The latest I information I have received is that they are trying to turn the library into a mainly IT enabled center. I think we should oppose that lock, stock and barrel. Without books ( on literature, fiction, travel, history, science, cooking, gardening-- the kid's corner etc etc ) , a library is NOT a library. No amount of IT can bring abt the pure pleasure of curling up with a good book and a plate of upperi on a wet, rainy day.
So folks, even our Techies please insist on story books and show that we are multidimensional real humans and not programmable robots.
AG
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I think this follows a pattern .
See this 2001 post by a lucknow citizen. And re technology replacing the printed book, it just is not going to happen...
"BCL’s closure has left a book-shaped hole in our lives.
The closure, the powers-that-be insisted, was not caused by lack of finances but by under subscription. This was in contrast with their statement to the press that the money saved from closing down the library — about five million rupees annually — would be utilised in putting up databases on the Net that could be accessed by everyone. This did not impress those who knew that the cold computer could never replace the warmth of a book, and moreover Internet connectivity in India is dismally low and slow.
It was apparent that the resources to fulfil some-body’s hi-tech, ultra-modern fantasies were being gathered by closing down the two of the thirteen libraries it runs in India. Insensitive authorities couldn’t care less about the trauma BCL’s closure would cause in people’s lives. A most uncharitable act coldly done by a registered charity that is the British Council."
(http://www.himalmag.com/december2001/voices.htm)
I think to some extent we are responsible in pushing ourselves too much as an IT enabled destination.
Despite all my efforts almost 90% of people who have signed are Techies. why don't the others sign too? Why don't the Techies write comments saying that reading abt the adventures of Jim Corbett or Ken Anderson is as important to them as the complicated dynamics of C####### ?
AG
Atleast we know that undersubscription will not be a problem in our case. Surely we have enough and more members here, dont we?
Yes, we have enough members to run this library well..
ofcourse, we want to read a book the hard way, not those soft copies. What else on earth could give the pleasure of reading a good piece of literature on a rainy day?
I myself believe to be a techie, I am a computer Science engg. student and love everyrhing computers, but a library needs to be a library and what we need is more good literary works. Why are we people in Trivandrum are so obsessed with IT? It's great and we make a lot of good money from it. Agreed, but replacing a temple of knowledge with mindless computers is just pure nonsense.
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