To attract young students towards books and inculcate in them the habit of reading, Deputy Commissioner of Chumoukedima in Nagaland, Mr. Abhinav Shivam, IAS, has started hanging libraries in some government schools of the town.
The hanging library is made up of a cloth which contains several pockets for each book to be kept and can be hung in a classroom in order to solve the problem of lack of space in a dedicated infrastructure.
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Shivam shared why he came up with the hanging library idea.
ABOUT CHUMOUKEDIMA
Chumoukedima, a government notified town in Nagaland, is the headquarters of Dimapur district. It is at a distance of 14 km from Dimapur on National Highway 39. Located in the foothills of Naga Hills, it served as the first headquarters of the then Naga Hills District of Assam during the time of British rule in early 19th century. Situated on top of a hill, it gives a bird’s eye view of the whole of Dimapur and other parts of Karbi-Anglong of Assam. Several waterfalls are also located in this area, making this place a tourists’ delight.
HANGING LIBRARY
The value of reading in children’s education is enormous as it holds the power to form active citizens in the composition of a more aware and respectful society. Reading encourages several skills in kids, such as language, vocabulary growth, aptitude development, creativity, and curiosity.
“Hence, making a library of books available to children in their growing and developmental stage is very important for their overall development,” Mr. Shivam said. The hanging library is actually made up of a cloth that has several pockets for books and is hung in a classroom. This also solves the problem of lack of space in a dedicated infrastructure.
Mainly story books and rhyme books for primary and middle school students have been been keep in the hanging library. These are all Pratham Books, donated by Books for all Trust, Noida.
“The children very excited after seeing so many colourful story and rhyme books in their classes. The success of these libraries depends on the students reading the books. Hence, I have appealed to the schools to keep one period at least as a library period,” Mr. Shivam said.
FULL FLEDGED LIBRARY
The officer further informed that besides opening more such hanging libraries in schools, they are also considering building a proper library in one of the government schools of the town. This library will also have books for students of higher classes.
“We are planning to establish a full-fledged library as the school has shown good results over the years, led by good teachers and a dynamic principal,” Mr. Shivam said.
LIBRARY IN PUNGRO
This is not the first time that IAS officer Abhinav Shivam is going about opening libraries in schools. While posted as the Additional Deputy Commissioner in Pungro, Nagaland, he set up a library for the students of the town as they were desperately in need of books.
“I decided to arrange a chunk of books for the students so that they could also have access to knowledge apart from their school curriculum. I found the place for it too – a half-constructed building of the Pungro Area College Students’ Union (PACSU),” he said. Here, he got support from the IAS and IFS officers and, also, from the film fraternity of the region. They all helped him by providing a number of books for the library.
