Showing posts with label public library. Show all posts
Showing posts with label public library. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 12, 2014
Friday, December 7, 2012
मदिरालय नहीं चाहिए पुस्तकालय
जागरण प्रतिनिधि, भागलपुर : सोमवार को स्टेशन चौक पर अस्मिता थिएटर, नई दिल्ली द्वारा सफदर हाशिमी मुक्ता मंच द्वारा मदिरालय या पुस्तकालय नामक नुक्कड़ नाटक का मंचन किया गया। अंतरराष्ट्रीय ख्याति प्राप्त लेखक व रंगकर्मी अरविंद गौड़ के इस नाटक को बड़ी खूबसूरती से कलाकारों ने लोगों के बीच परोसा। नाटक के माध्यम से कलाकारों ने इस बात की ओर लोगों का ध्यान आकृष्ट किया कि देश में खरगोश की रफ्तार से मदिरालय व कछुए की रफ्तार से पुस्तकालय खुल रहे हैं। यह सिर्फ बिहार ही नहीं बल्कि पूरे देश की स्थिति है। समाज को रोशनी दिखाने के लिए पुस्तकालय की स्थापना को लेकर सोचा भी नहीं जा रहा है। शराब के ठेके से हजारों घर बर्बाद हो रहे हैं। महिलाएं व बच्चे इसका सबसे ज्यादा शिकार हो रहे हैं। रंगकर्मियों ने डफली बजाकर नाटक का आगाज किया। कलाकारों ने भ्रष्टाचार पर भी चोट किया। 'सरफरोसी की तमन्ना अब हमारे दिल में है, देखना है कि जोर कितना बाजुए कातिल में है' गाकर भ्रष्टाचारियों को आगाह किया कि अब देश उन्हें बिल्कुल बर्दाश्त करने के पक्ष में नहीं है। उनके खिलाफ डटकर लड़ाई लड़ी जाएगी। नाटक के दौरान शिल्पी मारवाह, राहुल, पूनम रस्तोगी, ब्रजेश, गुंजन, नीतू, ओम सुधा व सिद्धार्थ ने महत्वपूर्ण भूमिका निभाई। रंगकर्मियों का परिचय सोमनाथ आर्य ने कराया। इस मौके पर रंगकर्मी बासुकी पासवान व चंद्रेश भी मौजूद थे।
http://www.jagran.com/bihar/bhagalpur-9886209.html
http://www.jagran.com/bihar/bhagalpur-9886209.html
Wednesday, September 12, 2012
Manipur needs more libraries- MALA
IMPHAL, September 10: “Manipur needs more libraries, both private as well as public as libraries play an important role in making a better society,” asserted general secretary, MALA Dr Ch Ibohal Singh.
He was speaking at the Atulchandra Memorial Lecture-2012 in commemoration of the 115th Birth anniversary of Dr H Atulchandra Singh founder of Canchipur High School, one of the oldest schools of the state.
The function was organized by the Manipur Library Association, MALA and the Canchipur High School at the school premises.
Dr H Atulchandra Singh, an educationist had also co-founded the Manipur Club in 1927 which was later changed into the Jubabati Memorial Library in 1933.
In his welcome address, Dr Ch Ibohal continued, “Libraries play an important role in rendering quality education in the state”.
Elaborating on the life of Dr H Atulchandra Singh, he said that Atul is one of the pioneer educationists of the state. Atulchandra was not just an educationist but a champion of woman’s struggle during his lifetime, he said. He had also founded a polytechnic in Manipur for the uplift of women in those days.
A speaker Dr T Tomba Singh lamented that there is no library committee in the state, and there has been no effort from anywhere to establish one.
He continued that 5 percent of a school’s budget should be used in developing the school’s library.
Manipur University, Department of Library and Information Science, HOD, Dr Th Purnima Devi said librarians were once considered as a clerical job, however with the invasion of new technologies, the job of a librarian has managed to escape from the four walls of his library.
She further lauded Dr H Atulchandra Singh for his contribution to the state and in promotion of libraries in the state.
Criticising the current trend of sending children to private tuitions, she said, it has become a fashion statement in the state. She continued that in order to bring an end to this trend, the teachers have an important role. According to a new UGC norm, any candidate for a teacher should have a specific past experience of doing community service, she added.
She concluded her speech with an appeal to cultivate reading habits among the people of the state.
Meanwhile, a book of poems, “Napu Machu gi Kakcheng” written by LC Lalhanba was also released during the function.
In his review of the book, CI College, Bishnupur Principal (retd) and renowned critic Salam Tomba Singh said Lalhanba is a modern poet.
“He has tried to contain all the scenarios of Manipur in his book of poems and did so with success.”
The presentation of the poems in the book is well balanced. The poet has a feel of the poetic pain, he concluded.
Thursday, August 30, 2012
Newspaper section of Hardayal Municipal Public Library, Delhi may face closure
NEW DELHI: It has been four months since the staff of the Hardayal Municipal Public Library was paid its salary. With the trifurcation of MCD earlier this year, there was initially some confusion over the jurisdiction of this library with 31 branches across the city. The Chandni Chowk region, where the central library and the head office are, falls under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation . The official NDMC budget estimate lists "Grant-in-aid to Hardayal Mpl. Public Library" as Rs 3 crore for 2012-13 .
