Community Library
Deepalaya Community Libraries and Reading projects
“Today a reader, tomorrow a leader”. This has been the driving force behind Deepalaya Community Library Project. In times where public reading spaces are far and few between, our volunteer run community libraries act as an oasis for children, youth, men, women and elders alike.
Volunteers from diverse fields run several reading projects targeting different age groups, including the Head-Start program, where children as young as 3 years old can start their reading journey by listening to rhymes, interactive short stories, and doing activities like colouring and drawing.
For children who can already read, we have the Honour Roll program. The moment a student finishes reading a book, s/he is given one star. After a student reads 20 books, 50 books and 100 books, they are given prizes to recognize their achievement. To ensure and verify that the student has read the book, s/he is also asked to write a book report, which is checked by a few volunteers. In case a book report is not found to be satisfactory, he/she is asked to rewrite it to get the prize.
We also organize reading fluency workshops regularly, as well as special workshops for members covering library ethics and maintenance, read-aloud sessions, peer reading sessions, and book discussions.
As of now, we have three community libraries – one at Ramditti J R Narang Deepalaya Learning Centre, second at Sanjay Colony Learning centre and the third one at Gole Kuan Learning Centre. While the library at RJRNDLC is open throughout the week for children as well as adults, the Sanjay Colony Library is open for the community only on Saturdays, though children from the learning centre can access books every day. The Gole Kuan library has been recently set up with the support of Reliance foundation. The library has close to 5000 books. It also has a students’ council and will be opened shortly for the community.
As Deepalaya reading community grows, books are always in demand. Support us by donating a book (or two) .