Public libraries to be re-invented as community hubs Amritsar, June 26 The public library movement in India probably started with our ancient education centres in Taxila and Nalanda, where valuable manuscripts became a source for modern scriptures and books. Ever since public libraries have been re-invented and re-established as significant community hubs. Until the 21st century, when digitalisation pushed these learning centres to the background, the new initiative of the Government of India in collaboration with the Bill and Linda Gates Foundation aims to re-invent public libraries as knowledge and community hubs. The Indian Public Library movement, an impact group created by the foundation, aims to select 50 libraries across 23 states, develop infrastructure and give a holistic aspect to a public library. And Prabhjot Sandhu, the librarian at the District Library, Amritsar, is one of the chosen members of the monitoring impact group of the IPLM. “With an agenda to make libraries equipped for achieving sustainable community development, the movement has recently been initiated with an aim to build a library ecosystem that extends to urban and rural centres. I am part of the impact group and also the International Network of Emerging Library Innovators (INELI), a global library leadership capacity-building programme supported by the Global Libraries Initiative of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,” says Sandhu. It means the chosen district library will be provided infrastructural and staff support along with increasing the public commitment towards the movement. “I am already working with the local administration and volunteers to create awareness regarding the subject. We have been provided computers, and more infrastructure support will follow, once I share my ideas for transforming the library with them,” says Prabhjot. She will soon be attending their annual meet to work on a framework for a policy to build libraries.

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