The honorary secretary of the library, Yashpal Arya, says he will have to shut down the newspaper section by next month if he does not receive funds. HMPL's newspapers section that subscribes to 31 newspapers from the English, Hindi and Urdu press is open to all. "There are so many students who have done their PhDs from here. I only have hope until the end of August," says Arya.
The staff have submitted a memo to chief minister Sheila Dikshit asking for release of provisional funds for salaries and other expenses. A copy of the memo bearing the CM's handwritten note to NDMC commissioner PK Gupta is with TOI. "There are audit problems. We are looking into it," said Gupta.
More News at: http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-08-29/delhi/33474637_1_central-library-ndmc-yashpal-arya
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Calcutta’s treasure trove lies in tatters at Writers’ library
Kolkata Spiders crafting cobwebs on a record maintained at Fort William in 1863. A copy of a census of the population of Calcutta in 1770 gathering dust at one corner of a dingy and damp room. An atlas of Calcutta made by historian James Rennell in 1779-81 lies in tatters.
This is what one finds at the library under the land and land reforms department at the Writers’ Buildings, thanks to the neglect of both the Left Front and the incumbent Trinamool Congress government.
The library houses books, documents, records, maps and other materials from the days prior to the arrival of Job Charnock, regarded as one of the founders of Calcutta. According to experts, parts of the collection are comparable with those in the Library ofCongress in the US, British Museum in London, Khuda Baksh Library of Patna and National Library of Kolkata.
In fact, it was the land and land reforms department that the British first set up for revenue collection and distribution of ownership of land among the people. Started in Fort William in 1740, the library was later shifted to Writers’ Buildings, which was built in 1776. At present it is located in a sprawling hall measuring 578.27 sq metres on the ground floor of Writers’.
The collection includes 34,500 rare documents and books, district gazetteer of 1800, Calcutta gazette of 1700, printed records after the Sepoy Mutiny (1857), proceedings of the legislative council during the Raj, proceedings of the state Assembly from 1937 — when it was set up - to 1980-82.
Since no stock-taking has ever taken place in the library and numerous documents remained unexamined, nobody has any idea how many invaluable documents have been lost to neglect.
Once in a while, researchers and officials from various government departments use this library manned by one librarian and two employees. However, since no cataloguing has ever been done, it is difficult to locate documents.
In 2007, The Indian Express first wrote about the plight of the library. At that time A K Patnaik, then commissioner general of land and land reforms, who also happened to be then principal secretary of sports, gave Rs 1 lakh from the sports department budget to the library. There has been no more government assistance since then.
After the Trinamool government took over, librarian Mita Rani Ghosh did something very unusual. She went to the residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Kalighat and told her about the condition of the library.
Thereafter, Ghosh wrote a letter to Mamata on June 7, 2011, as to how the library can be upgraded. On September 13, Alpana Saha, assistant secretary in the land and land reforms department, wrote to Ghosh that the matter was being looked into. There has been no development since then.
Researchers say the library needs urgent attention. “I have seen invaluable records, particularly after the mutiny (1857), in the library. But they are in a shambles,” Benoy Bhishan Choudhury, former professor of history at Calcutta University, told The Indian Express.
This is what one finds at the library under the land and land reforms department at the Writers’ Buildings, thanks to the neglect of both the Left Front and the incumbent Trinamool Congress government.
The library houses books, documents, records, maps and other materials from the days prior to the arrival of Job Charnock, regarded as one of the founders of Calcutta. According to experts, parts of the collection are comparable with those in the Library ofCongress in the US, British Museum in London, Khuda Baksh Library of Patna and National Library of Kolkata.
In fact, it was the land and land reforms department that the British first set up for revenue collection and distribution of ownership of land among the people. Started in Fort William in 1740, the library was later shifted to Writers’ Buildings, which was built in 1776. At present it is located in a sprawling hall measuring 578.27 sq metres on the ground floor of Writers’.
The collection includes 34,500 rare documents and books, district gazetteer of 1800, Calcutta gazette of 1700, printed records after the Sepoy Mutiny (1857), proceedings of the legislative council during the Raj, proceedings of the state Assembly from 1937 — when it was set up - to 1980-82.
Since no stock-taking has ever taken place in the library and numerous documents remained unexamined, nobody has any idea how many invaluable documents have been lost to neglect.
Once in a while, researchers and officials from various government departments use this library manned by one librarian and two employees. However, since no cataloguing has ever been done, it is difficult to locate documents.
In 2007, The Indian Express first wrote about the plight of the library. At that time A K Patnaik, then commissioner general of land and land reforms, who also happened to be then principal secretary of sports, gave Rs 1 lakh from the sports department budget to the library. There has been no more government assistance since then.
After the Trinamool government took over, librarian Mita Rani Ghosh did something very unusual. She went to the residence of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Kalighat and told her about the condition of the library.
Thereafter, Ghosh wrote a letter to Mamata on June 7, 2011, as to how the library can be upgraded. On September 13, Alpana Saha, assistant secretary in the land and land reforms department, wrote to Ghosh that the matter was being looked into. There has been no development since then.
Researchers say the library needs urgent attention. “I have seen invaluable records, particularly after the mutiny (1857), in the library. But they are in a shambles,” Benoy Bhishan Choudhury, former professor of history at Calcutta University, told The Indian Express.
