Currently, reading books has become easier and more enjoyable with various options available. It’s not just physical books but also reading books in digital format. Digital books can be a solution to the limitation of the number of printed reading materials available in schools. These digital books are also very practical as they can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

Taman Bacaan Pelangi (Rainbow Reading Gardens) introduced the “Digital Library” program supported by the Givaudan Foundation, providing training and assistance to school partners to implement the use of digital books on the literacycloud.org platform from Room to Read. This program will be held in four selected partner schools, one of which is Pammulukang Elementary School, Mamuju, West Sulawesi.

SDN Pammulukang’s teachers are following the Literacy Cloud training, which is facilitated by TBP team

Teachers learn together starting from understanding the literacy cloud comprehensively, creating accounts on the literacy cloud, exploring its features, and practicing activities such as loud reading and group reading using digital books on the platform. The training, held from February 15-16, 2024, was enthusiastically attended by teachers at Pammulukang Elementary School. It was followed by a one-week intensive guidance on implementing reading activities using digital books in the library with students according to their visiting hours.

One of the teachers is practicing using Literacy Cloud for reading aloud in front of the students

“Thank you to Taman Bacaan Pelangi and Givaudan for their support to our school, starting from developing child-friendly libraries in 2022 to receiving this year’s digital library program,” said Mrs. Samsinar, the Head of Pammulukang Elementary School, Mamuju, during the opening of this Digital Library training activity. Likewise, Mrs. Ruhama, the Librarian of Pammulukang Elementary School, mentioned that reading and borrowing books are actively and routinely carried out until now, and through this training, they can increase the book collection and students’ enthusiasm to become more accustomed to reading books.

TBP team is handing out a laptop device to SDN Pammulukang’s respresentative

In addition to the training and program assistance, Taman Bacaan Pelangi also donated a device such as a laptop to the school for use in the library during reading activities or to complete library administration tasks. With the introduction of this program, it is hoped that students’ reading activities will become more enjoyable, and their reading materials will become more diverse.