Who are as happy as the book lovers when a book festival is being held at their place? Well, here, it is the libraries in the district. For the libraries in the capital the book festival organised each year by the District Library Development Council is an opportunity to enrich their stock as the Council provides aid for them to buy books.
‘Book Fest 2014’, organised by the Council, which concluded here the other day was no exception. Around 420 libraries in district purchased books on a wide range of subjects from the festival using the funds provided by the Council.
The libraries are classified into different categories and given grades from A to F, based on which they are eligible to get the financial assistance, which ranges from Rs 7,500 to Rs 20,000. While the libraries with A grade are provided with an aid of Rs 20,000, those with B get Rs 15,000, C Rs 12,000, D Rs 10,000, E Rs 8,500 and F Rs 7,500. The Council, through the assistance, aims to promote reading habit among people.
“The funds provided by the Council are a great opportunity for us to buy recently-published books and hence to keep our collection updated which, in turn, also helps to expands our stock,” said Gramodharana Vayanasala member S S Biju.
But the State Library Council, which provides aid to the District Council, has been facing a shortage of funds for the past few years which sometimes adversely affects the funding to the libraries.
“The State Library Council lacks enough fund even for developmental activities.
The book festival is normally organised in March every year. But this time we couldn’t hold it on time owing to funds crunch,” said Thiruvananthapuram District Library Council secretary P K Rajmohan.
He added that the Education Department has to provide one per cent of its revenue as funds to the State Library Council. ‘’But the Department fails to do so which makes the shortage faced by the Council acute,” he said.
However, Education Secretary A Shajahan said that there has been no practice of providing funds to the Council by the the Department.