Suvaprasanna, chairman of the State Heritage Commission, said he was not aware of the existence of the institution at Writers’ Buildings. “I will bring it to the notice of the highest authorities,” he said.
Friday, August 17, 2012
Librarian (Catalog) at DC Public Library, Washington, District of Columbia
| Salary: Not Specified | |
| Status:Full-time | |
| Posted:08/15/12 | |
| Deadline:09/27/12 | |
| Librarian (Catalog) | |
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA PUBLIC LIBRARY
DC Public Library is going through transformation. Many wonderful things are happening here. If you enjoy a rewarding work environment where your hard work can truly make a difference, come join us! All positions require excellent customer service skills, commitment to public service and the willingness to learn and embrace change.
LIBRARIAN (Catalog)
MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR., MEMORIAL LIBRARY
The position serves as a Catalog Librarian, performs complex cataloging and classification for all formats. Including searching on OCLC, editing using AACR2/
QUALIFICATIONS: A Master’s degree in Library Science from an ALA accredited library school and a minimum of two years’ experience in cataloging, computer skills a must and knowledge of Microsoft Office is required.
To apply or for additional details, visit our website: www.dclibrary.org
|
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Inspection finds 37 libraries not fit for grant from govt
As many as 37 government-aided libraries in the district have been declared not fit for government aid after an inspection by the district administration.
According to final statistics available with the district administration, of the total 605 libraries in the district, 595 were surveyed of which 556 were declared eligible, one has been downgraded and 442 have filled up their details on the website.According to deputy collector Ravindra Kulkarni, the parameters centred around whether the libraries were functioning as per the rules.
The libraries, categorised as ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ by the state, were found flouting government norms regarding daily operation, maintenance of accounts, membership and number. The libraries are given annual grants to the tune of Rs 20,000 to Rs 4 lakh for their development as per their grades while they are also given building funds of up to Rs 75,000 for any repairs that need to be carried out.
With the government planning to increase funding, all districts were asked to carry out the inspection to check for the merit of funds to be allotted to these libraries.
The drive found that libraries were opened only to receive funds, while some libraries were only on paper. Kulkarni said the report will be sent to the state government and further action will be taken accordingly.
In Pune city, of the total 66 libraries, 55 libraries were inspected. Of these 53 were declared valid while two - Santoshi Granthalaya in Karvenagar and Adarsh Vachanalay in Ghorpadi - were found flouting norms.
During the inspection, one library in Khed taluka was demoted to a lower category. Kulkarni said that among the libraries found ineligible included 14 in Haveli taluka (the highest in the district), four in Shirur, three in Velhe, Junnar and two each in Indapur and Khed while four were declared as invalid in Daund taluka in the district.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Nine Reasons to Save Public Libraries
Credit: Flickr (Creative Commons)
While the War on Women and Chick-fil-A might be getting all the juicy headlines lately, there’s another issue quietly smoldering in the background noise of this election season. It’s buried under all the campaign rhetoric and doom-and-gloom forecasts about the economy.
Our public libraries are not just threatened this election season. They’re fighting for their lives — and with them, the livelihoods and well-being of hard-hit communities all over the country.Library districts in California, Illinois, Ohio, Nevada, Texas, Washington, and more have measures or proposals to slash budgets in 2012. California alone is looking at 50% budget cuts. Where I live, the library district is facing a 30% budget cut, which will close at least two branches. According to the American Library Association, 23 states are looking to cut library budgets in the most recent fiscal year.
But I have yet to see a demonstration to save the libraries. Or read national news coverage about the potential collapse of one society’s most valuable resources. Indeed, it wasn’t by accident that our nation’s founding fathers established the first American lending library.
But the truth is that the state of our public libraries is a kind of litmus test of not only our economic health but that of our democracy, too. After all, libraries are the free, democratization of education, unbiased research, and uncensored enlightenment.
It was President John F. Kennedy who made this plea for the sanctity of our libraries:
"If this nation is to be wise as well as strong, if we are to achieve our destiny, then we need more new ideas for more wise men reading more good books in more public libraries. These libraries should be open to all except the censor. We must know all the facts and hear all the alternatives and listen to all the criticisms. Let us welcome controversial books and controversial authors. For the Bill of Rights is the guardian of our security as well as our liberty."
Here are some reasons why our libraries are still the place where we as a nation will achieve our destiny:
- The house of the 99%: The foundation of democracy is an educated electorate. When the economy is down, it is all the more vital that we the people have access to information, education, news… and now in modern times the internet, computers, and other sources of media tools as well. Libraries do that. For everyone.
- Libraries build equity: Research shows that depressed neighborhoods and declining communities are not just culturally enriched by libraries. The institutions serve as a community focal point, like a town square, and communities that have that resource rebound.
- Community hope chest: Libraries don’t just curate the Harry Potter series and lend copies of the latest blockbusters on DVD, they also house special collections based on the needs and unique identities of the communities they serve. The library district where I live houses a special collection on a World War II magnesium plant that helped turned the tide of the war (as well as establishing the second largest city in Nevada). That’s living history that gets lost without a public space to keep it alive.
- Renewable resource: How much do you save by being able to borrow materials from the library? How helpful is it to have this resource — especially now that even retail bookstores, movie rental shops, and record stores are closing? There’s a calculator for that.
