ITANAGAR, Aug 10: The public libraries department on Saturday conducted a ‘library awareness programme’ at the state central library here, in the run-up to the National Librarians’ Day on 12 August.
The programme saw the participation of a large number of students from different schools of the capital complex.
The day is observed on 12 August every year to commemorate the birth anniversary of Dr SR Ranganathan (1892-1972), who is considered the ‘father of library science in India’.
Addressing the schoolchildren, Research Director Batem Pertin exhorted them to imbibe the habit of reading books, and encouraged them to visit libraries in order to enrich their knowledge.
“I believe books are the best friends. If you don’t have anything to do and don’t have many friends, please make friendship with books,” he told the children.
Underlining the importance of public libraries, Pertin advised people, especially young Arunachalees, to make it a habit to visit libraries in order to learn about their culture. “Today, many of us have forgotten our roots and culture,” he said.
Pertin urged the students to also visit the small library of the research department, “which has published over 200 books on monographic accounts of Arunachal.”
District Library & Information Officer Y Kena encouraged the schoolchildren to go to libraries and read books, saying “education is a lifelong process.”
She exhorted the teacher escorts to establish book clubs in their schools, and to encourage the students to avail the library extension services of the public libraries department.
During the event, the department presented several awards to different persons. The ‘librarian of the year’ award went to BB Lal, the ‘reader of the year’ award’ to Koj Tatung, the ‘best library visitor’ award to T Lombi, and the ‘honesty award’ to Bengia Radhe, a library user. Pertin gave away the awards.
Among others, Public Libraries Director Jotom Borang attended the programme.
Later, a poem recitation competition was conducted among the participating students. Vidya Sah and Yaram Megu of VKV, Vivek Vihar, and Hemant Kr Singh of VCS, Vivek Vihar, were adjudged the first, second and third place winner, respectively, and were awarded prizes.
