All dists in J&K to get ‘libraries on wheels’; services will be free
Jammu and Kashmir will soon have “libraries on wheels”, the move aimed at reaching out to the readers in the remotest corners of the Union Territory (UT). The library services at the readers’ doorstep would be provided free of cost, an official announcement made here on Wednesday said.
The “novel initiative” would be launched jointly by the department of libraries & research and Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF), Kolkata.
Director-general, National Library of India (NLI) and RRRLF, Prof. Ajay Pratap Singh while making the announcement at the concluding session of the two-day meeting of the UT-level Library Advisory-cumPurchase Committee (UTLLACPC) here said the service will be made available in all the 20 districts of J&K to make the quality reading material available at places or in areas, where it is hard to find a public library.
Prof. Singh said the resources for the purchase of vehicles for mobile libraries would be arranged from corporate houses and philanthropic organisations under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) while the recurring cost for these vehicles including fuel, maintenance and other charges would be borne by the RRRLF.
The books and other reading material would be provided by the J&K libraries department with the district libraries serving as the base libraries for the initiative.
Prof. Singh also said that on the recommendation of the UTLLACPC, two public libraries of J&K, including Gani Memorial Central Library in central Srinagar and the district library at Samba in the Jammu region, would be upgraded under the centrally-sponsored scheme – National Mission on Libraries (NML).