- Literacy: Studies show (PDF) that children’s literacy is greatly improved by access to summer reading programs and preschool reading programs at public libraries. And children’s literacy is a building-block of adult literacy. When I was in college I interned at a non-profit that worked on illiteracy, targeting at-risk youth. I worked in their summer reading program at an elementary school with one of the lowest rates of economic depression in the state (Oregon). This meant that most of the kids who went to that school were enrolled in summer school — even if they were good students — simply because it was a cheaper alternative to child care. At the end of the program each child got to pick out one brand-new book to keep. For all but just a few of the children, it was the first book they ever owned. Maybe you don’t “own” the books at the library (although, as a tax-payer I would argue we do), but the libraries are a place where the socio-economic realities that push the starting line so far back for so many can be equalized. And that’s like a small miracle in the life of a child who has already had to learn how to be hard in the face of a world that cuts them no breaks. There are very few individuals who could buy every child a book and start them on the road to literacy. (And it’s been shown that access to books in childhood is one of thebiggest predictors of literacy.) But all of us together can buy a kid a building full of books. That is a miracle.
- Leveling the playing field: Libraries offer vital resources for communities that might not otherwise be served or feel integrated. People learning English (or other languages), the elderly, deaf people, the homeless… the list goes on.
- Safe space: In some communities, the public library may be the only free space available that is also a safe space. Young victims of bullying, kids who live with domestic violence, LGBT youth, and many more can find a safe place (and often a caring librarian) at the library. I know from personal experience — having spent time camped at my local library when I had no other safe place to go as a teenager.
- Cultural touchstone: Many libraries showcase art — often by local artists. Likewise, the buildings themselves are often architecturally significant and enhance the beauty and character of the communities they serve.
- Drop in or drop out: Libraries can also be a place that means the difference between a child’s success or failure in school. Many libraries offer tutoring programs, free classes, as well as access to volumes of information and technology that a kid might not have anywhere else. Believe it or not, even in these modern times there are kids who don’t have computers at home who need to type their papers for school. There are kids who can’t afford the expensive private tutor to get through Algebra. Libraries can make the difference to a kid teetering on the edge. And high school dropout rates have a direct correlation to the health of a community.
These days, there are a lot of people talking about how nobody reads anymore. But that’s just wrong. People are reading ALL THE TIME. People are on Facebook, on Wikipedia, on blogs… They are using e-readers to read virtual copies of books. They are downloading newspapers to their tablet devices. People still read. And people read books — with pages and paper and bindings — too. But the fact is, there’s all kinds of other stuff besides books that libraries do for people in our community every day. Book programs for shut-ins. After-school and summer programs for youth. Did I mention toddler story time?
But more than that, it may just be the last free space that is truly free and there for everyone — homeless, young, old, rich, poor, and any race under the sun. We are all welcome there. We are all equal there.
Doesn’t that seem like a space too valuable to lose?
Library digital plan in limbo
The district central library in the Maharanipeta area in the city, the biggest library in Vizag, has more than one lakh books on various subjects and subscribes to around 30 magazines a month but the digitisation project of the library is yet to see the light of day.
The district central library in the Maharanipeta area in the city, the biggest library in Vizag, has more than one lakh books on various subjects and subscribes to around 30 magazines a month but the digitisation project of the library is yet to see the light of day. Although the library gets over 200-300 readers every day, it does not have a proper catalogue of existing books and journals.
In Visakhapatnam, the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha runs 72 libraries including five grade-1 and 51 grade-2 libraries. Libraries in the city are not able to meet the demands of readers in providing a better environment and infrastructure facilities due to inadequate funds.
Thota Nagesh, chairman of the Zilla Grandhalaya Samstha said that they had submitted a proposal to government for digitisation work of the district central library to attract more readers in the city but the proposal has been pending for various reasons including funds crunch. At present, classification of books according to category is done only in the registers, he added.
The library cess, the main source of income, which is collected by local bodies, including the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) at the rate of 8 per cent of property tax, is not paid by local bodies to the Samstha. Nagesh said that the GVMC alone owes around Rs.18 crore towards payment of library cess. Sources said that government issued an order to ensure timely payment of library cess by local bodies through e-Seva centres, where the cess amount would be deducted from property tax paid by tax payers but the GVMC has not implemented the order.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Traditional archives rule over online ones
WRITTEN CHARM
As technology becomes increasingly available and digital information expands on a daily basis, academic library use is on the decline or so you would assume.
Research libraries in colleges and university campuses are finding that gate counts and circulation of traditional materials are falling at many libraries across the country, as students find new study spaces in dorm rooms or apartments, coffee shops, or nearby bookstores. When all the information is available on mobile phones nowadays and news can be accessed with the click of a button, it looks like the humongous libraries are on way to becoming museums.
But librarians who work in these places have a different take in this regard. According to them, libraries will never die out as they have their own charm. “The very concept of a library cannot end. It has a certain environment attached to it. Logo ko ek prakar ka anand milta hai yaha aake padhne me,” says Sudha Mukherjee, librarian at Delhi Public Library, H-Block, Sarojini Nagar.
“Real readers look for satisfaction when they read a book and only a library can satisfy a reader. Online libraries can never be an alternative for physical libraries,” she further adds.
The shift to electronic resources has many scholars and librarians worrying about the loss of a central community resource in physical libraries, whether they are at the university or public level. University boards are becoming increasingly skeptical about new additions and library buildings, since they cost so much.
