Importance Of Library In Education

Introduction

“A WELL-EQUIPPED and well-managed library is the foundation of modern educational structure. The importance of library in education can be appr4eciated properly and precisely only if we try to understand the changing concepts of education of today. Education bereft of library service is like a body without soul, a vehicle without an engine and an edifice merely a collection of bricks without cement. Education and library service are twin sisters and one cannot live apart from the other.(Mittal, 1996) “

“At one time, a library was regarded as a storehouse and books were meant for preservation. The librarian was supposed to be a custodian, who did not encourage the use of books. The readers were expected to use the library on their

By the middle of the 19th century, three presidency towns of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras had their public libraries founded mostly with the active support and initiative of the Europeans in these towns. The second phase in the story of the library movement in our country lasted from the beginning of the 20th century to 1937. The third phase of the library movement began in 1937 when the congress came to power in many provinces. This phase was really a synthesis of the previous two phases. The main trend of this phase was setting up of village libraries through governmental effort. Assam, Bihar, Bombay, Orissa, Punjab, Cochin and some other provinces and states setup village libraries, even travelling libraries. It is estimated that in 1942 there were 13,000 village libraries in India. (Bhattacharjee, 2002)”

Public Library System

India is a diverse federal country with wide variations in geographical and educational backgrounds of its constituent state. Naturally the scene and pattern of libraries differ from state to state. Thus from the public library organizational point of view, the states and union territories can be classified into two groups:

i. Statutory System;

Mobile library services are limited to a few cities. They do not normally stock textbooks for students. Audio-visual services through TV-cum-VCRs are being arranged in a limited number of libraries under the assistance programme of the Raja Ram Mohan Roy Library Foundation. (Jayaswal, 2002)

Purpose of Public Libraries

“The purpose of the public library is to provide to the members of all society opportunities to overcome some of the social and intellectual barriers, and that is why it is rightly said ‘Poor man’s University’. In the words of Ranganathan, ‘it should be helping the lifelong, self-education of one and all’. (Goswami, 2002)”

“Public library should provide the sufficient resources to all the section of people involved in service to illiterates, neo-literates, children, young adults, students, scholars and general readers of different standards. Library service is the service to the people of a community regardless of caste, creed, religion, age, sex, language and status or education. (Goswami, 2002)”

Missions of Public