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Humanising Language Teaching
Year 4; Issue 4; July 02
COMMUNICATIVE LIBRARIES
by Sheth Dhramendra, Gujarat, India
( republished from ELTECS L digest, the information website run by the British Council. They put this piece up in the week June 7th to 11th, 2001)
Lack of reading habit is one of the commonest complaints from teachers. There are many reasons. One of them is improper environment in the library. Most present day libraries have 'one-way' system. That means the students or members go to the library when they want a book. That means they know what they want. But there are some who don't know what to read. Their earlier efforts might have frustrated them. Selecting the right book is not an easy task.
I have a suggestion to make to overcome this problem and attract people towards reading books. We need to make our library 'communicative'. We should recruit some well-read people in libraries to help the readers. The prospective reader would go to such counsellors and discuss his needs, abilities and interests; and on the basis of that the counsellor would recommend a book or books. This system would definitely encourage students as well as people at large to use the libraries and read more.
[ editorial note: wouldn't the above suggestions be even more relevant when you enter that mind-boggling library known as the Internet? ]
