Linking the Community to the Library

It has been three years since the Cipla Foundation (CF) has partnered with Bookworm to support the Libraries in School (LiS) Program in many of the schools and it has been a very fruitful partnership. We have been able to reach more children with the CF support and this has greatly benefitted the children. The number of children that now have an open access to a wide and rich variety of books has increased greatly. 

Two years back, during team discussions, the need was felt to interact with parents as part of linking the community to the program. But how could this happen? We immediately thought of the School Open House but realized that it would not be ideal as parents would come at different times and we would have to be present in different classes simultaneously to talk to them. Being aware of the academic system, we felt that the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) meeting was the best way. This would be ideal and we would have access to the entire Primary section parents. I was very excited at the prospect of talking with so many parents. 

When we spoke to the LiS schools, some were sceptical and needed a fair bit of explaining but others readily allocated time during the PTA meeting for a  Bookworm Resource Person to talk directly to all the parents even though it was literally only a couple of minutes. We would grab the mic and talk for ten minutes instead of the allocated two minutes and It was a nice feeling to talk to parents about the LiS program. We attended PTA meetings for two successive years and we sort of were resting on our laurels when we had a program review conducted by Dr Rama Mathew. 

During team discussions, the realization dawned upon us that we had not actually interacted with parents at all, we had only gone in front of them and given them a talk. This was not an interaction at all. It had been a one way all the time and we had no idea if parents had even heard a word of what was said. This unsettled us and so when Dr Rama suggested phone calls, we liked the idea very much. And why not,  after all phone calls could also be another way of linking up with the parents and be a direct interaction.

We were thrilled to bits about this and the team collated phone details from children to call up and speak to parents. These phone calls brought out another truth in front of us. Most of the parents were still unaware of the program and could not recall hearing about us. Neither were they aware about any story book being lent to their children every week. It was clear to us now that maybe when we gloated that we spoke to hundreds of parents, we did not actually speak. There were many possibilities that came in front of us regarding this situation. Maybe these parents that we spoke to on call had not come for the PTA, maybe they did not understand when we spoke or maybe simply were not aware of the concept of a library and borrowing of books. This shook us and we shared the program with these parents during our conversations, requested them to ask their children to show the library book they had borrowed and ask about it. The parents promised us that they would try. 

I have been thinking about this a lot and wonder how else can parents be made aware of the importance of a library. A library must be an integral part of our society, our community and every child should have access to the wonders that are books. How does one share this importance with parents when they are trying to make two ends meet? It is every parent’s dream to see their children get an education but what forms an education, a strong base and an exposure to good books that will open up a child’s mind. How does one go about this? 

This year, we are going to go one more step ahead in linking the community to the library by planning to conduct home visits. We have never done home visits before for the LiS program and it is going to be a challenge to interact with parents in their home environment, break the ice and encourage them to share with us about their child’s reading interests. But for sure, it will be another opportunity for us to share the joys of reading with the parents.