MISSION TO REVIVE BOOK WEALTH The students at Government Central High School, Attakkulangara, are engaged in an interesting treasure hunt. They find one word a day, from the books at the library. In the process they get to know what wealth their library possesses - thousands of old and rare books, which were lying neglected until last year. In 2014, a group of volunteers had embarked on the 'Library First Aid' project led by Achuthshankar S Nair, Honorary Director, Centre for Bio-informatics, University of Kerala. They had managed to go through each and every book, and sort what was then a mess, into a library, useful for the students. Usha Raghavan, the Mathematics teacher who serves as the library in-charge, says that they have counted 16,000 books. Some of the moth-eaten, yellowed books are works from another century. "Chances are that the collection might have some rare books, like those written by Vedachalam," says Achuthshankar. "A proponent of Dravidianism, Vedachalam had changed his name to Maramalai Adikal, a name devoid of Sanskrit words. He was a teacher at the Central School," says Achuthshankar. After the Library First Aid project which was supported by C-DIT, Achuthshankar realised that the project can be easily replicated in all schools where books were lying neglected. He made a proposal to the government for a project where volunteers would be given food and travel expenses, in return for the 'first aid' service. Alongside, there was a proposal to establish a 'School Heritage Library'. Every school should donate books older than 50 years to a well-appointed centralised library, which has a librarian. ''Since schools do not have the post of a librarian, this idea can make sure that the books do not lie abandoned. If there are duplicate copies of the same book, the schools can generate money by selling them,'' says Achuthshankar. At Attakkulangara, the First Aid project has opened up a world of interesting words to the children. Usha says that the children were told to find words only for the month of November, but have become really interested in the 'treasure hunt'. However it cannot just be any word, and has to be something in which you can read the history and heritage of a place, the school librarian has told them. In a place like their school library, that should be easy. REF LINK: http://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/kochi/Mission-to-Revive-Book-Wealth/2... Best Regards, Raghvendra R The information contained in this electronic message and in any attachments to this message is confidential, legally privileged and intended only for use by the person or entity to which this electronic message is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, and have received this message in error, please notify the sender and system manager by return email and delete the message and its attachments and also you are hereby notified that any distribution, copying, review, retransmission, dissemination or other use of this electronic transmission or the information contained in it is strictly prohibited. Please note that any views or opinions presented in this email are solely those of the author and may not represent those of the Company or bind the Company. Any commitments made over e-mail are not financially binding on the company unless accompanied or followed by a valid purchase order. This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by Mail Scanner, and is believed to be clean. The Company accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. www.jubl.com -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.