Text: Yan Lam / Photographer: Panda Lei
Macau Public Library's driving team is certainly not the most outstanding group among the library staff. However, they are responsible for the important task of ensuring the flow of books in the city. Every week, off-site mobile library drivers shuttle between different districts of Macau, driving the vehicle of knowledge into communities and promoting reading to citizens; whereas in-house drivers deliver books to different library branches safely and punctually every day, accommodating the inter-library loan service that readers delight in. In the current issue of "Books and the City", we will approach the drivers of the Library and chat with them to understand how they circulate books in the city.
Mobile Library Driver: Donny
Mr Ho Weng Cheng (Donny) isin charge of the steering wheel of the mobile library. Regardless of the weather, he drives between and parks at the three service spots at Rua Nova da Areia Preta, Avenida de Artur Tamagnini Barbosa and Avenida de Vale das Borboletas four days a week. Mr Ho joined the Library's driving team last year and as an experienced driver, he said that it is not difficult to drive the mobile library through the streets. On the contrary, his new challenge is to spread the reading atmosphere to communities and allow more citizens to get in touch with books. Every time after parking the mobile library, Mr Ho also assists the mobile library staff to perform some simple tasks, such as arranging the books on the vehicle. Mr Ho speaks four languages – Chinese, English, French and Portuguese. Therefore, when tourists are curious about the mobile library, he will introduce the services of the mobile library to the tourists on his own initiative. He will also recommend books to the readers. In addition, Mr Ho also loves reading himself, and is especially interested in books of Macau historian Father Manuel Teixeira.
In-house Driver of the Library: Hou
Compared to mobile library drivers, readers are more unfamiliar with the in-house drivers of the Library, right? However, the convenient inter-library loan service is only possible because of them. Tong Kam Hou is one of the in-house drivers of the Library. Having worked in the public sector for almost 30 years, he joined the Library's driving team in 2014. Hou humbly stated that his work is indeed very easy. He only has to follow the instructions and deliver books, documents or even staff members to different library branches safely and punctually. After arriving at Sir Robert Ho Tung Library at 9 a.m. every morning, he begins to count the list of books to be delivered and move the books to the government vehicle after categorising. Afterwards, he will head towards the various libraries in Macau, Taipa and Coloane. In case of emergencies, he will even ride motorcycle to deliver documents and books. Regardless of the weather, Hou always arrives at the appointed time, bringing the books and documents to the relevant colleagues, finishing the distribution of books among the branches and facilitating readers to use the inter-library loan service.
