Indian Public Library Movement Telangana

Transforming dying district libraries into thriving public spaces of relevance and empowerment since 2013

Public libraries have played an important role in democratising access to information in India which was considerably skewed in favour of the elites of the society in the past. Presently, the public library ecosystem extends from the national level to the state, district, block and village levels. However, in spite of their extensive spread and reach, their conventional mandate of offering reference and lending services did not change much. To a great extent, the Indian public libraries have not been able to leverage the benefits of the digital era that has revolutionised access to information and knowledge. Moreover, at the global level, public libraries are increasingly being seen as means to achieve 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations (UN).

Thus, the District Library Project was started with support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project introduced digital interventions in district libraries to bring about integrated development and thereby rejuvenate the public spaces of knowledge. The programme tried to not only modernise libraries with digital resources but also convert them into major change agents for spreading digital literacy, improving access to critical information and encouraging learning and knowledge acquisition. Three district libraries in Unnao and Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh, and Bettiah in Bihar were transformed into vibrant public spaces of information access and community engagement.

After the successful implementation of District Library Programme in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, DEF rekindled the project with Indian Public Library Movement (IPLM) Telangana in 2016. Indian Public Libraries Movement (IPLM) is an initiative of NASSCOM Foundation funded by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, to use digital interventions to bring about integrated development and thereby reinvigorate India’s over 650 dying public libraries into vibrant public spaces for knowledge, information, learning and engagement. DEF is the implemention partner in Telangana where it is working with 13 public libraries in 10 districts to improve the access to critical information and knowledge resources for the library community by strengthening the capacities of the district public libraries as access and resource centers with the support of ICT tools.

Status:
Ongoing

Impact:

• 13 public libraries undergo digital transformation in three states
• 5,000 citizen users provided with access and service resources
• 2,500 youth provided career guidance and coaching
• 1,300 citizen users trained in ICT management for contributing to library management