Bevoor GP offers students constructive screen time

Bagalkot: Usually, students fiddle with their smartphones either browsing or chatting while waiting at bus stands. But those at the bus stand at Bevoor village of Bagalkot paint a different picture — they spend time at the digital library set up by Bevoor GP. Though the library has not been officially inaugurated, it has started attracting college students and the general public in hordes.
Vijay Kotin, panchayat development officer (PDO) of Bevoor GP, told TOI that the library building, measuring 15x60 sqft, was built using MPLAD funds. “As it was in pathetic condition, we renovated and refurnished it at a cost of Rs 1.06 lakh. We also digitalised the library using a Mint Box. Forty people can access the digital library at a time,” he said.
As Bevoor is an education centre for students from 8-10 surrounding villages, hundreds of them come here for nursery to degree classes. “We saw most of them spending more screen time, either chatting or browsing. So we thought of digitising the library six months ago. We now have 12,000 books on Mint Box and over 3,000 books. We have requested the district library officials to sanction 1,000 books,” he explained.
Librarian Ashok Hosamani said the facility remains open from 9am to 5.30pm. “We have 1,000 registered members who borrow books for reading at home. For those with a smartphone, we allot a password so they can browse our books. Mint Box works like WiFi and offers 12,000 books (80% Kannada and the rest English) of varied genres — stories, novels, biographies, autobiographies, those on competitive exams and news websites. After digitalisation, many students are coming here to read. As the Mint Box connectivity is available in 100m radius, students read while sitting on benches at the nearby General GG Bevoor Memorial,” he stated.
Farmers too visit the library to read agriculture-related books which are in Kannada.
Gyanesh Diddibagil, a II PU student, said they visit the library instead of wasting time in browsing and chatting. “It has about 35 chairs and four large tables. Separate sections for men, women and children make everyone comfortable,” he said.
The GP authorities have requested publishers and the public to donate good books for the benefit of students and the people of Bevoor and surrounding villages. “Books can be sent to The PDO, Gram Panchayat, Bevoor-587115, Bagalkot taluk and district. We will acknowledge the gesture by putting up donors’ name prominently at the library,” PDO Kotin said.