International Report

摘要

The Pacific island nation of Tonga opened its first public library in October thanks to the efforts of volunteers and donor generosity. Many libraries in Auckland, New Zealand, as well as individuals, donated books, while local Tongans helped renovate the abandoned building in Kolovai where it is housed. The driving force behind the project is Auckland couple Kahoa and Brendan Corbett, who visited Tonga shortly after Tropical Cyclone Gita devastated it in 2018. They saw that many schools and their books were destroyed in the disaster and decided that the nation, which has a 99.34% literacy rate, needed a good public library.