"Home Run Readers": a Reading Promotion Program under Cross Field Cooperation

Abstract

In order to carry the role of promoting nation-wide reading, National Library of Public Information (NLPI) launched the “Home Run Readers Program” since 2016. Through this program, public organizations and private enterprises integrated their resources, aiming at the most popular sport in Taiwan: baseball. We invited baseball stars (celebrities, players) as “Public Affair Ambassadors” based on the strategy of sport marketing. Thus, fans can be transformed into readers, and vice versa. This idea gains full support of a well-known financial group and baseball team. The promotion model goes beyond the library and reaches the financial and sports marketing channel. To further promote this program, NLPI used multiple popular social media, including self-built E-book system, simultaneously holding both online and physical book fairs in remote towns, enclosing the gap of information between urban and rural areas. By the 6th year, the base of participants is still widening, as more platforms, like e-bookstores, joined the program to promote reading culture countrywide.