Vaikunth Pai Fondekar, who was recently appointed the vice-chairman of Dr Francisco Luis Gomes District Library committee at Navelim bares his plans to spread the library movement, to Pratima Achrekar. Here are excerpts from the interview…
How does it feel to be appointed for this post?
It is a challenging job and I enjoy every moment. Accepting such challenges gives me motivation and proving them is my aim. Since the Chief Minister is the chairman of this library, he always backs us.
The library is now one year old. Has it succeeded in drawing members?
The library has 40,832 books in English, Marathi, Hindi, Konkani and Sanskrit, besides newspapers and periodicals. The building of the library is well-equipped with sections for children, Goa and records, a conference room, lecture room, cafeteria, Braille section, and a multipurpose hall. We have online catalogue and will launch a website to coincide with the golden jubilee of Goa’s liberation. Many students make use of this library for their assignments and to play games on computers. Internet browsing is also available and only some social networking sites are blocked. We keep the library open on Saturdays and Sundays, which is convenient for working people. The library has been beneficial to South Goa readers who now save a trip to Panaji to visit the Central Library. So far we have 2,300 members.
What are your plans to spread the library movement in South Goa?
We have several plans for this library. We have two buses to bring students from different colleges and schools here. We are also planning a mobile library that will visit villages in South Goa district and lend books once in 15 days. This mobile library can be used in three ways such as to bring students, to visit people and to conduct literacy programmes. We also plan to start a research centre in Konkani as such a centre is not available. This will enable students pursuing their PhDs in Konkani studies. Eminent litterateurs will be invited to give lectures. In January, we are inviting main artist from Bal Gandharv, Mr Subhodh Bhave for a lecture and an interaction. We are also planning to put up an exhibition of Mario Miranda’s cartoons. We will also visit the libraries in South Goa to locate illiterate students and include them in the movement. Since we have a lecture hall we will invite noted thinkers to give lectures and also give out the hall free for release of books.
What are you doing to attract children?
Children watch TV serials and to get them to switch to reading, we need audio-visual programmes. We think films are a good medium to draw children to the library. Some of them could get attracted to books. We have already introduced quiz and elocution competitions for children.
