Free electronic street libraries in Tbilisi, Georgia

Saba Publishing House, the Tbilisi Municipal Government, adn the Presidential Fund of Georgia will launch free electronic street libraries in Tbilisi. The electronic street libraries will be available in streets, parks, and gardens around the city of Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia (Georgia Today, Feb 28 – Mar 2, 2017).

The new project, called City-Library, will make hundreds of e-books available for download. There will be 300 electronic library stands throughout the city.

Using the Saba Reader app, the Saba Publishing House collection will be available free of charge.

The City-Library project is expected to become a literary guide to the city, to transform the city into an open-air library.

The planning for the electronic street libraries will commence soon, and is expected to be finalized by April 2017.

Beginning with 50 streets named after famous Georgian writers, electronic library stands will be created, listing the author’s works with QR codes to dowload the works. For example, the electronic library stand photographed for this article was taken on Shota Rustaveli Avenue outside the Georgian National Museum. Shota Rustaveli (1160-about 1220) is one of Georgia’s best loved medieval poets, famous for his epic poem ‘The Knight in the Panther’s Skin.’

Georgian poet Shota Rustaveli, produced in 1937 by Irakli Toidze

The electronic street library stands wil also be installed in 12 parks around the city and at every metro station.

MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of:- The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).