In 2019, the Lu'an Library launched the reading brand activity "Gaocheng Public Lecture — Celebrating the Great Era with Literature." Guided by the principles of high-quality content, precise supply, and multi-dimensional promotion, it has transformed a series of lectures from individual events into an influential public cultural brand in Lu'an, expanding from "a corner of the library" to "a citywide passion."

To date, the Gaocheng Public Lecture has hosted 41 sessions featuring renowned speakers. The lectures cover a wide range of fields, including literary creation, historical research, science popularization, and family education.

How has this "small city" in western Anhui managed to attract so many "cultural celebrities"? Cheng Qian, a representative from the library, explained that this achievement is inseparable from the deep collaboration between the library and relevant professional institutions. The Lu'an Library adopts a public library operation model driven by both government leadership and market allocation, leveraging the networks and resources of professional institutions.

While hosting high-profile lectures and introducing high-quality cultural resources, the Gaocheng Public Lecture also closely integrates the local cultural heritage and the residents' attachment to their homeland. It carefully designs a series of local culture lectures with regional characteristics, achieving a two-way empowerment between the introduction of high-quality external cultural resources and the promotion of distinctive local culture. This approach ensures that reading promotion is both culturally elevated and warmly connected to the local community.

"Whenever I have time, I attend the library's public lectures. Listening to the lectures by renowned scholars has greatly benefited me. Many local cultural scholars from Lu'an have also left a deep impression on me. Their lectures on topics such as Gaotao culture, western Anhui folk customs, and revolutionary history have given me a deeper understanding of my hometown, allowing the historical heritage deeply rooted in this land to be seen, heard, and passed on," said reader Peng Dandan.

Amid the wave of digitalization and intelligent transformation, the Gaocheng Public Lecture, organized by the library, has moved beyond the singular model of "individual lectures" to create a multi-dimensional reading experience. By breaking spatial and temporal limitations, it enables lecture resources to be created once, disseminated multiple times, and shared across the region. This ensures that high-quality cultural resources transcend geography and time, reaching more citizens and readers, and promoting a comprehensive upgrade of cultural services from "one-time experiences" to "constant companionship." Readers can revisit highlights of the lectures on short-video platforms and explore distinctive local resources through 23 freely accessible digital resource databases. The library has also established 16 online service systems, including a cloud platform, "You Choose, I Purchase," a WeChat customer service system, and event registration, making services smoother and more efficient.

"Through years of practice, the library has developed 12 series of branded reading activities, fully igniting the public's enthusiasm for reading. In recent years, the library has consistently welcomed over 1.4 million visitors annually, with the circulation of books stabilizing at more than 1.66 million volumes per year," Cheng Qian said.

Source: Anhui Daily