Bakul Foundation & Gajapati Initiatives Showcased At Festival Of libraries In Delhi

Bhubaneswar: Bakul’s library movement and the library initiatives taken by Gajapati district administration were showcased at the maiden Festival of Libraries organised by the Union Ministry of Culture last weekend.

The festival was held at Delhi’s Pragati Maidan on August 5 and 6, as part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav celebration to commemorate 75 years of India’s independence.

The main objectives of the festival was to highlight iconic libraries from across the world to initiate a conversation on modernisation and digitisation of libraries, devise policy for development of model libraries in lndia down to the village and community levels and also foster a culture of reading in the country.

Over 1000 library professionals, academics, scholars and students attended the Festival of Libraries to develop a roadmap for encouraging libraries to become the drawing room of the community and become cultural hotspots, not just reading rooms.

President Droupadi Murmu, who inaugurated the festival, said that “libraries symbolised the progress of civilization”.

Sujit Mahapatra, founder of Bakul Foundation, was among speakers at the session titled ‘From Grassroots to Global’, which focused on best practices at global and grassroots level. The other speakers were chief librarians of National Library of Russia and Uganda, Community Library Project and Share a Book Association.

Sujit spoke about Bakul Libraries demonstrating the power of volunteerism, with all the libraries being set up and run entirely with civic contributions.

Bakul Libraries captured the vision of Festival for Libraries to become the ‘drawing rooms of the community’ as Bakul Foundation doesn’t have offices but works from its libraries, where people from the community gather not just to read, but also to debate, discuss and take up other volunteering initiatives like environmental campaigns, public art initiatives etc. in addition to volunteering at the library.

Gajapati Collector Smruti Ranjan Pradhan, who spoke at the session titled ‘Best Practices in States in Library Management’ thanked his predecessor Lingaraj Panda, who had initiated a focus on libraries as an experiment to bring back students to school to ensure learning post COVID.