An aerial photo of the Central Ecological Corridor Branch of the Optics Valley Book Rooms, which is located in the East Lake High-tech Development Zone (also known as Optics Valley of China, or OVC). [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

In April last year, a WeChat article about the opening of the first batch of Optics Valley Book Rooms attracted residents' attention, with the comment "Let's make OVC the region with the most book lovers" gaining traction.

This year, the Central Ecological Corridor Branch of the Optics Valley Book Rooms will also open to the public. It will have a simplistic and modern appearance and will be surrounded by a large patch of green space. The new branch is expected to hold 20,000 books.

The Optics Valley Book Rooms are an important public service platform to fulfill the initiative of a "12-minute reading circle". This initiative enables people to access book sources within a 12 minute walk from their homes.

So far, four branches of these book rooms have been put into use, with a total book collection of 60,000. Book sharing between the book rooms and the Hubei Provincial Library has also been achieved.

Readers reading at a branch of the Optics Valley Book Rooms. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

OVC has been making efforts to build its book rooms in areas with high foot traffic, sci-tech industrial parks, and residential communities.

In addition, the Optics Valley Culture Center is currently being constructed. Once completed, it will occupy an area of 170,000 square meters and integrate libraries, galleries, museums, youth activity centers, and universities for the elderly.

Statistics show that OVC has attracted four Nobel Prize winners, 66 academicians, nearly 3,000 talents from the 3551 Optics Valley Program, as well as more than 7,000 domestic and overseas talent teams. That is why such book rooms are desperately needed, even in the AI era.

Li Xiao helps her son read a book. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

The 34-year-old Li Xiao is one of the OVC readers. Over the past year, she has borrowed 336 books from the Optics Valley Book Rooms.

"Reading paper books can inspire our imaginations to a great extent. It enables children to gain a worldly perspective and take in knowledge in a more systematic manner," Li said. Working in international trade, she works online and makes time to read more books.