JOIN USIn an attempt to nurture the reading culture of the people, district unit of the Kannada Sahitya Parishath (KaSaPa) has started a library and book sale centre, opposite to the office of the department of information in the city.
After observing that the reading habits of people have declined over the years, largely owing to visual media, the centre is meant to nurture and encourage the habit.
Ka Sa Pa had its office at Bandigowda layout in the city and had over 16,000 books. But, it was noticed that people lacked interest to visit the centre. President of the district unit of Ka Sa Pa, Meera Shivalingaiah decided to go to the people to encourage their reading habits. That was how the library and book sale centre came into existence.
Though the building had existed from many years, Ka Sa Pa has spent Rs two lakh to re-furnish the centre. In the reading room of the building, the centre has provided readers with dailies and magazines. Meera said that the centre has decided to buy more magazines and dailies in the interest of the readers.
“The parishath has been collecting books from authors, publishers and philanthropists. We will continue to collect more books in the interest of the readers,” she said.
The library has books related to history, short stories, poetry and others. “However, children’s books are less in the library.
We are stressing on collecting more books of the genre,” she said. She added that the centre will also collect books related to research.
A membership campaign for the library will be launched today. Members will be allowed to take the books home and read at pleasure, she said.
She added that the centre has a scheme to launch a mobile library, so that books can be taken to every ward in the city.