“Not a day goes by without reading.” This phrase perfectly describes the daily life of students at SDN 5 Bambangan, Majene Regency, West Sulawesi, since the inauguration of the Child-Friendly Library by Taman Bacaan Pelangi in June 2025. According to teachers’ observations, students enthusiastically visit the library every day to read books, both during scheduled compulsory library hours and during free time such as recess. This enthusiasm is also reflected in the school’s monthly borrowing data, which shows that each student borrows three to five books per month.

Mrs. Fajriah, one of the teachers at SDN Bambangan, consistently accompanies the students in her Grade 2 homeroom class to read in the library. She guides her students in reading activities every Monday, following the scheduled library visit hours. The activities vary, including read-aloud sessions, shared reading, paired reading, and independent reading for students who are already fluent readers.

In addition to physical books, the library at SDN 05 Bambangan is also equipped with digital books. In October 2025, Mrs. Fajriah and other teachers from SDN 5 Bambangan participated in a Digital Library training organized by Taman Bacaan Pelangi. “The training lasted for three days, during which I learned what digital books are, how to access them, which platforms are used, how to create accounts on each digital book platform, and how to conduct reading activities using digital books,” she explained.

Besides simulations with fellow teachers, Mrs. Fajriah also had the opportunity to conduct simulations with her students. “It was very exciting to see how enthusiastic the students were when operating tablet devices to read digital books. This was their first experience. They realized that reading materials can also be accessed through electronic devices such as tablets or mobile phones,” she added.

When introducing one of the digital book platforms, the Let’s Read application, most students quickly understood how to use it. They learned how to open the application, choose a book to read, enlarge or reduce the text size, change the background color of the text, and close the application. Nevertheless, as a teacher, it remains important to continuously accompany the students during digital reading sessions and ensure that all students have opened their reading materials.

Now, nearly three months later, reading with digital books has become one of the regular activities carried out with students during library visit hours. Each month, Mrs. Fajriah conducts digital reading activities with her students twice. “I see that students are becoming more motivated to read because the applications and other digital book platforms offer a wider variety of books. In addition, students also experience the ease of access when reading digital books. It is a very enjoyable activity—like playing with a gadget, but packaged in a more educational way.”

The Digital Library program serves as a complement to strengthening fun literacy activities in the school library. In addition to reading physical books, students also gain hands-on experience in easily accessing thousands of digital books through a single device.