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Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Books. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Fostering reading habits in youth


WEB LINKS

In an attempt to bring students closer to the world of books, INDIAreads Online Library launched ‘Literathon’, a nationwide initiative to foster greater interaction between students and the literary world.

Its inauguration recently took place at the Conference Hall, Delhi University in association with Delhi School of Economics. The event kick-started with launch of ‘Poor Little Rich Slum’, a book by Rashmi Bansal and international management consultant Dr Deepak Gandhi. 

There was also a book reading session by Member of Planning Commission Dr Syeda Hameed and Gunjan Veda who read from their new non fiction-  ‘Beautiful Country: Stories from Another India’.  

The event was a sincere endeavour to provide students and faculty with an opportunity to get acquainted with books and interact with renowned authors. Literathon comprises a host of activities including book launches, talks, interactive sessions, book readings, book bazaars, creative writing workshops and online and on-the-spot competitions.

Gunjan Veda, CEO of INDIAreads says, “The initiative has been conceptualised to make not just books but even their writers more accessible. Literathon is a celebration of books and we are hopeful that we spread this celebration in every state of India.”

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

Books, anywhere anytime (The Hindu)


By-NITHYA SIVASHANKAR
A book for everyone: At Just Books library. Photo: K. Ananthan
The HinduA book for everyone: At Just Books library. Photo: K. Ananthan
With over 8,000 titles to choose from, Just Books, a community library chain, arrives in Coimbatore
In 2008, R. Sunderrajan, a software engineer from Bangalore, started a library at his residence because he did not want to travel too long to borrow books. Within a short period of time, members to his library multiplied. What started off as a part-time business has grown into a company that has 70 libraries in 10 major cities across India. The 70th branch of Just Books was launched in Coimbatore last week.

CONVENIENT

Located near Cream Centre in Race Course, this library is part of a country-wide community library chain. Niranjani Ramanathan, who runs Just Books here says, “Members can borrow and return books from any Just Books library in the country. Our libraries are integrated. So, if you are travelling, you can borrow a book from a Just Books outlet in one city and return it elsewhere.”
Just Books Coimbatore already has 8,000 books that cater to people of all ages. Children can choose from the popular Mr. Men, Curious George and Maisyseries to Indian picture books published by Tulika and Pratham Books. For young adults, there are Judy Blumes, Roald Dahls, Alexander McCall Smiths and Eva Ibbotsons, apart from the staple Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books.
For the adults, there is romance, science fiction, classics, humour, thrillers, business and management, self-help, spirituality, cookery, biographies and autobiographies to choose from. “Since the library is part of a large network, if a member from our city needs a book that is available in another library, we will get it for them. There is a combined collection of over 6 lakh books in our library chain,” says Niranjani. There are books in regional languages too. “For now, we have stocked our library with books in Tamil and Malayalam. We could also procure books in Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Urdu and Gujarati for our members.”
A special feature about Just Books is the unmanned RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) kiosk, which enables a member to search for, issue and return a book without the aid of a librarian. The functioning of this machine is very similar to that of an ATM. The members are given an ID card which enables them to use the kiosk. The books have RFID tags which are read by the machine. You can walk in, pick a book and borrow it with just a couple of swipes on the touch screen. Members can also order their books online (www.justbooksclc.com) or over phone, and have them picked up and delivered from anywhere within the city for a nominal delivery charge.
As part of Just Books’ initiative to promote reading, Niranjani plans to host events at the library on a weekly basis. “We will organise community-based events such as storytelling, book reading, author signing, cookery demonstrations, art and craft sessions, and health counselling sessions for members and non-members,” she says. She also plans to set up a reading lounge.

Monday, July 2, 2012

Digital age takes libraries off the shelf

June 30, 2012
Ryan Stokes, the new chairman of National Library of Australia pictured in ACE Equity, The Villa, Woolloomooloo, Sydney. 27th June 2012. Photo by Tamara Dean
Ryan Stokes ... new technology can enable more people to enjoy collections. Photo: Tamara Dean

