I was going with the Bookworm team (Sujata & Niju) for a library audit of The Hongirana School of Excellence, Sagar, Karnataka. This was a first experience for me, an official work trip. Thrilled to be on an official trip, new place, new people, new experience, new lessons….! So much to look forward to.
Auditing, setting up school/public libraries and giving guidance to librarians is another extension activity of Bookworm. Sujata Ma’am has many years of experience and is very committed to sharing library practice ideas with others. And for me this is a new learning experience at BW. Naturally I had my anxieties…., how the place will be…, will I be able to do things properly….. I discussed with Ma’am and tried to have a picture of the situation in my mind. Ma’am kept saying we will go there and figure out.
The auditing was scheduled for 7th to 9th of November. We (Ma’am, Niju and me) started from Goa on 6th morning. The travelling was pleasant, stopped at Karwar- to have lunch, and reached the school at about 6.30 in the evening. The campus was really good, more than what I imagined and the library was impressive, very spacious, books are kept in shelves with glass doors, which one normally does not see in schools.
During the three day period, through different sessions, we conducted, interactive workshops for the teachers and the students; did auditing and classifying the existing collection of books at the library, made proper arrangements of books in the library after classifying the books based on subject, content and age wise ;and rating and giving colour codes.
The teachers and students were very happy at the end of the three day activities. We feel that within the within the time constraint we did a fairly good job. We also worked with students of Std. 8 who were very helpful and that was a good learning experience.
The sessions were helpful to me also in widening my understandings of library concepts and the importance of innovative thinking while putting them into practice depending on the category of people the library is catering to.
I have also observed that in order to inculcate reading in the children it is not enough to have a spacious library and library periods for students; but a librarian must have vision and enthusiasm in properly setting up the library and attract the involvement of students and teachers in the library activities. But mostly a librarian must know the collection and be interested in books so that that interest can be communicated with the users.
Though the work was more difficult than I thought, I enjoyed it and overall it was a very good learning experience for me. The Principal, the librarians, and the teachers were very warm and cooperated whole heartedly; and the students were lovely. I was also impressed with the ease with which Ma’am interacts with students and books!