Many academics mourn the loss of a common culture of library use across campuses and communities while others hail the era of a new type of library with a new structure of knowledge and practical use. There has been a move to make the library seem more than a tool and storage house for books and information as different programmes are offered and coffee bars are added. This is a huge transition.
Another librarian Vandana Kamal Vanshi of National Archives, seconds Sudha and says, “Physical libraries are not losing their charm at all. Reading inside a library gives one a different feel all together. It cannot be compared with online libraries that are becoming increasingly available. They cannot give you the variety of reading as compared to the traditional ones.
“One can have the access to each and every book available in a library but online, it is not possible for one to search all books at one time.”
With the rapid expansion of the internet to the general public, people are seeking answers in the quickest and most convenient way. While physical use may have been reasonably expected to decline in recent years due to the large scale shift to digital libraries and the increase in sources such as e-journals, the trend has appeared to be on a much larger scale.
An avid lover of books, Reshmi Sharma, a media professional cannot read anything online and only find satisfaction in reading an actual book. “I need to have the feel of a book. I cannot read online. I just do not get the feeling while reading something online.”
Going by the trend, the traditional library is here to stay though there is no denying that more and more libraries are increasingly digitising records and putting books for their readers. After all, the smell of a ‘real’ book can only be enjoyed by the bookworm.
Tuesday, August 7, 2012
The Bookless Library
Don’t deny the change. Direct it wisely.
THEY ARE, in their very different ways, monuments of American civilization. The first is a building: a grand, beautiful Beaux-Arts structure of marble and stone occupying two blocks’ worth of Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan. The second is a delicate concoction of metal, plastic, and glass, just four and a half inches long, barely a third of an inch thick, and weighing five ounces. The first is the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, the main branch of the New York Public Library (NYPL). The second is an iPhone. Yet despite their obvious differences, for many people today they serve the same purpose: to read books. And in a development that even just thirty years ago would have seemed like the most absurd science fiction, there are now far more books available, far more quickly, on the iPhone than in the New York Public Library.
It has been clear for some time now that this development would pose one of the greatest challenges that modern libraries—from institutions like the NYPL on down—have ever encountered. Put bluntly, one of their core functions now faces the prospect of obsolescence. What role will libraries have when patrons no longer need to go to them to consult or to borrow books? This question has already spurred massive commentary and discussion. But in the past year, as large-scale controversies have developed around several libraries, it has become pressing and unavoidable.
The most heated of these controversies involves the NYPL itself, which has long served as a model for other major American libraries. Under an ambitious Central Library Plan drawn up under its previous president, Paul LeClerc, the institution is preparing to banish millions of books from the venerable stacks of the main branch to off-site storage in central New Jersey, from where it will take them at least twenty-four hours to arrive in the grand Rose Main Reading Room. The plan also involves the sale of decrepit nearby facilities (notably the mid-Manhattan branch lending library, one of over eighty branch libraries in the NYPL system) and the consolidation of their functions in a renovated Schwarzman Building. The plan did not come in any direct sense as a response to digitization, but clearly digitization has made the removal of physical books easier for the library to contemplate. The protests against the plan, which include a letter signed by several hundred prominent writers and academics, have gone so far as to allege that the NYPL’s new president, Anthony Marx, formerly the head of Amherst College, sees the libraries of the future less as repositories for books and learning than as glorified Internet cafés.
This last charge is clearly incorrect. Marx arrived at the NYPL only a year ago, at a moment when the Central Library Plan had already advanced too far to be canceled. He is also, like virtually every other library director in the United States, operating under severe financial constraints. Even the Harvard University library system has seen its budget shrink drastically over the past few years, and the reduction of its staff by over a third (making it the focal point of another library controversy). At the NYPL, the acquisitions budget has shrunk 26 percent over just the last four years. Simply by consolidating several different facilities in a single building, Marx claims the new plan will save as much as $16 million a year in operating costs, or the equivalent of adding 50 percent to the library system’s endowment. The high-profile redesign of the Schwarzman Building—by Norman Foster—will attract additional funding. And Marx is anything but a barbarian geek at the gates. To the contrary, he clearly wants to put as many paper books in as many hands as possible. Among his other initiatives, he is developing a program under which all New York City public school students will be able to order books from the NYPL system, and have them delivered directly to their schools within twenty-four hours.
The critics of the Central Library Plan do have a point when they suggest that it will make the NYPL a more difficult place in which to do serious research. Even if the development of new storage spaces underneath adjacent Bryant Park minimizes the number of books ultimately shipped to New Jersey, there will still be many moments when a reader, paging through a book, excitedly learns of another one crucial to her topic, only to find that it is off-site. (The same thing occurs in many university libraries, which are making increasing use of off-site storage.) Placing a lending library in a large, attractive open space within the main branch will probably at least double the already considerable foot traffic in the building, adding to its levels of noise, dirt, and disruption, although the library is also creating new spaces for serious scholars and writers.