There is much more to Ryan Stokes's new role than books, writes Catherine Armitage.
In 2012, it is possible to interview the incoming chairman of the National Library of Australia about his new role with no mention of the word "books".
I realise this as, in vain, I scour my notebook pages headed "Ryan Stokes" for the two simple shorthand strokes denoting those familiar bound paper objects which, after all, still comprise more than half the library's collection of 6.24 million items.
No luck. Everywhere, though, are the words "digital", "digitised" and "digitalisation".
The 36-year-old scion of his father Kerry's diversified media and mining services empire, with a Bachelor of Commerce from Perth's Curtin University, makes no claims as a scholar or a lover of books even when invited to do so. Instead what he brings to the position, according to the federal Arts Minister, Simon Crean, is "a wealth of business, media and entrepreneurial expertise", not to mention connections.
In particular, Crean said in announcing the appointment, Stokes had "shown leadership in driving digital content and developing the digital economy". This presumably refers to his stewardship of the wireless broadband provider Vividwireless, which Seven Group Holdings recently sold to Optus for $230 million.
In his own words, Stokes brings a "great interest" and ''passion'' for the "treasures that are in the library, the uniqueness of that material and its meaning to Australia". He is also an admirer of the world-leading work the library has done in digitising the physical collections and archiving material that originates in digital form, such as websites.
Our interview takes place in a meeting room at his Sydney office where the walls are thick with 19th-century Australian landscapes by famous named artists. It is a reminder that his father has one of Australia's most highly regarded collections of art and historical objects. Some of these have been lent for National Library exhibitions, which is just one way Stokes came into the orbit of both the NLA and the Arts Minister. (He was also the chairman for three years of the federal government's National Youth Mental Health Foundation, or headspace, until 2008 and is on the board of the Perth International Arts Festival.)
Ships in stormy seas are also heavily represented on the walls. But Stokes, whose carefully articulated sentences punctuated by hand movements suggest media training more than assurance, indicates he will seek plenty of counsel to run the ship steady when he officially replaces the former chief justice of the NSW Supreme Court Jim Spigelman as the NLA chairman from tomorrow.
He is impressed by the strength of the organisation and its executive team. The council he heads "brings a great wealth of experience", he says. Its role is "to assist the executive team" and to "help set the direction as we look at some of the longer term questions around digitisation and other collection issues".
The goals for his three-year term as chairman are to broaden the collections and extend the use of technology as a "wonderful enabler" to "broaden the reach and relevance" of the collections for both their information and cultural heritage value.
On the face of it, the digital revolution that has pundits sounding the death knell for the printed word sounds like bad news for libraries. So it's a surprise that the nation's two most senior librarians argue that Google is great for business.
Google is the library's friend because it has "turned people on to information", Dr Alex Byrne, the state librarian of NSW, says. Where once only highly educated people looked things up, "now you see it across the population", Byrne says.
The library's director-general, Anne-Marie Schwirtlich, says the work of libraries and the skills they embody will be more important than ever as people face the task of navigating masses of information and finding the relevant and authoritative bits so they can make good decisions. Reading, she says, is the "building block of digital literacy".
As libraries work feverishly to digitise their physical collections, the interactive nature of digital learning is transforming libraries from studious environments to social ones.
They are no longer places where people go to be sequestered in silent solitude with a book, although that is still catered for. Libraries are instead being remade as safe communal spaces with comfortable furniture in which to loll, "where people come to relax, educate their kids, study for school or university, look up information for careers or business or pursue interests in retirement", Byrne says. In NSW, they also provide electronic access to government services such as car registration and taxation.
This week, it was revealed the City of Sydney is planning a new $40 million library, including an arts and craft space, commercial kitchen, community meeting rooms and a customer service centre. The library is envisaged as the heart of the Green Square urban renewal project just south of Sydney's central business district.
Libraries are "physically much less warehouses of books and now very much the work rooms and the living rooms", Byrne says.
He is all for the idea that the State Library of NSW might open 24 hours a day as part of the City of Sydney's plan to boost its late-night economy. ''It's good use of public infrastructure and provides a stimulating but safe community space in which people can interact, imagine, relax at all hours.'' But security and staffing issues would need careful attention, he says.
So far, visitor numbers are solid. In NSW, more than 3.3 million people, or 46 per cent of the population, were public library members in 2010. In the five years to 2010, the number of library visits rose 15 per cent and the number of books borrowed rose 7 per cent. In 2010, members of the public logged more than 2.4 million internet hours in libraries.
The ability to interact with libraries via the internet means log-ins will be no less important than in-person visits as a measure of the reach of libraries, especially when the national broadband network is in operation.
"We are only at the beginning of conceiving how we can use that capacity," Schwirtlich says. The amount of data the library can supply and the way people interact with it will be transformed. Curatorial experts physically visible to community groups or classes on the other side of the country will be able to conduct virtual tours of collections.
Stokes says "continuing to enrich the experiences available for free" remains a core objective for the NLA under his stewardship.
Schwirtlich reminds that, powerful as it is, Google does not pay for and provide access to the mass of information resources in libraries, which have always played a vital social role in giving people access to information regardless of their wealth.
The ''purposeful, long-term, methodical, expert work of collecting, cataloguing and archiving'' remains vital to the nation, she says. "The future is tethered, shaped, informed and nourished by the past."

