Thiruvananthapuram :
In book shelves arranged on branches and the trunk of a tree’s statue, ‘Aksharakoodaram,’ a library to be opened at MAM Upper Primary School, Parambil Kadavu, Kozhikode will feature books from the personal collections of major writers in Malayalam like M T Vasudevan Nair, Sugatha Kumari, P Valsala, etc. And with these appealing features, the school library is being set up for a unique cause – to develop a reading culture among the families by taking the parents, besides the children, to the world of books. Apart from the teachers and students, each of the parents will be the members of the library, which will be opened by writer M T Vasudevan Nair on March 19.
Aimed at instilling better interest in reading among the children, the library club of the school had organised a programme to introduce the writers, along with their books, by conducting visits to their homes, and the books for the library was a result of that.
“The collection of books for the library began on the last reading day when the students interacted with M P Veerendra Kumar, who donated his 18 books to the library. Later, they had an interaction with M T Vasudevan Nair during Onam and then with writers like U A Khader, Satchidanandan, etc., who donated their own as well as other books in their collections for the library,” points out library convener Simi Z A.
“We actually aimed at offering an opportunity to the children to interact with the writers and they offered their books after knowing about our project,” points out Rajeesh Kumar, who led the programme.
“After making the parents the members of the library, we will be organising book discussions during the class PTA meetings with an aim to develop a reading culture among them, which will have a great influence on the children. It will further give a boost to the academic activities of the children, who will be encouraged at home to get into the reading habit beyond their academic syllabus. The majority of the parents often show reluctance towards children reading books other than their textbooks and creating interest in reading among the parents will bring in a change to it,” points out school headmaster Devanandan K C.
Apart from the writers’ collections, publishers like Lipi, Chinta, DC Books, Olive, etc. and the students and alumni members have also contributed books to the library, around 1,500 of them, and the school authorities aim to increase the number of books to 5,000 this year. All other accessories in the library and reading room, including the table, fan, tiles, shelves, computer, etc have been donated by the alumni members. An amount of Rs 1.5 lakh has also been raised from the teachers, students and alumni members. Moreover, the library will also be fully digitised with a software developed by an alumni member.
“What attracts me is that it’s not the library and its facilities, but the opportunity it provides to select books according to our taste,” says Anagha Krishna S J, a class VII student.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> Cities> Thiruvananthapuram / by Anila Backer / March 12th, 2015