Soon most if not all libraries will be facing quandaries similar to that of the NYPL, owing to the devices on which more and more people are doing more and more of their reading. Already at least a fifth of all book sales come from e-books, and the numbers are rising fast. Total e-book sales in January 2012 came in close to twice those of a year previously, and were more than ten times the figure for January 2009. The Pew Internet and American Life Project reports that 21 percent of all Americans have read an e-book in the past year, with the proportion predictably higher among the young. Nearly all of the most popular English-language titles are downloadable, including millions of free books in the public domain, mostly digitized by Google Books. Amazon and Barnes & Noble sell hundreds of thousands of copyrighted titles for a price similar to or lower than that of the equivalent paperback. When the Harry Potter novels finally appeared in electronic versions this spring, they racked up $1.5 million in sales in just three days.
This technology cannot simply substitute for the great libraries of the present. After all, libraries are not just repositories of books. They are communities, sources of expertise, and homes to lovingly compiled collections that amount to far more than the sum of their individual printed parts. Their physical spaces, especially in grand temples of learning like the NYPL, subtly influence the way that reading and writing takes place in them. And yet it is foolish to think that libraries can remain the same with the new technology on the scene.
Friday, August 3, 2012
डीईओ, बिहारशरीफ ने किया हेलाल पुस्तकालय का निरीक्षण
बिहारशरीफ, निज संवाददाता : पुस्तक संस्कृति को बढ़ावा देने हेतु जिलाधिकारी के निर्देश पर गुरुवार को जिला शिक्षा पदाधिकारी देवशील एवं एसडीएम अमरेश कुमार अमर ने शहर के इमादपुर स्थित हेलाल लाइब्रेरी का निरीक्षण किया। पुस्तकालय की स्थिति, फर्नीचर, आलमीरा एवं पुस्तकों के रख-रखाव की सराहना की। पुस्तकालय स्कूल के भवन में चलाया जा रहा है। इसकी स्थापना 1936 ई. में की गयी थी। एसडीएम श्री अमर ने पुस्तकालय के सचिव मो.फवाद अली को आश्वस्त किया कि इसे समृद्ध करने के लिए हर संभव सहायता दी जायेगी। उन्होंने कहा कि प्रतियोगिता परीक्षाओं से संबंधित पत्र पत्रिकाएं उपलब्ध कराई जायेगी। यह भी कहा कि मार्ग दर्शन के लिए यदि संचालन समिति चाहे तो मैं प्रत्येक शनिवार को अपना समय दूंगा। पुस्तकालय का अपना भवन की मांग पर इस दिशा में प्रयास करने का आश्वासन दिया। बता दें कि निजी पुस्तकालयों में शहर का यह सबसे सुसज्जित पुस्तकालय है। कम्प्यूटर आदि भी खरीदी गयी है। निरीक्षण के क्रम में अध्यक्ष शाजिद अनवर, एजाजुल हक, मो.जाहिद, मो.शमी आलम आदि उपस्थित थे। इसके बाद पदाधिकारियों ने विद्यालय परिसर में पौधरोपन किया।
More News at :http://www.jagran.com/bihar/nalanda-9532172.html
Thursday, August 2, 2012
Library of Best Books at Pune
Eunice de Souza - has introduced many to the delights of the English languagE. She writes on books, reading and writing
Readable notes on the extracts of literary works from the volumes that were once forgotten
Last week, some of my cousins who live in the family house in Pune rang me to say they had been cleaning out the loft and had come across books belonging to my father. I had lost track of them years ago. Among the ones I remember best are several volumes of The World’s Library of Best Books, given to my father by his (in Christian terms), godfather.
They were a treasure house during my school years, and looking through them again, I still find them a delight. There are extracts from fiction, plays, poems, non-fiction, in English, French, German, Greek, Spanish and others. There are lively notes on the extracts, photographs of performances, and of relevant paintings from various galleries. Here, for instance is the introduction to Moliere’s The Forced Marriage, described as “one of the best of all one-act plays.” It was written in 1664 as court entertainment, and the king himself, Louis XIV, who was then 26 took part in it. “The caricatures of the two philosophers were very daring; for the University of Paris was trying to promote an Act by which all attacks on the philosophy of Aristotle should be crimes deserving death.” Cervantes, author of Don Quixote was born in 1547 and died in 1616, ten days before Shakespeare... “He was a gentle, genial humourist, somewhat on the lines of Dickens, but with more subtlety and refinement…” Of Boswell, author of a biography of Samuel Johnson, “The only reasonable explanation of his extraordinary triumph as a biographer is that he was enjoyable because he enjoyed, and interesting because he was interested. His self-indulgence, his vanity, his often foolish candour, and his lust for notoriety do not count much against his alertness of observation, his boundless good humour, and his enviable self-satisfaction.” The extracts don’t seem to follow any discernible order: Virgil appears in the same volume as John Galsworthy, Henry Fielding, an anonymous ballad, Longfellow’s poems, Shakespeare, Horace. Here is a quotation from Horace’s ode, The Golden Mean. “Licinius, trust a seaman’s lore: /Steer not too boldly to the deep,/Nor, fearing storms, by treacherous shores/Too closely keep./Who makes the golden mean his guide,/ Shuns miser’s cabin, foul and dark, /Shuns gilded roofs, where pomp and pride/ Are envy’s mark.” Another old favourite, to be recited with conviction, W E Henley’s Invictus. “Out of the night that covers me/Black as the pit from pole to pole,/I thank whatever gods may be/For my unconquerable soul./…It matters not how strait the gate,/How charged with punishments the scroll,/I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.” And, irresistibly, the great natural history writer, W H Hudson, one of whose books on the Argentinian pampas, Far Away and Long Ago was a school text in our final year. About the extract from his book Adventures Among Birds, the editor writes, “So intolerable is loneliness to some animals, Mr Hudson says, that they will attach themselves to any creature they can scrape acquaintance with, and he instances the case of a pony confined by itself in a field, and a solitary partridge, the only one of its species in that place; they were always to be seen together in close companionship.” Then, from the book itself, the story of a lonely swan, driven away by his parents, who eventually made friends with a trout. “The fish had its place by the side of the bird, just below the surface, and together they would rest and together move like one being…Those who first saw it could hardly credit the evidence of their own senses.” The volumes were edited by Wilfred Whitten (1864-1942), a British writer and editor whose pseudonym was John O’London, and published by The Standard Literature Co., Ltd Calcutta by arrangement with George Newnes, Limited, London. I couldn’t find a date of publication, however, or the price. But the volumes still appear to be available from online book dealers. |
Monday, July 30, 2012
District library found them jobs and friends
K Narasimhamurthy, Kolar, July 28, 2012, DHNS:
Common ground
They all come from villages and belong to agricultural families. These youth appeared for various competitive examinations and have been successful.