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Books on information sources released

Mysore, Jun 27, 2012, DHNS :
Once novelty is known ideas would be taken forward


Three books related to use of libraries and information resources was released at of library and information science department, University of Mysore, here on Wednesday.

The book written by R Guruprasad and Khaiser Nikam ‘Recent Trends in Electronic Information resources Usage Among Scientists, Engineers and Technologies — A Comprehensive Literature Review’ released by journalist Rajashekar Koti, assists researchers to select topic for their thesis. The book is on growth, development and evolution of subjects and identifies novelty in literature. 

Once the novelty is known, works would not be duplicated and innovative ideas would be taken forward. 

The book is useful to researchers not only form library science but also from physics, engineering and other related fields. 

The book could be a source for researchers for gathering information, editing, providing with keywords, etc in a logical manner. Few chapters in the book throws light on communication behaviour of researchers. 

Communication by aero scientists, engineers and others in accordance with print media, electronic media and digital media and availability of resources for them is available. 

The second book ‘Strategic Management of Engineering College Libraries in Karnataka’ written by K S Dinesh and Khaiser Nikam, released by principal of SJCE B G Sangameshwar, is based on a detailed study conducted on 80 engineering colleges out of 125 affiliated to the VTU. 

The study has considered institutions that are at least 10 years old. It acts as a guide about facilities provided at libraries there, ambience. 

The book would help planning and construction of libraries in engineering colleges.

Former V-C of Kuvempu University P Venkataramaiah released the book written by R 
Guruprasad and Khaiser Nikam ‘Use Patterns of Electronic Information Resources by Aerospace Scientists and Engineers in Bangalore, India’. It is a source of information on 16 organisations, including NAL, ISRO and IISc and scientists and engineers working there. 

It has adopted unique methods to identify usage of e-journals, internet, e-thesis, e-reports, open sources, etc known as ‘transaction log analysis’ or ‘web log analysis’, which enabled access to information directly from publishers and writers’ end.

President of All Karnataka Engineering College Library Professional Association (AKELPA) N Chowdappa, R Guruprasad, chairperson of library and information science department Khaiser Nikam and K S Dinesh were present.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

