Miscellaneous - This Day That Age   

dated October 21, 1955: Role of libraries

The need to develop the habit of reading worthwhile literature has been stressed by Prime Minister Nehru. Addressing an international seminar in New Delhi on October 20 on the development of libraries in Asia, he said that if people gave up the reading habit, they would become lopsided and cease to grow. Deprecating the tendency on the part of many not to understand anything except the subject of one's own study, he said, "We find a great expert on some subject, say engineering, totally ignorant of other things in the world. He is not a good citizen, though he may be good in his own field. One must, therefore, have a broad basis of understanding the world." The Prime Minister said he liked to read good literature and felt happy in looking at books. There was no greater satisfaction than in browsing in a library. The reading habit should be developed because it was connected with the thinking habit. Referring to the role of libraries and librarians, he said they were living in a tempo of change. It was the function of libraries and librarians to make people read the right type of books so as to enable them to develop taste. Taste developed when one was young, and hence the importance of libraries for young children.

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