In order to further promote a reading culture in the community and disseminate the concept of “enriching life through reading”, the Public Library of the Cultural Affairs Bureau (IC, from the Portuguese acronym) launched the book swap activity “Book for Book” for the first time last year, which was well-received by the public. This year, the event will be held again in May in the communities of the Macao Peninsula and Taipa, facilitating the circulation and sharing of reading resources in the community through the establishment of a stable book exchange platform, and allowing more members of the public to participate and enjoy the fun and value of reading.
The first round of activity will be held on 17 and 18 May at the Leisure Area in Praça das Orquídeas, and on 24 and 25 May at Areia Preta Urban Park, from 12pm to 6pm, respectively. The book swap activity “Book for Book” is on a one-in-one-out approach. Participants simply bring their books that meet the criteria of exchange to the personnel on-site, select their favourite books and exchange for the equivalent number of their books. Each person will be able to exchange a maximum of 20 books in the event, in order to encourage more members of the public to participate and increase the circulation of books.
In order to ensure the quality and applicability of the book exchange, magazines, booklets, guidebooks for further studies, textbooks, activity catalogues, children’s cloth books, non-locally-published yearbooks, law books and examination guidebooks, science and engineering books published more than five years ago, computer books published more than three years ago, travel guides published more than two years ago, pornographic publications or violence books, religious books, pirated books or those in violation of copyright laws, damage and soiled books, incomplete collections, poorly bound books, books with missing pages or with pages that are easy to separate, and books with more than five volumes, are not included in the scope of this book swap activity.
The book swap activity “Book for Book” is one of the projects in IC’s event “Culture at Your Doorstep”, and is also an important part of the “Reading Month in the City of Macao 2025”, which aims to encourage residents to develop good reading habits, develop a reading culture in the community, and create a cultural atmosphere with books throughout the city.
IC sincerely invites members of the public to bring their unused good books to participate in the book swap activity “Book for Book” and share the joy of reading with other book lovers in the community. For more information, please contact the Public Library through tel. no. 2855 8049 or 2884 3105 during the opening hours of the Macao Public Library (closed on Monday mornings), or visit the website of the Macao Public Library at www.library.gov.mo or the mobile application “My Library”.
