New Delhi, Jul 19 (PTI) A Festival of Libraries will be held here next month to initiate a dialogue on the development of model libraries as well as to create a digital ecosystem to accommodate them, down to the village and community levels, the Ministry of Culture announced on Wednesday.
The festival will be inaugurated by President Droupadi Murmu on August 5 at Pragati Maidan here with the participation of “iconic libraries from around the world”, it said.
The two-day event will see the initiation of a dialogue on the modernisation and digitisation of libraries” and will also be a treat for book lovers with several exhibitions, author sessions and other interactions lined up, officials said.
Addressing a press conference here, Minister of State for Culture Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the festival can be considered a step towards the integration of physical and digital bibliothecae.
“A lot of people read newspapers and books online, but for this or any nation’s growth the importance of physical libraries cannot be ignored. So this can be considered a step towards the integration of physical and digital form of libraries. The development of libraries is our priority,” Meghwal said.
As part of the festival, a tripartite MoU between three prominent libraries – Khuda Baksh Oriental Public Library, Patna; Rampur Raza Library, Rampur; and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Arabic Persian Research Institute, Tonk – will be signed for long-term collaborative events, including the celebration of 250 years of the Rampur Raza Library.
On the opening day, the president will also virtually hold the ground-breaking ceremony of the Raja Rammohun Roy Library’s modernisation and launch a book featuring cursive writing in 22 Indian languages.
The event will facilitate panel discussions among organisers of about eight literature festivals, publishing houses, young authors, representatives of literary residencies and retreats as well as librarians from G20 and SCO countries.
A crowd-sourced Directory of Libraries and a special ranking system for libraries across India will also be launched at the festival.
“While the world of digital, social media and new-age technologies has made it easy to read from the comfort of homes and devices, libraries – with their rare books, manuscripts and archives – will need to keep pace with their demands to reinvent and re-envision themselves with better infrastructure and other digital device facilities,” Mugdha Sinha, joint secretary, Ministry of Culture, said.
They have to evolve so that they are multi-functional egalitarian places easily accessible to all, Sinha said.
The visitors will also get to witness 10 exhibitions, including rare books from the Museum of Word from Kolkata, rare maps from the National Archives of India, ancient encyclopedias, tribal fonts, proscribed literature, calligraphy, cursive writing, and illustrated manuscripts.
A part of the festival hall will be converted into four “drawing rooms” with author sessions, digital displays, podcasts, and the human library project.
The event will also include roundtable discussions and panels to explore best library practices from Indian states and libraries worldwide. Special sessions will focus on schemes for libraries and their collections, including National Missions on Libraries Manuscripts and Archives.
The festival will culminate with a valedictory function chaired by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar, who will release the first volume of the Directory of Libraries and ‘Biblio-on-Demand’ scheme as part of the ‘One Nation, One Subscription’ policy.
Dhankhar will also attend the virtual ground-breaking ceremony for the modernisation of the Delhi Public Library. PTI MAH RT
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