The Hindu : Library Council bid to promote reading habit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 23, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Kerala

Library Council bid to promote reading habit

By Anand Haridas

KOCHI JUNE 22. Even though old- timers complain that reading habit is on the wane, the State Library Council is all out to rope in new members to the reading community.

"We are giving accent to promoting reading habits among children. Libraries across the State have been asked to buy more books for children and mark out children's corners,'' said Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan, president of the Council.

Already, the Council has initiated many camps for children starting from the last summer vacation. "Arivarangu, which involves initiating children to the realm of poetry as well as arranging interaction with leading writers is an ongoing programme of the Council,'' Mr. Ramakrishnan said.

The Council has been concentrating on promoting reading among women for sometime now. The strategy is to assign libraries to take books to readers at home rather than waiting for them to come to the library.

The Council is also about to rework the grading system for libraries. According to the existing grading system, libraries are classified into grades A to F and a `special' grade.

District libraries like the Ernakulam Public Library come under the `special' category and are eligible for grants up to Rs. 20,000. A-grade libraries are eligible for Rs. 10,000 and F-grade libraries at the lower end get Rs. 2,000.

According to the new recommendation, gradations will be changed to Special 1, 2 and grades A to D. "By reducing the number of grades, the minimum limit for grants can be raised," Mr. Ramakrishnan said.

Even though those at the Council admit that the funds are not enough for buying books every year, they cannot do anything much in the present scenario.

This could be one reason why the district wing of the Library Council is keeping a low profile during the ongoing `Reading Week' celebrations. "We are holding reading competitions in schools in the district. Besides that, we are following up ongoing schemes like `Vanithavedi', `Balavedi' and mobile library,'' said C. K. Manisankar, president of the District Library Council.

However, the situation is not that bright for libraries. As one of the book shop owners in the city puts it, the total worth of books being printed every year comes to around Rs. 80,000 and no wonder, those at libraries concentrate on procuring maximum number of titles without giving any thought for quality.

"Every year, we revise our demand placed before the Library Council. We need at least Rs. 5 or 6 lakhs to purchase enough books. So far, we have not received any positive response from the Council,'' said C. Raveendranath, honorary secretary, Ernakulam Public Library. The Ernakulam Public Library last received a lump sum amount as grant in 1998.

But that has not discouraged the Ernakulam Public Library officials from going ahead with development works, it seems. The library has added about 2,500 members during the recently held membership drive that ended on April 30.

The Public Library is now preparing to bring in titles related to career courses like the IAS and expand its student base. "We have noticed that majority of the students who visit the library for academic purposes get converted as members,'' Mr. Raveendranath said.

On their part, the Library Council is also making efforts in upgrading libraries technically. "According to the present scheme, we give one computer for one library in a taluk. We also promote libraries like the Kesav Memorial library at Valayanchirangara that has come up with innovative projects,'' Mr. Manisankar said.

The `Reading Week', which started last Thursday, will be on through this week.

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Library Council bid to promote reading habit