Book lover in Orissa village runs a free library of 30, 000 books
Book lover in Orissa village runs a free library of 30,000 books Madanapur(Orissa): A book lover in Madanapur village of Balasore district in Orissa shares his passion for knowledge and is taking on the fight against ignorance by running a free library of over 30,000 books at his home. In his quest and thirst for knowledge, Bikash Satpathy started 'Loknath' library in 1990.The library, was first set up in a room at his father's residence with as few as 50 books, but this collection has gradually increased over the years to some 30,000 books of different genres, ranging from 300-year-old, palm leaf manuscripts to biographies of famous people. "Human life is very precious but people in villages are ignorant and illiterate and so through my library I want to help these villagers gain knowledge and develop their mental faculties," claims Bikash. The collection includes books in Oriya, English, Hindi, Bengali and Telugu and genre such as fiction, poetry, biography, reference, magazines and periodicals. The library, which is open to all, free of cost, is a "house of knowledge" for many of the villagers. "We get all kinds of books here which are either not available outside or which we cannot afford. The best thing about this library is that we don't have to pay anything to read the books," said Gopal Behera, a villager. Works of eminent authors like Fakir Mohan, Senapati, Gangadhar Meher and Laxmikanta Mohapatra are part of the Oriya collection. Besides, many books that the library houses, there are also a number of interesting bric-a-bracs such as caps of navy, police and army officials, a vast collection of stamps, foreign currency and coins which are on display for curious visitors. "We can call this library a museum because we find a lot of things which we've only heard of before for instance here we have foreign currencies which we never thought we would be able to see in this small village," said Jasabanta Jena, another villager. And the English collection of over 1500 includes the works Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, the autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru and some periodicals published between 1925 and 1936. For the residents of Madanapur village where the literacy rate is around 40 per cent, the library is its soul and pride. Source: http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=4258 ============== sent in by ============== Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631
Dear All, An inspiring report! Is it possible to get the postal address of this library. I would like to donate a couple of books to this library. Many thanks to Dr Vyasamoorthy for bringing this to our notice. T.V. Prafulla Chandra Date sent: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>Mon, 4 Jul 2005 10:38:36 +0530</color> From: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param><<Vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com></color> To: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param><<lis-forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in></color> <bold>Subject: <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>[LIS-Forum] Book lover in Orissa village runs a free library of 30,</bold></color> <bold> <color><param>0000,0000,8000</param>000 books</bold></color> <underline><color><param>0000,8000,0000</param>[ Double-click this line for list subscription options ]</underline></color> Book lover in Orissa village runs a free library of 30,000 books Madanapur(Orissa): A book lover in Madanapur village of Balasore district in Orissa shares his passion for knowledge and is taking on the fight against ignorance by running a free library of over 30,000 books at his home. In his quest and thirst for knowledge, Bikash Satpathy started 'Loknath' library in 1990.The library, was first set up in a room at his father's residence with as few as 50 books, but this collection has gradually increased over the years to some 30,000 books of different genres, ranging from 300-year-old, palm leaf manuscripts to biographies of famous people. "Human life is very precious but people in villages are ignorant and illiterate and so through my library I want to help these villagers gain knowledge and develop their mental faculties," claims Bikash. The collection includes books in Oriya, English, Hindi, Bengali and Telugu and genre such as fiction, poetry, biography, reference, magazines and periodicals. The library, which is open to all, free of cost, is a "house of knowledge" for many of the villagers. "We get all kinds of books here which are either not available outside or which we cannot afford. The best thing about this library is that we don't have to pay anything to read the books," said Gopal Behera, a villager. Works of eminent authors like Fakir Mohan, Senapati, Gangadhar Meher and Laxmikanta Mohapatra are part of the Oriya collection. Besides, many books that the library houses, there are also a number of interesting bric-a-bracs such as caps of navy, police and army officials, a vast collection of stamps, foreign currency and coins which are on display for curious visitors. "We can call this library a museum because we find a lot of things which we've only heard of before for instance here we have foreign currencies which we never thought we would be able to see in this small village," said Jasabanta Jena, another villager . And the English collection of over 1500 includes the works Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, the autobiography of Jawaharlal Nehru and some periodicals published between 1925 and 1936. For the residents of Madanapur village where the literacy rate is around 40 per cent, the library is its soul and pride. Source: http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=4258 ============== sent in by ============== Dr.P.Vyasamoorthy, Advisor, Virtual Information Centre, ICICI Knowledge Park, Genome Valley, Turkapally, Shameerpet Mandal, RR District, Hyderabad 500078 INDIA Email: vyasamoorthy@icicikp.com Phone - Office: +91(40)23480053 Fax: +91(40)23480007 Phone Residence: +91(40)27846631 _______________________________________________ LIS-Forum mailing list LIS-Forum@ncsi.iisc.ernet.in http://ncsi.iisc.ernet.in/mailman/listinfo/lis-forum <nofill> --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NISC Export Services Pvt. Ltd. (an affiliate of NISC International, Inc. USA) S-1 Ballad Estates, St.Ann's School Road, Tarnaka, Hyderabad 500 017 Andhra Pradesh, India - Tel:+91 40 27001517 Tel/Fax:+91 40 27002538 WWW.NISC.COM A company in service to NISC worldwide. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Vyasamoorthy＠icicikp.com