Library culture on decline in Delhi

It has been over seven years and students of one of the Delhi government schools have neither seen their library even once nor got a single book issued.

It has been over seven years and students of one of the Delhi government schools have neither seen their library even once nor got a single book issued. In another school, a librarian joined a month ago after four years of the post remaining vacant and complains that 80% of the books are of no use and school children will never pick them up.

When it comes to libraries, all Delhi government schools may have functional ones and there may not be any dearth of books but the usage and the number of readers are alarmingly low. Interestingly, one may find books in languages and in contexts that no children or a teacher can understand. 

As one of the school heads said on the condition of anonymity, “We have books in Urdu language but not even a single student or a teacher can read it. We have science and Maths competitive books despite the fact that we are a school only having humanities. We have high-level Indian ancient history books which have never been issued or picked up to read by anyone.”

“Leave this aside, we do not even have readers for books by authors like Rudyard Kipling, David Cooper and Oliver Twist,” the school head added.

Meanwhile, speaking to the librarian, she said, “In the digital age, we need projectors and computers too in the libraries to inculcate the reading habit among students, but we do not have adequate infrastructure. Children do come to the library but they treat it like a free period. We cannot force them to read books, which don’t interest them.” 

In another school, where a group of 21 children were attending the library period for the first time since the session began this month, they were apparently excited to get a book issued and take it back home.  Ram, a class 10 student, said, “It is the first time I have come to the library since I joined the school in class 2. We never got an opportunity to sit in the library; I don’t even remember having a library period in the past.”

Another student, Sujal said, “I have never read a book but I love reading biographies of authors mentioned in the books. It tells so much about the person who has written the book.” 

Although the school libraries in Delhi are in a much better position when compared to some states where either there are no school libraries or schools have no librarians, the condition of the libraries is far from satisfactory. 

sourav roy

Lack of proper staff

In all government schools, there is only one librarian working. For proper maintenance and use of library resources, one assistant librarian is required to assist the librarian. A librarian said, requesting anonymity, “It is difficult to handle 6,000 books and keep a record of it all alone and then handle the students as well. At least one assistant is required. Also, the librarians are given various other duties and tasks which affect their work.” 

Vacant posts of librarians

According to the librarians, there are no promotional avenues for them. They are appointed as librarians and retire as librarians. Sometimes, guest teachers are appointed as librarians and when a school gets permanent staff, the previously appointed librarian is shifted to another school with new challenges. In some schools, the posts of librarians are still lying vacant due to which non-subject teachers have to take over.

Inadequate funds are given by govt

The grants given to the libraries depend upon the number of students enrolled in the schools. Although most schools have no complaints about the funding for the libraries, the school heads complain that the education department is spending unnecessary money on books which are of no use. For the academic session 2022-23, it allocated a maximum of Rs 3 lakhs per year to the schools. 

The selection process of books

In Delhi schools, books can only be procured out of the list of books approved by the directorate of education. Librarians and school heads complain that this process curtails their role in developing a collection of books as per the choice of the children. Due to this, librarians say, they are unable to catalogue or classify books systematically. “Books should be procured through a book selection committee composed of teachers and even students,” they say.

In 2018, for the smooth functioning of libraries in all government schools under the Delhi Directorate of Education, all heads of the schools were directed to ensure that the librarian does the classification and cataloguing of the resources such as books/ CD/maps and e-resources/globes etc of the library; ensuring open access to the library, maintaining proper decorum and ambience in the library, enriching library with a good collection of books and other materials; inculcating reading habits among the students and constituting a school library committee with four members.

However, no such committees exist in most of the schools.Earlier, till 2017, schools used to buy books year after year on the basis of choice and need. Now, each school has been allocated a separate fund for the procurement of books for its respective libraries.

Infrastructure issues

While there is no dearth of books as the education department has been spending freely on their procurement, some schools do not even have adequate or separate space to house the books. In some government schools, libraries are used as staff rooms and while in others, libraries are used as classrooms because of a lack of adequate space.

However, some of the new specialized schools of excellence score well on most of these counts.  The libraries in these schools are not only limited to reading books but hold several activities which instil excitement among the students. These include reading competitions, drawing/painting, and games. 

As per the government, some such libraries exist in the School of Excellence, Rohini Sector 17, School of Excellence, Khichripur, School of Excellence, Kalkaji and School of Excellence, Dwarka Sector 22. Incidentally, in January this year, former Deputy CM Manish Sisodia, currently in jail for his alleged role in the excise ‘scam’, inaugurated a virtual mega-book fair for Delhi government schools.

Sisodia had said that books play a vital role in the overall development of children, considering that, the government had made necessary changes in the school libraries. Considering the ground reality, however, it seems to have been just political rhetoric.

First ‘library’ had clay tablets dating back to 2600 BC

The first libraries consisted of archives of the earliest form of writing – the clay tablets in cuneiform script discovered in temple rooms in Sumer, some dating back to 2600 BC. About an inch thick, tablets came in various shapes and sizes. Mud-like clay was placed in the wooden frames, and the surface was smoothed for writing and allowed to dry until damp. After being inscribed, the clay dried in the sun or, for a harder finish, was baked in a kiln. For storage, tablets could be stacked on edge, side by side, the contents described by a title written on the edge that faced out and was readily seen.  

The first libraries appeared five thousand years ago in Southwest Asia’s ‘Fertile Crescent’, an area that ran from Mesopotamia to the Nile in Africa. Known as the cradle of civilization, the ‘Fertile Crescent’ was the birthplace of writing. These archives, which mainly consisted of the records of commercial transactions or inventories, mark the end of prehistory and the start of history.  Things were very similar in the government and temple records on papyrus of Ancient Egypt. The earliest discovered private archives were kept at Ugarit; besides correspondence and inventories, texts of myths may have been standardized practice-texts for teaching new scribes.

Setting up of National Library a landmark step in India

When libraries began developing in India during the early nineteenth century, they were a Western product. In 1808, the Govt of Bombay proposed to register libraries, which was the beginning of the first phase of public library development in India. During the first half of the 19th century, the presidency towns of Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras had public libraries mostly financed by Europeans residing in these towns. Of these, the establishment of the public library at Calcutta in 1835 was the  most significant. This was later developed into the National Library of India. 

Almost simultaneously, subscription libraries were started in many Indian cities. These were not really public libraries and did not provide free books for all, catering mainly to affluent sections of society. After Independence, the National Library came into being in the place of the Imperial Library. It was accorded a special status as an institution of national importance in Article 62 in the 7th Schedule of the Union list of the Constitution of India and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, the then Union minister of education opened the library to the public on February 1, 1953.

Most government school students have not been exposed to the habit of reading books in the libraries, which, in turn, are stocked with irrelevant books and often suffer from infrastructure inadequacies. A report by Ifrah Mufti  

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