The Book Give movement started when Sisain newspaper reporter Ko Jae-youl tweeted, “Let’s donate neglected books to people who really need them,” to commemorate the 200th issue of Sisain. His idea was that “being poor should not necessarily lead to a destitute bookshelf.” Ko’s plan was neither fully structured nor backed with financial support, but participants’ passion was enough to fuel the movement from June 24 to Sept. 3 and send 22,000 books to 22 places in Korea.
Season two of the movement began on Oct. 17 with systems that had “book-stops,” designated institutions to receive and pick up donated books, pay for the delivered books and allowed those receiving books to pick out the ones they wished to have. These freed donors from worries of the delivery cost and increased satisfaction among recipients.
The Book Give movement also saw light in the United States of America when a participator from season one organized “Book Give Movement USA” in Seattle, hoping to support multicultural families.
In addition to its spread overseas, the Book Give movement disseminated from ordinary people and businessmen to university students, with Ewha’s Live Library, a library run by students, taking the lead.
“We joined this movement, because we sympathized with its motive and it corresponded with our role of reaching out to students through books,” said Kim Se-hee (Department of Social Studies, 2), the director of the Live Library.
The Live Library has been designated as a sub book-stop and received book donations on the first floor lobby of the Student Union building as well as in room 242. Its students are also participating in the planning committee for a Book Concert, an event intended to gather the public’s attention and compassion toward the movement, which will be held on Dec. 20.
There are currently over 300 book donations at the Live Library, and Ewha professors have given much support by sending in quality books from various fields.
“We were surprised by how eager they were to help us,” Kim said. “In the case of the Ewha College of Pharmacy, the dean himself promoted this campaign to the students, and the administration office collected the books.”
For the following seasons, Ewha will be joined by other universities.
“Sungkyunkwan University, Korea University and Konkuk University will be with us in seasons three and four. Hopefully, this movement extends to all the other universities, so that the student version of the Book Give movement can come to life,” Kim said.
Chung Yoon-young
yychung@ewhain.net