Daily Times

Sir: I have been studying in Lahore for the last five years. For the last one year, I have been visiting major public libraries like the Government Punjab Public Library, Quaid-e-Azam Library, and Darusalam Library.

All these public libraries are swarmed with students from far flung areas of Pakistan throughout the year, who prepare for competitive exams, most notably among which is CSS, which is of course a good thing. But given the role of a public library in any society with respect to a common citizen, the above mentioned libraries are not being utilised to an optimum level.

In any society, a public library has three roles, i.e., it preserves the memory of a society, provides the accounts of past experiences and equips readers with tools to dig out information about important historical events. Last but not the least; it is also a symbol of the society’s identity. If a public library succeeds in translating its ideal role into reality then it is inevitable that it becomes the heart of a society.

In order to give an ideal shape to a public library, both readers and staff need to make a conscious effort to morph a library into public space where people can be guided about what books can do in their lives. But the onus of making this possible lies on those who steward the library. Librarians can do it by encouraging readers to conduct study circles, organise lectures and plenary sessions about various sensitive topics in library halls. But for this to happen librarians need to have a clear understanding about the exemplary role that they can play through their posts which, unfortunately, is lacking in those who are at the helm in the above mentioned libraries.

The library halls, though well furnished, are hardly used host to any academic sessions throughout the year. Most of the librarians are not good readers, if they are, they do not read while they are at library, and are more concerned with their office work.

Sometimes, guests are received in the study halls of the library where ethically there should be a pin drop silence. The other day, I was going through an article published in The International New York Times, entitled Reinventing the library (October 23, 2015), in which the author beautifully depicted the significance of a public library in any society through a story of a Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus who, on a visit to one of the ancient libraries in Egypt, had seen above its entrance the words: “Clinic of Soul”. After reading that I wondered whether we could ever consider our public libraries as clinics of the soul. There is a dire need to reinvent our public libraries through dynamic librarians.

INAM ULLAH MARWAT

Lahore