Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Desktop library turns a big hit

The state of school libraries is no different from the plight of extinct animals or dying art forms. Hardly appealing and no takers. And why should they, when students can read as much as they please by sitting in front of computers at home.

So, why not take a library online and make it available to students at their desktop? Faizal, the librarian at the Library Media Centre at Kendriya Vidyalaya Pattom, Thiruvananthapuram, had this idea one fine day in September 2007. Things have never been the same after that. The library took to web world with a blog of its own, which has been hailed as the first Indian library blog. Log on to www.librarykvpattom.wordpress.com and you know why it has many takers.

The whole concept revolves around the idea that a library should be a friend, says Faizal. He, a qualified librarian, manages the blogs and all the other web initiatives of KV Pattom. “Children spend more time before computers logging on to social networking sites. On an experimental basis, we began this library blog, which was a way of reaching out to these kids online. If they don’t come to the library, then let’s reach them where they are,” Faizal says.

Full report here New Indian Express

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