Mehrabad Industrial Company Library

Geographical Location: Mehrabad, Tehran province

Librarian: Fereshteh Joudaki

Start Date: March 2021

Supporter: Mehrabad Industrial Company

It was in the beginning of Winter 2021 that Mehrabad Company, which works in the field of electricity industry in Tehran, announced its interest in establishing a child-centered library for the children and the families of its factory workers to The Institute for Research on the History of Children’s Literature and Read with Me group. The company undertook the task of financial support for the establishment and the management of this library so that a rich resource of quality books would be available to the children of workers and employees of this factory. After an evaluation visit of the factory by the representative of the Institute as well as the completion of assessments by Read with Me library team, a memorandum of understanding was signed and the work on selecting and collecting books and library sources as well as designing the setting of the library was started.

On March 9^th, 2022, Fereshteh Joudaki, one the experienced reading promoters of Read with Me program who had accepted the responsibility of managing Mehrabad Company Library started organizing more than 600 volumes of books that were sent for this library. At the recommendation of Mr. Dehqani, the CEO of the company who had supervised all the processes of building and equipping the library, one of the workers who was interested in this program came to Ms. Joudaki’s assistance so that the work of establishing the library would be finished sooner. As the colorful books had amazed everyone, Ms. Joudaki took the opportunity to talk about the differences between high and low quality books as well as the slogan of the program, “All children have the right to read quality books”.

Children’s and Adolescents’ Library of Mehrabad Industrial Company will cover more than 60 children and adolescents. Also, there are books for adults on the subject of educating children and adolescents.

The library was finally inaugurated on March 14^th, less than one week to the end of Persian year. Read with Me experts will supervise the activities of the library in all stages and will assist the librarian in implementing programs in the best way.

It should be noted that Mehrabad Industrial Company Library is the second experience of Read with Me program in factories and industrial settings. Seven years ago, Sazvar Sazeh Azarestan Company Library was the first of its kind to join Read with Me library team.