The Ministry of Education in association with local councils this morning launched a three-month campaign to encourage people to make greater use of the National Public Library and lending libraries.
"Just 5,000 people went to the national library last year, and most of them were foreigners," Education Minister Dolores Cristina said.
"People are not appreciating the wealth of knowledge in the National Library. A visit to the National Library is a walk through history."
She added that far too few people were using the lending libraries, and that number too needed to rise.
The campaign will feature meetings with authors, exhibitions about books and authors and a number if competitions.