officials said.
Services at that location are to be available near dormitory units one to four on Kuojian Road, they said.
The Laborers’ Park stop would make it easier for migrant workers in the nursing or elderly care sectors to borrow books, the officials said.
Services are to be available at the entrance of the Laborers’ Recreation Center near the park from 3pm to 5pm on the last Wednesday of each month, they said.
The library on wheels program is to have translators hired from the city’s new immigrants, as well as sing-along and storytelling services for older people who migrant workers are caring for, when appropriate, they added.
The municipal library thanked the National Immigration Agency’s local office and the Kaohsiung Labor Affairs Bureau for their assistance in furnishing the venues and other support for the program.
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