Some people are of the opinion that libraries are necessary for school students, while others think that libraries are not of much importance for schools since many other resources are easily accessible to students.
The fact that school libraries are not the only source for accessing books by students because there are many digital libraries made accessible to them. Even though digital libraries and government libraries are made available to students, the primary source and most comfortably accessible libraries are school libraries. Other government and digital libraries can be of good help to students, provided that students have free access to renting and reading books for a particular period. However, school students spend about 6-7 hours in school, and hence to upskill themselves they may need a school library with a good variety of books that can be accessed by them anytime they wish to.
During school days, students are in a phase where they are working on improving and hooking onto their curiosity to leverage their skills. Schools and colleges provide the “learning phase” and it is the responsibility of such institutions to provide all possible facilities to the students. To exemplify, the grasping power of kids is much higher as compared to an adult; therefore, developing a reading habit is much easier during that phase. Many students start reading in their school days, and like any other career path, the exploration phase for becoming a writer begins at this stage. To give a basic knowledge of science and mathematics there are many primary subjects included in our education system. Similarly, providing an easily accessible library should also be considered a primary source of knowledge for students. Students will develop an interest when there is an opportunity to do that.
For instance, a college student, after reading and observing the writing style of various authors, wrote a movie review and it was recognized by a reputed newspaper. The newspaper publishers wanted to publish a movie review, and it was successfully published. Consistent reading habits not only create such opportunities but also any student can start a personal blog and publish using platforms like Medium, substack, etc.
The ambiance of the library is also a major factor. This can be best understood by understanding the ambiance of a coworking space. Nowadays, many coworking spaces are made available for small startups, the general public, and any office use. It is well-known that setting up an office is a hefty investment for small companies. To solve this problem, we have coworking spaces like WeWork. The ambiance of every coworking space is such that it focuses on improving productivity, and it includes a cafe and play area to relax in between work. Similarly, the ambiance of the library should focus on providing a better space for readers to concentrate without any distractions, and it should have the capacity or space to store a wide variety of books. These two factors are the basic requirements of the library.
On top of this, the functionality of the library can be improved by providing a library card, fingerprint, or scanner method to record the details of a student accessing the library, a tablet to check whether the book the student is looking for is available or not and also a comfortable seating area with tables are of utmost importance. These facilities develop the interest of students. In the early stage of students’ lives, the school must direct their student’s interests in a particular direction. Similar to providing sports and other extracurricular activities to students, the library must be an intricate part of students’ everyday routines. This will open a new perspective for them and provide an opportunity to excel in this field.
A faculty member of a reputed university, Mrs. Malavika, mentioned that as a school student, she didn’t get access to reading library books because her school lacked that facility. But she’s content to see that her students have access to all open resources, and it’s up to the students to use those resources to their advantage. Mrs. Malavika also believes that reading books will improve student’s concentration and help in future education as well.
To conclude, considering the above-mentioned arguments, it can be said that libraries should be considered as important as providing extra-curricular activities to students by all schools in this modern era. It opens great opportunities for students.
Written by – R. Revathi (Volunteer)
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