From 2023 - 2024 school year, library resource sharing approach will be applied to high schools in Khanh Hoa Province in order to make good use of materials and information available to provide users with broader access to a more extensive range of resources, contributing to promoting reading culture at school.

Library resource sharing refers to the collaborative practice of sharing materials, helping libraries to overcome limitations, including the unavailability of certain materials in their collections to better meet the needs of their users.

According to Le Dinh Thuan, Deputy Director of Khanh Hoa Department of Education & Training, compatible information technology infrastructures and sufficient human resources at schools are required to serve the resource sharing. Schools in the province are divided into 7 groups, each with a leading library in charge of connecting, coordinating, updating and sharing information resources.

Reading at Le Thanh Ton Private High School (Nha Trang City).

The resource sharing involves exchanging physical items such as printed books and digital materials periodically once a year. This is the first time the resource sharing approach will be used by schools within the same education level. To take good advantage of the resources, schools are required to have plans to manage the titles, number of materials, etc. in accordance with the Circular 16/2022 by the Ministry of Education & Training.

Each school, based their resources available, coordinates with other schools in the group to periodically share documents, keep resource sharing records together with evaluation about the resource sharing. By pooling their resources, libraries can enhance their collection development, vastly increase their users' selection and thus better meet their needs. When resources are in abundance, schools need further develop reading habits and reference skills, promote reading culture in various forms at school. 

In Khanh Hoa Province, there are currently 34 high schools, including 5 non-public schools with more than 37,000 students. In the school year 2022 - 2023, there were more than 28,400 sets of textbooks, 35,400 books for teachers, 97,500 reference books, 7,000 e-materials and 14 library management apps.

H.Ngan

Translated by N.T