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Permalink Reply by Siddhartha Shankar Ray on August 19, 2018 at 19:28

Dear Sri Manjunatha, S.

Thanks for your post.

 “Librarians’ Day” is celebrated on 12^th. August every year to commemorate Prof. SRR’s birth anniversary.  

The day generally celebrated highlighting the activities of Libraries especially their impacts in promoting Information literacy, Information awareness in the perspective of advancement of knowledge in daily life.

I often wonder whether the day can be celebrated keeping a particular Librarian in a particular year and highlighting his/her activities. Of course, it requires selection of an individual who deserves such acclamation!   In my opinion, if you can spot an individual, you can highlight his/her activities on this very day.

The relevancy of Libraries in our academic discourses is a known factor. But beyond academia, libraries have much better & viable roles which can improve the lives of people in various walks of life. “Information” as a commodity and awareness about viability of information in our daily lives, is quite important matters. It empowers us to know about our ‘rights’ among many things. One can understand what one as an individual of a particular Social & Economic status can have or can claim to get them.  Libraries can act as knowledge sources for people at large. They can act as Community Information Outlets which can help down-trodden people. 

I know of a public Library in rural West Bengal where the Librarian used to routinely visit the Block Development Offices, Fishery Offices, Sub-divisional Hospitals to procure and collect brochures on better use of fertilizers, getting seeds of high yielding varieties of crops and vegetables and process of cultivation. Where, when & how people can get fish spawns and how to grow fish and other live-stock resources and for various health related information related to personal hygiene and contamination etc.  The Library also collected several types of forms from local govt. offices meant for people in rural areas and sample filled up forms as specimen as well as papers & documents required to be submitted for any particular type of application. Simply, they are not the ‘proverbial services’ of a library or a librarian; but these have a great impact upon the rural people. It encourages the local people to visit the library frequently and little by little, they get attracted to the main resource of the library: Books & Magazines!! I have been extremely fortunate to be associated with such a rural Library during my Undergraduate years in early 70’s. During those days, the library used to get small grant from the Govt. through the office of Sub Divisional Officer (SDO) apart from this small sum, the Librarian used to run through monthly subscription of members. The Library time was 4.00 P.M. to 8.00 P.M. except Sundays and the service of all workers including the Librarian was voluntary!! The Librarian out of passion, underwent a Certificate Course in Library Science but his vision was an excellent mixture of positive thinking and most modern outlook.  

Personally speaking, I have no hesitation to admit that I learnt many things from him which still helps me in my professional life. This may seem to be a personal discourse, but I took this opportunity to convey my personal tribute to a man in an obscure village, who in my mind, will ever remain as a Perfect Librarian.

Sincerely,

Siddhartha S. Ray, Calcutta

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Permalink Reply by Dr Pawan Kumar Gupta on August 24, 2018 at 1:07

Its a good practice to improve library user relations, in addition to giving information required by users. Such information is difficult to obtain for rural users.

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