Page 130 - DLIS001_FOUNDATION_OF_LIBRARY_AND_INFORMATION_SCIENCE

Unit 7: Academic Libraries

7.2.3 Primary School Libraries Notes

School libraries are meant for children between five and ten or eleven years of age and the
teachers who are involved in teaching and shaping them. This is the age of children when they
form attitudes and habits. The school library should aim to:
foster book mindedness;
strengthen learning skills through kits now available in plenty;

create a love for books and other learning resources; and
inculcate the-habit of reading in a slow but deliberate process.
In order to achieve these aims, the following aspects need careful attention on:

building up a good stock of books and other learning and teaching materials, for the
children as well as teachers;
organising and displaying the collection to attract the attention and curiosity of children
and making them easily accessible;

designing and organising programmes and services to inculcate in children the habit of
reading, learning and referring to books etc., for information;

getting proper physical facilities in terms of building, furniture and equipment;
acquiring adequate finance and operate a carefully planned budget;
recruiting appropriate professional staff to design, manage and operate the library system;
and

building up a book stock and other learning and teaching materials.
The foundation of the reading habits among children is well laid by providing them with
graded books and other learning materials which may hold their interest and arouse their
curiosity. Children like to know about space and the universe, the bottom of the sea, life in
jungles and deserts, towns and villages, flora and fauna, people of other countries, general
principles in science and technology. Fortunately, mankind has developed literature for children
in all subject sectors.

A school library should build up collections on the following themes and use them extensively
with students.

Picture books depicting acts and deeds of valour and adventure, patriotism, service to
fellow persons and other similar themes;
Biographies of great men and women;

Books of travel and humour;
Folk tales, stories from the Panchatantra, Arabian Nights, Aesop’s Fables, Stories of
Robinhood;

Stories of animals and birds;
Popular games and sports;
Cultural heritage;

Reference books like Children’s Encyclopedias and illustrated Dictionaries;
Children’s magazine’s like Children’s World, Chandamama, Tinkle etc.;

LOVELY PROFESSIONAL UNIVERSITY 125