Fostering Young Adult Readers: An Experience of Macau Academic Library Alliance

Abstract

Macau Academic Library Alliance (MALA) consists of nine university libraries in Macau. These libraries have a better reach to young adults – people who are in their late teens and early 20’s since most people pursue tertiary education in this age group. To take advantage of this reach, members of MALA work together to create an encourage and inviting environments for the young adults to develop and sustain in both academic and leisure reading.

MALA use three strategies to achieve three different goals. First, organizing activities like Macau Library Week, studies and exhibitions about local history and culture, special talks, and workshop, etc. can drive curiosity, imagination, and creativity. Second, sharing digital and physical resources such as sharing e-books, subscribed database, and theses, and using union catalogue to facilitate interlibrary loans can maximize reach with lower cost. Lastly, collaboration in and dialogue during research, conferences, exhibitions, etc., with members of MALA, public libraries, and external institutions can enhance knowledge and experience exchange so that librarians can make better plans to promote reading in the future.