‘Knyzhkobus’ mobile library will start travelling around Kyiv in several weeks

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Kyiv, September 15, 2015. An unusual bus route will appear in the streets of Kyiv. A bus will be reequipped as a mobile library with literature for children, their parents and young people. ‘Knyzhkobus’ (A Book Bus ) is a mobile hub travelling around schools and parks of the capital in order to promote reading, as there young people scarcely read any books at all. There is a popular belief among Ukrainian children that gadgets are cool and reading is not. The main goal of this project is mass promotion of love for reading,” emphasized founder of ‘Fedoriv’ marketing agency Andriy Fedoriv at a project presentation at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. According to Mr. Fedoriv, mobile libraries practice has been popular all over the world for a long time. Similar ‘Knyzhkobuses’ were travelling in Germany, USA, Africa and Russia.

“This project is intended to become a wheeled school of the future,” said head of Daryna Zholdak Foundation, Svitlana Som. According to her, target audience of the mobile hub will be quite wide. A ‘Knyzhkobus’ for preteens will look like a wheeled dream world, while it will be a cultural educational program for adults promoting reading among young generation. At the same time it will be entertainment platform for communication in public places and during festivals. According to the organizers, ‘Knyzhkobus’ will attend four schools every week during work. It will start working at 10 a.m. Volunteers of mobile hub will attract pupils by conducting quests. Pupils who win will attend lessons in the library-bus instead of school lessons, and anyone can access ‘Knyzhkobus’ after classes. Mobile library can be found at the central squares and parks of the city at the week-end. “Work inside the bus is divided into three zones. The first one is a book zone, where everyone can read a book or flip through it. The second one is a master-classes zone where communication with authors of books, lectures and discussions for youth. The third zone is interactive zone where children can see how the gadgets work and learn more about ‘Knyzhkobus’ work in the interactive way,” said head of the board of ‘Kolo’ charity fund Olena Kryvenko.

Implementation of the mobile library project was possible at the support of Kyiv city state administration. “When the organizers came to us asking to give them a bus for a library, we gladly supported the project. We do hope ‘Knyzhkobus’ will be travelling not only in the streets of the capital, but all over Ukraine,” said the head of marketing and PR service of communal enterprise ‘Kyivpastrans’ Anna Bondar. The organizers also said that ‘Knyzhkobus’ will be working not only as a mobile library; everyone can access the library online, where they can learn the location of the library, availability of books and even order the bus to come to certain location.