Punjab Public Library, Quaid-e-Azam Library and Darusalam Library are not being utilised to their optimum levels
LAHORE: I have visited several libraries in Lahore — namely the Government of Punjab Public Library, Quaid-e-Azam Library and Darusalam Library. These public libraries are thronged daily by students from far-flung areas of Pakistan, who mostly come to prepare for competitive exams. However, given the role of a public library in any society with respect to the common citizen, the above-mentioned libraries are not being utilised to their optimum levels. In any society, a public library has three roles: to preserve the collective memories of a society, to provide the accounts of past experience, and to equip readers with tools through which they can navigate the experiences of the past. The library is a symbol of a society’s identity. To transform a public library into the heart of society, readers and library staff need to make a conscious effort to morph this institution into a public space where society can be critically questioned and where people can learn about their responsibilities towards one another and towards society at large. The onus of making this possible lies significantly on librarians.
Librarians can achieve this transformation by encouraging readers to conduct study circles and organising lectures and plenary sessions about various sensitive topics within the premises of libraries. For this to happen, librarians need to have a clear understanding about the exemplary role they can play through their positions which, unfortunately, is lacking in those who are at the helm in the above-mentioned libraries. Although the libraries are well-furnished, they hardly host any academic sessions. Most librarians don’t stay up-to-date with respect to the latest publications. Many are more occupied with clerical work than facilitating readers. Sometimes guests are received in the study halls of the library, where ethically there should be pin-drop silence. I recently read an article in The International New York Times, entitled “Reinventing the Library” (October 23). The writer had beautifully depicted the significance of a public library in any society through the story of a Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, who, on a visit to an ancient library in Egypt, had seen above its entrance the words, “Clinic of the Soul”. I wonder if we can transform our libraries into ‘clinics of the soul’. First, however, we need to hire more dynamic librarians to rejuvenate our public libraries.
Inamullah Marwat
Published in The Express Tribune, November 4th, 2015.
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