A Study of Spatial Distribution and Status of Rural-Public Library System with Special Reference to India

Abstract

“A library is not a luxury but one of the necessities of life”. Henry Ward Beecher.
The rural public libraries help farmer community to provide vital information directly related to agricultural activities such as local weather variations, optimum usage of local conditions, new seeds, manures and pesticides, crop rotation, methods of getting high yields, price trends of cereals, cash crops, vegetables, seasonal fruits, government funded schemes floated for rural communities or for the under privileged people like the one just introduced by the Central Government of India on 68th Independence Day of India “JAN-DHAN YOJNA”, loan schemes, cattle related information, health and hygiene, environment related issues, wages for farm labourers and so on. These libraries would act as an indispensable community information support centre to achieve better living standards by empowering with the provision for information and through child, girl child and adult education. These libraries existed in ancient times and are still striving in the era of E resources simply because of their utility for the society. The present paper studies the physical distribution and Library People Ration of rural public libraries in Punjab which in most of the cases are single housed rural libraries across the state of Punjab. It discusses the recommendations of National Knowledge Commission (NKC) with respect to strengthening the library networks and also the efforts of Raja Ram Mohun Roy Library Foundation (RRRLF) with reference to Indian Public Library System. This study also proposes a roadmap for strengthening the public library system.