Of Book Fairies and Street Libraries
These libraries are popping up everywhere — on the lawns of gen-next buildings, in parks, at bus stations, outside offices or just on the roadside. Whatever the location, the aim of the people behind them is to make books available to everyone. Anuradha Himatsingka & Ipsita Basu report
Tucked away between a restaurant
and an institute off Topsia Road in east Kolkata, surrounded by the roar of
city traffic, is a little haven of civilised pleasure: a street library.
Here, neighbourhood residents,
commuters and passers-by can browse an ever-changing selection of novels,
history textbooks, biographies, travel guides and poetry, all stacked neatly on
a four-decker bookcase. The books can be borrowed freely and returned or
exchanged for others.
There is no librarian in charge
of the facility and no one to keep track of the books borrowed. The
responsibility of looking after the library falls on those who live in and
around the area.
These libraries, tiny as they may
be, are popping up in various places – on the lawns of gen-next buildings, in
parks, at bus stations, outside offices or just on the roadside. Whatever the
location, the aim is the same: to make books available to everyone, no matter
how rich or poor, or where they live.
Such initiatives are fast
becoming a way of raising literary standards, said Pradip Chopra, chairman of
media and management institute iLead (Institute of Leadership, Entrepreneurship
and Development), which started its Street Library movement in December. In
many places, they are becoming community hubs – places where unexpected friendships
bloom.
“Street libraries are an open
platform where social communities can interact with each other on various kinds
of issues,” Chopra said. “Easily accessible from the street, these libraries
function as a major mass communication channel where people can share and
communicate ideas, news, views and issues, just like they do in a public
forum.”
Chopra got his inspiration from
the little libraries set up at front yards all over Australia as well as from
John Wood, who left his job as Director of Business Development for Microsoft’s
Greater China region to bring books and literacy to underprivileged children
through his non-profit organisation Room to Read.
The concept is simple, free of
bureaucratic entanglement and cost vis-à-vis the regular brick-and-mortar
libraries. Book lovers who want to exchange books can set up their libraries or
join iLead’s Street Library movement.
iLead currently has 2 lakh books
and this number is poised to increase primarily because “family members,
friends and individuals have evinced interest in donating books to us as they
too want to facilitate and encourage reading among all age groups,” said
Chopra.
The model has caught on, even if
on a limited scale, among students, professionals and children.
Film maker Shilajit Dey picks up
books from the iLead Street Library on Topsia Road, which is close to his
office. “I don’t have to return the book within a set time. Neither do I have
to face the wrath of librarians for having lost the same.”
Chandan Sahoo, a 26-year-old MBA
student from Kolkata, had put up his textbooks and magazines on one such street
library. He also picked up some books for himself to read and share with his
friends.
“Kids love the free libraries
because they don’t have adults standing over them saying, ‘I’m not buying you
that.’ They get to choose because it’s free. Parents with notso-deep pockets
are also happy. Retired and senior citizens can enjoy the vast array of books
without feeling the pinch,” said Arunava Rafi of Bhubaneswar, who along with
his school friends, has put up their book collections outside their building.
In Bhopal, a nine-year-old girl
has opened a street library for the disadvantaged by stringing ropes against a
wall and hanging books on them.
While some people are sceptical
about the viability of such impromptu libraries, expecting them to be
vandalised and the books to be stolen, those who run them are not worried.
“It’s based on trust and
community. How much money can one make by selling a handful of books? Peanuts.
I feel the surrounding community will take extra care of the books on the
bookcase,” Chopra pointed out.
There’s another variation of the
concept also aimed at promoting the habit of reading.
Imagine finding a book, free to
take, reading and then passing it on when done. Well, that’s what the Book
Fairies movement is all about. It encourages reading and motivates people to
rediscover the convenience of paperbacks, away from the glare of laptops, iPads
and smartphones.
The movement based in Bengaluru
wants you to find the books they leave behind in various city corners. It is
also present in the capital, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Goa and Hyderabad.
Started by Cordelia Oxley
globally last year, it currently has 9,000 people sharing books in over 100
countries. A similar project called Books on the Underground was started by
Hollie Fraser in 2012, a London commuter who wanted to pass books on to fellow
passengers.
The Book Fairies became famous
globally when actor Emma Watson turned a book fairy to leave feminist books
during International Women’s Day.
Namita Nafri, a 33-year-old
content management professional, started the Bengaluru chapter in May, after
falling in love with the concept.
“I found the Book Fairies on
Instagram. Currently, there are nine fairies in the Bengaluru chapter, leaving
books in various corners,” Nafri said.
Some readers tag the group’s
Instagram handle when they find a book to read to let the Book Fairies know.
“It was such a great feeling to
know that the book was being read by someone,” said Nafri.
Communications professional
Shruthi Gowda, who has been a book fairy since June, spends about Rs 500 every
month to buy used and new books. Fairies in Bengaluru also pay Rs 177 to get
nine stickers sent by the global team, which are stuck on the books that are
left around. She said the joy of spreading the love of books overrides the
pinch of the expenditure.
“For us, building the community
is a source of happiness that money can’t quantify,” Gowda said.
New Delhi-based couple Shruti
Sharma and Tarun Chauhan have started Books on the Delhi Metro to bring back
the good old habit of reading. Both Sharma and Chauhan, a content developer and
a civil engineer, respectively, leave books on the metro for travellers to pick
up and read with a tagline: “Take it, read it. Return it to someone else to
enjoy it.”
Source | Economic Times | 12th February 2018
Regards
Prof. Pralhad Jadhav
Master of Library &
Information Science (NET Qualified)
Senior Manager @ Knowledge
Repository
Khaitan & Co
Twitter Handle | @Pralhad161978
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