Hassan Zilla Panchayat has taken up a programme to revive rural libraries with the active involvement of public and book donors. Imparting training for librarians, digitisation of libraries, improving basic facilities, and appealing to the public to donate books for the libraries are among the activities planned.
Of 267 gram panchayats in the district, 260 have got libraries. Earlier, they were monitored by the Department of Libraries. Now they have been handed over to the Department of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.
Kantharaju, Chief Executive Officer of ZP, on Saturday, told journalists, that a majority of the libraries did not have independent buildings. They had been running in a portion of the gram panchayat offices. “I agree, many libraries do not enough space for the readers to spend valuable time there. We are taking up measures to upgrade all the facilities so that more readers could visit libraries,” he said.
