OFF THE LIBRARY SHELVES
Parents in the library Photos courtesy: Sonam Gangsang
Sonam Gangsang
A workshop for parents in the Tibetan Settlement in South India (Bylakuppe)
M
y journey with the library started in 2014 when I joined a small Tibetan school in Bylakuppe, Karnataka. Since it is a small school, there was no full time librarian. So, the responsibility of taking charge of the library was passed on to different staff members and it came to me when I joined. The person who handed over the responsibility to me took out books from a locked cupboard and metal box and gave me the exact count of books. I was shocked that not a single book was lost or missing over the past few years simply because it was all put in a box, locked in a cupboard and not put to use. I lost whatever interest I had to do library work because most of the books were outdated and were all meant for adult readers and not for children. My exposure and experience in life till then did not make merealize that a good librarian can bring about a transformation in a child’s life. However, my perspective of a librarian/library incharge changed after taking part in a training and workshop for librarians organized by the Department of Education, Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) located in Dharamshala, H.P. The visit to Bangalore in November 2016 for the work-shop, headed by library experts Usha Mukunda and Sujata Noronha was the turning point in my life. The three-day exposure to library practices at the Centre for Learning Library, visit to several book stores in Bangalore with the training team to learn how to
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TEACHER PLUS, SEPTEMBER 2020
Reading a story to children in the Tibetan school in Dharamshala, HP
select and shop for books, and discussions with librarians from other schools along with our resource persons were huge learning moments. From then on, my awareness about reading moved to a different level in terms of choosing age-appropriate books and doing various activities like storytelling, read-aloud, book talk, involving children in library work, setting up an open library and many more to seed children's interest in reading. In 2017, I was nominated by the Department of Education, CTA to take part in the first LEC (Library Educators Course), provided by Bookworm, Goa. In the same year, I was also offered the opportunity to work in the Department of Education, CTA. Taking part in the LEC with 35 other participants having different education backgrounds and coming from various regions with the sole ambition of becoming better library educators opened my eyes to a bigger picture in terms of reflection, discussion, critical analysis, how to engage children, teachers, parents and community to develop an interest in library practices and learning. The course is in dual mode, consisting of three contact periods and distance learning periods which consist of online reading and discussion forums. These further gave me an immense exposure and experience to children's literature. The opportunity of doing a Field Project during LEC really helped me
