A novel idea

The online Christmas session included a baking class

Once upon a time, libraries were accessible to human beings. Try and hark back to those days. You'd enter a quiet place (there might even have been a ‘Silence please' sign) filled with books so meticulously arranged that it would be a walk in the park to locate a title of your choice. You'd then have the option of sitting with the book at a table within the library itself, poring over it for a while, or taking it back home immediately and - as behoves a dutiful citizen - returning it within a stipulated period of time.

The physical library that stores the books

Those days are gone, at least for the time being. But that doesn't mean that we have to be deprived of the library experience altogether. It only means that these physical havens of knowledge and learning have taken on a new, digital form. Just B - The Library is Open is an example of that. It's an initiative that library educator Bhavna Faizullabhoy has started, aimed at children between the ages of 10 and 12. The way it works is that the kids enrol themselves for six sessions over six weeks, where they interact with the medium of books in a multifaceted manner. Faizullabhoy explains that it's a hybrid model.

"The sessions happen online on Zoom, where I organise activities like reading aloud or, if it's a book on Christmas for example, a baking class. The books are all physical, with the kids being able to see and discuss the covers online, and once the session is over, they can email me the name of the one they want from the library of 350 titles I have, which I then send across to their address," she says, adding that the delivery is done across Mumbai through courier services like WeFast.

Bhavna Faizullabhoy

She adds, quoting American educator Rudine Sims Bishop, that books are like mirrors, windows and sliding glass doors. Mirrors, because children sometimes see themselves reflected in the pages of a title. Windows, because they can look through and see other worlds. And sliding glass doors because a book allows kids to enter that world that has been built for them. All this is important, Faizullabhoy feels, because the habit of reading eventually builds empathy in young minds. That's the main reason she started Just B - The Library is Open, and thumbs up to her for that because it's not money, but empathy that makes the world go round.

On: June 9
Log on to: @justb_thelibraryisopen
Email: justbthelibraryisopen@gmail.com
Cost: Rs 6,000 for six sessions