Taipei Public Library has announced that it will open its second "self-service" branch at the city's Ximen MRT Station late next month. The 60-ping branch will have a collection of over 15,000 books, mainly geared toward and focusing on Taiwan's youth culture.
The library's first self-service center was established at Carrefour's Neihu store in July last year.
According to the library's Director Tseng Shu-hsien (
Tseng says that many book lovers often borrow books after completing their grocery shopping at Carrefour, and this has successfully promoted reading in the neighborhood.
To promote reading in the whole city, especially among the city's youngsters, the library, with the help of Taipei Rapid Transit Corporation, is building its second self-service branch at Ximen Station, located in Ximending.
Tseng hopes that students from neighboring schools, as well as young people who go shopping or go to the movies in Ximending can come along and visit the branch.
Tseng said the library will only change its collection periodically. Since it is located in the Ximending area, the branch will stock comic books, literature, detective and adventure stories, history books, science fiction and martial arts novels.
Readers can borrow books by inserting their cards into a machine, and then placing the books on a pad for automatic identification. The machine will then print out a receipt. Customers can return the books to any branch they choose.
The library will use a RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) system, an automatic identification method which stores and retrieves data through chips attached to each book.
The new branch will be open between 6am and midnight every day, she added.
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