TN govt to link major public libraries, schools by next year

CHENNAI: In a move that aims to nurture reading habit among school students, the state government will soon complete linking all major public libraries to schools. This means by next year, students of government and government-aided schools will by default gain membership to public libraries without having to pay a penny and can expand their reading list.

The department of public libraries planned this initiative more than 2 years ago but it had not gained momentum owing to administrative tie-ups. Students have had to make do with the books available at their respective school libraries.

But with the libraryschool linking initiative, which recently received a shot in the arm, students will be able to secure a bigger ca talogue of books and source the titles they want from libraries in their respective district headquarters.

While this initiative will be carried out in all 32 districts, officials in the department said the project is already underway in several districts including Villupuram, Tiruvannamalai, Coimbatore, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari.

"Only last week 2,500 government school students were granted membership to a public library in Tiruvannamalai," said S Kannappan, state project director, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) and director of public libraries.

Explaining that it will benefit village schools where library infrastructure is weaker, he added that headmastersheadmistresses of the se schools can take requests from students and send a list to the nearest public library , following which the requested books will be lent to the school in bulk. These books can be kept by the school for a month or two. "Each library will provide books for at least three or four surrounding government schools," he said.

This initiative will be connecting at least 2,000 branch libraries out of the total 4,000 libraries that come under the department's purview. This will be an addition to the mobile libraries that are also functioning across the districts.

"The idea is to soon turn public libraries into multipurpose hubs that will aid schoolcollege education, preparation for competitive exams and in employment," added Kannappan.