A canticle for libraries


The hard thing is that you cant infuse jaan by donating books or legislating, it can come only from love
By Anurag Behar
The heat would melt the tar on the road, as I walked back home from school with friends. None of us would notice that the stiff black leather shoes burnt the feet with concentrated heat. From home I would walk to the British Library, the melting tar would stick to the shoe. Despite all our claims of the lake-generated pleasantness, Bhopal burnt in April and May, as much as the rest of north India.
The library was an air-conditioned oasis. I was willingly lost, hardly noticing the air conditioning. Lost in Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man. Lost in Punch. Lost in Christie, Sayers and Wodehouse. Lost gazing at the stars, in a fascinating atlas of the universe. Lost in Toynbee, Greene and Yeats. Often understanding little but so completely lost, that is how I discovered the world.
For every book I read, I read many more back-covers. I probably learnt more from the back-covers than I did later at my four-year engineering programme.
Last week I took my mother to a shop near the library. While she shopped I went and just stood in front of the library which was no longer there. In its place there was another library, the Vivekananda Library. This was a June evening, not a May afternoon, after 25 years. And out walked a familiar face from the past, from the different library.
Since 25 years change a boy, more than a man, he could not have recognized me. We chatted briefly, all he needed to know was that there was a time that I used to visit the British Library. His lament (in chaste Bhopali) started with “saheb, ab jaan nahi rah gayi” (there is no life any more). He said that they buy books with no thought, often from the shop across the road. The membership has dwindled. The staff runs the place for the salary they get, not for love; it’s a travesty of the memory of the great man whose name it bears.
Both of us were blinded by the dense fog of nostalgia. For me it was the discovery of the loss of the dearest of friends. The only solace being that perhaps things were not as bad as he made it out to be. I went back to my mother, who knows what the library meant to me.
When I used to go to the British Library, I also used to visit the Hindi Bhavan, which was my gateway to Indian literature. It had a great collection in imposing glass cases and steel almirahs, but it didn’t have any jaan. I would select the books quickly and get them issued, never linger on, never get lost.
The Bhopal I grew up in was a small town. My father grew up in a much smaller place, a very small kasba: Sarangarh. It was one of the many tiny “princely states” in Chhattisgarh. In the 1940s through to the 1960s, the success of people from that tiny, unknown place was remarkable. It was a simple measure of success in socialist India, the number of people who joined the ICS, IAS, IPS or other elite government jobs. The reason was well understood in Chhattisgarh: Sarangarh had good education. My father’s recounting of this good education has two stories. One is about how the local school became good.
The other story is that of the competition of libraries. In my father’s earliest memories, his tiny kasba had two libraries. He devoured the books in both. In some time he set up a library of his own, along with some friends. Some other people set up another library in competition. This competition was about who had better books. He was a member of all four libraries, benefiting from this unheard of phenomenon of library competition in a nondescript nook of India. Soon another one came up. A couple of years later, his uncle became the vice-president of the local municipal council. The uncle and nephew conspired to build what became a large municipal library, with a lot of jaan. It lit life there for a couple of decades; even I have seen its embers. My father says “whatever I became is in large measure because of that library”.
There is no substitute for a good schooling system and so we must improve ours. But education and learning, including that of adults, is also significantly influenced by the overall intellectual environment of local communities. Libraries are institutions that can substantially help with this. It’s no surprise that vocal gratitude for libraries, and lament if they are lost, I have heard from hundreds of people.
Even the age of Kindle and iPad, cannot obliterate the social institution that a good library can become. A library with jaan, is much more than books, it’s a place for meeting, exchange and discovery. If every kasba had one, the local schools and colleges would have an invaluable ally in education.
The hard thing is that you can’t infuse jaan by donating books or legislating, it can come only from love—I don’t know what else to call it.
Anurag Behar is chief executive officer of Azim Premji Foundation and also leads sustainability issues for Wipro Ltd. He writes every fortnight on issues of ecology and education. Comments are welcome at othersphere@livemint.com

Tuesday, June 5, 2012

Punjab Agricultural University library: Stocked with books, inspiration


LUDHIANA: Fabled as a Mecca for those appearing for competitive examinations, Punjab Agricultural University's (PAU) library boasts of a vast collection of books and journals. The library is a boon for countless students who cannot afford to pay hefty coaching fees and the results have borne fruit with many such candidates coming out with flying colours in the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) and other competitive examinations. 

PAU student Shalini Agnihotri, who ranked 285 in the UPSC examination, is proud of the library. "I am from a middle-class family and was dependent on the library for the preparation for UPSC examination. It is a storehouse of knowledge and for the last one year, the library has become my second home," said Agnihotri, who is from Himachal Pradesh. "Besides, you will find many like-minded people here and the spirit of competition and excelling is in the air," she added. 

For Harbhajan Singh Naghi, who cleared Punjab Civil Services (PCS) examination last month, the library is the place that oozes motivation and energy. "I can sit here for 12 hours at a stretch and study and not get tired at all. This is an amazing place, full of energy and motivation. On working days, I used to come here at 3pm and study till 11pm," said Naghi, 37, who is working as a medical officer at Samrala civil hospital. 

"I started coming here in December 2010 and even after clearing the examination, I visit frequently to read books by my favourite authors," said Naghi, who did not take any coaching for the examination. He stays near Jalandhar bypass chowk. "I stay in a two-room rented accommodation in Ghumar Mandi area. We are four siblings and it was impossible to study at night while during the day I was busy with my job." 

For many aspiring to clear various competitive examinations, the library at PAU is nothing short of a second home. 

"The library reading room and reference books proved saviour and helped me clear the probation officer test of a nationalized bank," said Rahul Aggarwal, 27, the son of an autorickshaw driver. 

Rahul, who had done BSc from PAU, got his first posting as PO in Faridkot. 

"I could not afford to pay the fees of coaching institutes so I started coming to PAU library and reading room. The staff here is very supportive. I have cleared the test for food and supplies department and now am preparing for the PCS examination," said Rajinder Khanna, 25, resident of Sarabha Nagar.