Preparing for competitive examinations is no easy task. One needs to do a lot of reading and this requires the purchase of expensive books. These youth were in no position to afford expensive books. Yet they were successful in appearing for the examination and emerging successful.
There is no great secret behind their success. In addition to their hard work, the backbone for their studies was the District Central Library. They did not learn how to use the library from anyone, but they made the best use of it.
Venkatapara Srinivas Reddy of Bethmangala hobli of Bangarpet taluk, who has been selected as statistical officer; Malappanahalli Malathi of Devarayasamudra Gram Panchayat in Mulbagal taluk has been selected as principal of Morarji Desai School; Arathi of Yanadahalli of Kolar taluk is the superintendent of Backward Class Minorities Hostel; B S Vijayalakshmi of Byalahalli is the statistical officer. This list goes on.
They were all strangers in the beginning, but became friends at the central library. They all had one ambition - to get a job. It is not easy to appear for competitive examinations and face the challenge from urban candidates. Regular studies, constant reference to resource books and guides. Study materials and coaching classes are expensive.
Therefore they all depended upon the Central library. They went through every available books and guides on competitive examinations available in the library. Requests for particular books made to the library authorities got quick response and books were made available as early as possible.
These aspirants used to come to the library at 10 am and stayed back till 6 pm. They brought lunch from home. Having broken the ice, they became friends and during the lunch hours held group discussion.
“We were not used to visiting libraries and making use of it. After coming here we became familiar with books. We discussed what we read,” says Ramesh.
Says Srinivas Reddy, “In our group of seven members, five secured jobs in one go. One of our members is studying for his Karnataka Administrative Service examination.” They are unanimous in their opinion that all this happened because of the library.
Friday, July 27, 2012
Inside the Quest to Put the World's Libraries Online
The Digital Public Library of America wants to make millions of books, records, and images available to any American with an Internet connection. Can it succeed where others have failed?
Reuters
In his short story "The Library of Babel," Jorge Luis Borges imagines the universe as a "total library," whose 410-page books have achieved all possible combinations of letters and punctuation. No two books are the same. Some, of course, are gibberish. But others carry the answer to life's deepest mysteries. In Borges's library can be found every thought ever had, every turn of phrase ever uttered, every masterpiece penned by Shakespeare, and even the ones that he never got to write—simply stated, everything.
Borges's fearsome fantasy builds upon a centuries-old conception of the library as an enclosed instantiation of the universe's mighty sprawl. In Advice on Establishing a Library, a classic manual on the creation of a library, the 17th-century French scholar Gabriel Naudé argued that a library "erected for the public benefit ought to be universal," observing that "there is nothing which renders a Library more recommendable, then when every man finds in it that which he is in search of, and could no where else encounter." This sort of accumulation has sometimes come hand-in-hand with power, as the historian Jacob Soll has shown with his study of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the finance minister to the great French king Louis XIV who sought to establish a universal library and state archive because he believed it made a firm foundation for national intelligence.
From Colbert to Borges, and still onward from there: The fascination with completeness is as timeless as it is ingrained. In the last decade, the Internet has made the ambition of universality appear closer to realization than ever before: What is the Web, if not a vast collection, and an accessible one? But as with any new frontier, formidable challenges attend exciting possibilities—and nowhere has this been more apparent than in the efforts of the Digital Public Library of America, a coalition spearheading the largest effort yet to curate and make publicly available the "cultural and scientific heritage of humanity," with a focus on materials from the U.S., by harnessing the Internet's capabilities. The DPLA hopes to create a platform that will orchestrate millions of materials—books from public and university libraries, records from local historical societies, museums, and archives—into a single, user-friendly interface accessible to every American with Internet access. It will launch a prototype in April 2013. If successful, the resource has the potential to revolutionize the way information is organized and found online, to radically expand public access to knowledge, and to represent a sharp counterpoint to the model already offered by search-giant Google, whose "Google Books" program is now eight years old.
