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🌱 Register here: https://nas.io/vcilmembers/events/nepmoi4
⏰ Time: 19:00, July 17, 2025
🎉 Format: Online via Zoom
✨ Language: English (Vietnamese translation available)
When you think of a library, what comes to mind?
A room full of books, tall shelves reaching high, where you must walk softly, speak so quietly you might as well be silent, like in a temple?
Yes – for a long time, we've imagined libraries this way. A solemn, quiet place, meant only for reading and storage.
But Neutinamu Library tells a completely different story.
Founded in 1999, Neutinamu is not just a library. It is a movement for transformation – a major shift in how we think about libraries. It is open and welcoming to anyone – to read books, to have conversations, to connect, or even to rest. You can borrow as many books as you wish, without limits.
At Neutinamu, you see children absorbed in reading, adults chatting together, people sharing meals in the community space. Plastics are collected for recycling, handmade items are created in the maker space – things that once seemed impossible happen every day.
Neutinamu goes far beyond the traditional library model – it is an open learning space, a community anchor, and a center of vibrant social activities.
Most remarkably, Neutinamu is neither a public library nor a private library in the conventional sense. It is a "commons library" – built, managed, and operated by the local community working together. It belongs to no individual and is not controlled by the state. This collective ownership is what makes Neutinamu's story truly magical.
For over two decades, the library has received support from more than 1,450 contributors. Today, roughly 500 people each month contribute their efforts to sustain it, with an annual budget exceeding 800,000 US dollars.
The library primarily hires local residents and holds regular Thursday meetings to discuss book selections and activities aligned with community needs. Library staff constantly interact directly with residents and members to understand current concerns and pressing issues.
Beyond collecting books, the library gathers diverse materials like pamphlets, articles, DVDs, essays, audio recordings – enabling everyone to explore and discover their own answers.
Notably, many shelves here are not organized by traditional academic categories, but instead by contemporary social questions relevant to community life. Material selection is based on topics the community cares about, featuring diverse resources like books, newspapers, documentaries, DVDs – reflecting the complexity and vibrancy of social life, rather than following conventional classification systems.
Neutinamu embodies David Bollier's definition of Commons: "a shared resource governed by the community of users according to their own rules and norms."
To better understand this remarkable story – how a library can become the soul of a community, a place where people meet, share, and together nurture knowledge and humanity – at Nếp Mới #4, we will meet and hear directly from Park Young-Sook – founder and director of Neutinamu Library.
Park Young-Sook (박영숙) is the founder and current Director and Chair of the Board of Trustees of Neutinamu Library in Yongin, South Korea. She began the library idea in 2000 when she used her personal savings to buy 3,000 books to open "Neutinamu Children's Library" in a basement space of an apartment complex, aiming to provide a welcoming reading and learning space for local children. Since then, Neutinamu has grown into a non-profit library, becoming a community hub with collaborative workspaces, maker space, and a rooftop garden that encourage creativity and learning through hands-on experience.
In 2003, she founded the Neutinamu Library Foundation (formerly the Neutinamu Cultural Foundation) to expand library culture and support other small private libraries. She has coordinated numerous public-private partnership projects, served on the Library Policy Committee appointed by South Korea's President (2011–2013), and held advisory and board roles at various social organizations. She is also the author of works including "My Child Reads" (2006), "Right to Dream" (2014), and "We Won't Serve Users as Kings" (2014), expressing the philosophy that "a library is an open learning space where people meet, exchange ideas, and grow together."
A monthly learning space to co-create a new civilization
Vcil Community aspires to build a new civilization centered on wellbeing and regeneration. To realize this vision, we encourage rethinking how we live, act, and imagine the future.
Drawing inspiration from the word "Nếp" in Vietnamese – which embodies the inherent patterns of culture, habits, and daily living – Vcil Community initiates Nếp Mới to create a nurturing space for new ways of living: prioritizing sustainable happiness and regenerating true wealth. This is a community space that helps everyone recognize and shed outdated patterns, absorb collective wisdom, and reimagine how we live, connect, and learn.
Each month, we will explore different topics – from Right Livelihood and cooperative models in Vietnam, to alternative economic and education models... Each month, Nếp Mới invites scholars, experts, and experienced practitioners to share on essential topics relevant to our lives. Participants will have opportunities to dialogue with them to deepen their understanding, find solutions to personal or collective issues, or begin meaningful work. More than just conversation, Nếp Mới is a space that nurtures reflection, promotes collaboration, and provides practical tools for our whole community to move toward a regenerative and flourishing future.
Nếp Mới is a monthly activity exclusively for Vcil Community members – to learn, grow, transform, and commit together. This is not merely a place to receive knowledge, but a space that cultivates "new patterns": new perspectives, new feelings, and new actions, to collectively create a world we long to belong to.
Fanpage: Vcil Community
Phone/Whatsapp/Zalo: (+84) 918580257 (Trinh Thai)
Email: vcil.group@gmail.com
New Ways will invite scholars, experts, and people with practical experience to share about essential and familiar topics in life
