Pustaka Dasara: Donation gets good response

1,865 books donated by 36 persons, distributed among 38 libraries

The festive spirit of Dasara lingers as the staff of libraries of 38 educational institutions, most of them colleges, are happy with the books they procured in a Donation Camp held as part of Pustaka Dasara at Manasagangothri, here, on Monday. They said some of the books are rare and not available in shops.

The Book Exhibition and Donation Camp had been organised by Mysore Librarians and Information Scientists Association (MyLISA) and Rotary Mysore North in association with the Department of Studies in Library and Information Sciences and Mysore University Library.

N S Harinarayana, secretary of MyLISA, said, a call had been given to the people, through the mass media, in the month of September to donate books that are presently not being used but can be of use to others. The call evoked good response and 36 donors gave 1,865 books, total worth over Rs 2 lakh. “A total of 30 colleges and eight schools made good use of the opportunity,” he said.

The organisers had created a few dropping centres at educational institutions, where the donors could reach their books. “When some senior citizens expressed that it was difficult for them to go to the droping centres, we collected the books at their doorsteps,” Harinarayana said.

He said, the books have been classified under 36 categories and those on Kannada tops the list at 443. “The others are: Computer Science - 378, Management - 375, Medical Sciences - 120, Engineering subjects - 86, English - 77, Philosophy - 73, Economics 68, General Books - 67 and Zoology - 51,” he said.

Pointing out that the donors have been generous, he said, a book ‘Williams Obstetrics (Edition 21)’ written by F Gary Cunningham, K Wenstrom, J Hauth, K Leveno and L Gilstrap, cover price $139, was among the rare books collected.

Librarian R Dhanalakshmi from Hari Vidyalaya said, she got 43 books for her institution and most of them will be useful for students. “A majority of the books I procured are on Science, a few on Kannada and Management Studies,” she said.

Dr Prashanth Kumar, Deputy Medical Superintendent, who represented Bangalore’s SDM Institute of Ayurveda and Hospital, said, he procured 35 books and the prize catch is ‘Williams Obstetrics (Edition 21)’. “I got a few good books on Gynecology and Surgery. Most of them are rare as they are older editions. They are good for reference by students,” he said.