Humanities endowment gives $1M for digital library
By BRETT ZONGKER –
WASHINGTON (AP) — A nonprofit effort to digitize the nation's libraries and create a Digital Public Library of America won a $1 million federal grant Thursday from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
The grant will help form a new nonprofit organization and create the technical platform to share digital content across the nation's many public libraries and archives. Digitizing books and building a system for libraries to contribute will take years, though, and millions more dollars from private partners, said endowment chairman Jim Leach.
The project is being spearheaded by Harvard University's library in Cambridge, Mass., with libraries across the country.
An independent board will be formed within two months to establish a new nonprofit organization that will coordinate with statewide library projects with the goal of launching a national prototype by April 2013. Its budget and funding plan are still being developed, though most funding likely will come from outside government, Leach said.
The digital library effort is designed to be free for everyone. It could include partnerships with private groups, such as Google Books, to tap into content that's already digitized. And it has the potential to enhance local libraries with more content beyond their physical walls, Leach added.
"This is a great progression in how knowledge is developed, how it is maintained and spread," he said. "The digital world is probably the greatest democratization in the spread of learning that has ever occurred."
Google's efforts to digitize books have at times been thwarted in court due to copyright laws. Those restrictions may also limit content for a digital public library.
"Copyright laws are very thorny, so one has to work within that dimension," Leach said.
The library effort is meant to complement the World Digital Library project being led by the Library of Congress and international partners. It also will integrate with the European Union's Europeana digital library collection.
Even as more content moves online, physical libraries have seen demand rise in recent years.
"The relevance of libraries appears to be increasing — and that's possibly counterintuitive to what one might think digitization would imply," Leach said. "Libraries are really centers of local culture."
___
Digital Public Library of America: http://dp.la
Source: The Associated Press
Thursday, July 26, 2012
नेहरू पुस्तकालय(जहानाबाद) बदहाली के कगार पर
करपी (अरवल), निज प्रतिनिधि
प्रखंड मुख्यालय स्थित एक मात्र पंडित नेहरू पुस्तकालय आज बदहाली के कगार पर है। करपी बस स्टैंड के कोने में स्थित इस पुस्तकालय पर न तो किसी जनप्रतिनिधियों की नजर जा रही है और न ही सरकार के किसी आलाधिकारी की। यहां के बुद्धिजीवियों ने भी इसे सरकार के भरोसे छोड़कर अपनी आंखे फेर ली है। नतीजतन हजारों रुपये मूल्य की पुस्तकें उपकरण बर्बादी के कगार पर है। भवन भी काफी जीर्ण शीर्ण अवस्था में है। वर्षा होने पर पानी की बूंदे भी कमरे में टपकती है। जिसके कारण पुस्तकें नष्ट हो रही है तो कुछ चोरों की भेंट भी चढ़ गयी है। विदित हो कि इस पुस्तकालय की स्थापना 1974 मे की गयी थी। इसका उद्घाटन पंडित नेहरु के सहयोगी रहे जुहेरे साहब ने किया था। ग्रामीणों की सहयोग से इस पुस्तकालय भवन का निर्माण कराया गया था। पुस्तकालय की अपनी जमीन भी है। पुस्तकालय को विधिवत चलाने के लिए संचालन समिति का गठन भी उस समय किया गया था। पुस्तकालय सचिव रहे युगेश्वर प्रसाद सिंह ने बताया कि स्थापना के बाद कई वर्षो तक सरकार से पुस्तकों की खरीद के लिए अनुदान भी मिलते थे। 1984 में जन संपर्क विभाग द्वारा एक बड़ा रेडियो सेट तथा माइक सेट भी पुस्तकालय को दिया गया था। लेकिन मरम्मत के अभाव में सभी बेकार हो गयी। ग्रामीणों ने बताया कि उस समय पुस्तकालय में काफी लोग आते थे तथा पठन पाठन का कार्य करते थे। रेडियो सुनने के लिए शाम को ग्रामीणों की काफी भीड़ एकत्रित हुआ करती थी। यहां का माहौल काफी गहमागहमी भरा होता था। क्योंकि उस समय सभी के पास रेडिया उपलब्ध नहीं होते थे लेकिन आज यहां वीरानगी छायी रहती है।
More News at: http://www.jagran.com/bihar/jahanabad-9503993.html
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Special reading section for blind children opened at State Library, Chandigarh
Chandigarh In a move to offer a learning platform to the visually impaired children in the city, the UT Administration has set up a special reading section in the State Library, Sector 34.
The reading corner has been set up for these children inside the reading hall of the library. The technical set-up at the reading section works in a manner that whenever a page is flipped on one side of the machine, the softare reads out the contents of the book for the student.
Braille has also been installed for the students who wish to type anything on the computer. “There is a software called JAWS which transforms a computer into a speaking machine. Whatever is being typed by the student on the braille keyboard, the software reads it out to him,” said K R Sood, principal of the Blind School, Sector 26.
The reading corner has been set up for these children inside the reading hall of the library. The technical set-up at the reading section works in a manner that whenever a page is flipped on one side of the machine, the softare reads out the contents of the book for the student.
Braille has also been installed for the students who wish to type anything on the computer. “There is a software called JAWS which transforms a computer into a speaking machine. Whatever is being typed by the student on the braille keyboard, the software reads it out to him,” said K R Sood, principal of the Blind School, Sector 26.
The system has already been in use in the Blind School for the last couple of years. “Technology has taken away the limitations of the specially abled children. The blind students are much more self-sustained now,” said Sood.
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