Capital to hold ‘Festival of Libraries’ next month

The Union ministry of culture will organize a two-day event, 'Festival of Libraries', at Pragati Maidan next month. The festival will include exhibitions, book-author sessions, workshops for children, and panel discussions on the digitization of libraries. The aim is to celebrate knowledge, bridge the gap between history and the future, and foster a love for reading.

The Union ministry of culture will organise a two-day event, ‘Festival of Libraries’, at Pragati Maidan next month .

The festival will comprise activities ranging from exhibitions and book-author sessions to workshops for children. (HT FILE)

The festival will be held on August 5 and 6. Entry will be free and open to all, the ministry announced on Wednesday, and said that the festival will comprise activities ranging from exhibitions and book-author sessions to workshops for children.

Speaking at a press conference, Arjun Ram Meghwal, Union minister of state for law & justice, parliamentary affairs and culture, said, “The Festival of Libraries 2023 celebrates knowledge and imagination. Libraries preserve manuscripts and bridge the gap between history and the limitless future. Our digital library initiative breaks barriers, empowering all citizens with access to knowledge...”

He said that libraries serve as a connection between younger and older generations, and that physical libraries will never stop being important.

Joint Secretary, ministry of culture, Mugdha Sinha, said that their long-term goal is to make libraries the “drawing rooms of community.”

At the event, there will be four zones or “drawing rooms” — book-author sessions, digital displays, podcasts, and the Human Library Project. In addition, a dedicated children’s zone will provide hands-on activities to foster a love for reading among children, officials said. It will also conduct storytelling, origami, zine making, and read-along sessions in the zone, they added.

Sinha said that the ministry has invited 46 central universities and all CBSE-affiliated schools in the city to the event. The festival will also have 10 exhibitions showcasing cartography, calligraphy, cursive writing, and tribal fonts and scripts. There will also be panel discussions on the digitisation of libraries, Sinha said.

Other highlights of the festival will include a crowd-sourced directory of libraries, signing of a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding between three prominent libraries in the country, and the commencement of the celebration of 250 years of the Rampur Raza library in Uttar Pradesh, which is known for being a repository of Indo-Islamic cultural heritage.

The festival also aims to bring together stakeholders such as librarians, academics and directors of model libraries in order to develop a roadmap on revival of libraries and encourage people to read more, officials said.