Library Week 2016

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life-Robert Louis Stevenson

School celebrated Library Week from 17th to 21st October 2016. Library Week has been celebrated in the School since 2015. This year, being Roald Dahls centenary, most of the activities were planned with his books in mind. As a part of the celebrations, we organised a small exhibition in the library for the whole School. In fact a team of students helped to prepare for the exhibition, within a short span of time.

On the first day, 17th October, there was a presentation on Roald Dahls life and works followed by the screening of the movie, The BFG for classes 4 and 5. The movie is an adaptation of a book by Roald Dahl. In The BFG, many scenes relate to instances from Roald Dahls life. Both the main characters of the movie, the big friendly giant and Sophie are inspirations that have been taken from people Dahl knew.

18th October 2016 was a busy day. The exhibition was inaugurated by author Mr. Ranjit Lal. Mr. Lal interacted with class VI for over an hour. Before the session our guests walked past every exhibit in the library. These exhibits were all prepared by our students in their library periods. The children also spoke about their favourite books in the Book Talk Corner. Some of our promising young speakers included Nyasa Srivastava, Arishi, Akshita, Pranshi, Kovid and Sarah of class V, Khushboo, Parth, Yatharta Bisht and Jasleen Kaur of class VI, Vanshika Kanojia, Gurmeher Longani, Arin, Chhanak, Nishtha, Adrita and Vedika of class VII, Vidhi Wadhwa, Rishika Makwana, Tejkirat Singh and Anushka Nayar of class VIII, Shashwat Saxena, Chaitanya Arora, Gauri Awasthi and Devanshi Meendiratta of class IX and Sirjan Kaur of class X. Mr. Lal asked questions about their choices of titles and appreciated the efforts the students had made.

After the session, he was taken to the auditorium for an hour long interaction. During his session he enlightened the students about the art of storytelling. Mr. Ranjit Lal shared with students his love for cooking, bird watching and his other interests which inspired him to write. He questioned the students about their areas of interest among books and the genres they enjoyed. On the whole, it was an inspiring session.

The day also featured a story session by Ms. Priya Manchanda, our very own Hindi teacher. The story was named Aalsi Timma, a story about a lazy boy who was not willing to help his grandmother. One day a bird decided to teach him a lesson. When he went to the jungle and saw small birds and animals working hard, he realised he had erred and turned into an obedient boy. This story was told to the students of class 3. The story carried a moral and the students listened very attentively.

The same day, there was a visit planned to the NBT Library for the students of class VIII. NBT is an Indian Publishing House founded in 1957 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Education. The activities of the trust include publishing, the promotion of books, reading and assistance to authors. On reaching NBT, our children were given a motivational talk by the director of NBT. He talked about the difference between knowledge and reading by giving examples from the Mahabharata. He also talked about the qualities of a good human being, about being truthful, respectful towards elders and treating everybody as equal. He told the children that books always make great gifts.

The day also included a visit to the Parliament Library and Museum for the students of class XI. The students of class XI (Humanities) were accompanied by their teachers. They visited the National Parliament Library which is the second largest library in the country and is popularly known by the acronym LARRDIS (Library and Reference Research Documentation and Information Service).The Library has an Acts and Bills' section which preserves records and ordinances, reports, bills, foreign acts and also carries out corrections in acts, as and when they are amended. Volumes of the Indian Code published by the Ministry of Law and Justice are also maintained in this section. The children were also taken to see the Parliament Museum. The Parliament Museum in Delhi has an interactive story-telling museum on Democratic Heritage in India spanning 2500 years. The museum has divided its exhibits into three parts Ancient, Medieval and Modern. The museum also displays the gifts and mementoes presented to our heads of state by visiting heads of state.The students also viewed an interactive, visualisation of the Dandi March.

Library Week also had a Book Donation Drive for poor students. The drive was initiated by the School as support for the underprivileged. The donations collected from our students will be sent to the Hope Foundation, an NGO.

On 20th October 2016, class X students got an opportunity to visit the National Archives. During the visit, they were shown a documentary on the National Archives of India, their importance and their management of records. The headquarters of the National Archives is located in Delhi and its 3 regional branches are in Jaipur, Chennai and Bhubaneswar. There are different techniques used to preserve records so that they do not get easily destroyed. Records are preserved in the archives by applying CMC (Cellulose Carbo-Methyl) on them. The students also got a chance to see the library where the records of different eras are arranged sequentially.

The same day, a workshop on Developing Reading Habits was conducted in the School auditorium for class IX by Mr. Sridhar Balan. Mr Balan is a senior consultant who has been a columnist with the Hindu, The Economic Times, The Indian Express and the Financial Express. Mr. Balan was recently invited to attend the World Book Capital Summit Meeting organised by UNESCO in Bogota (Columbia) and in Buenos Aires (Argentina) He spoke not only about reading habits but also about Shakespeare. This year we are celebrating 400 years of Shakespeare so there was a power point presentation on his works. Through the presentation the children learnt how certain idiomatic expressions became synonymous with Shakespeares plays. His friends who published the first folio of his plays after his death, played an important role in his life. Without them, he wouldnt have been as well-known, they were told.

The last day, 21st October, began with a creative writing workshop which was conducted by Dr. Sabina Pillai for class VII. Dr. Sabina Pillai is an alumnus of Lady Shriram College, Delhi University and Of Jawaharlal Nehru University. In addition to being an Associate Professor of English at Delhi University, she is also associated with the Oxford University Press and has been writing books for them. Dr. Pillai endeavored to give vent to the imaginative faculties of students with two activities. The first activity was on weaving a tale based on a one-liner given to each group of students. The 200 students were divided into 10 groups, which came up with hilarious stories at the end of this activity! The students also enjoyed drawing a word map around a given word. The groups could manage to write almost 50 different words relating to the given word.

The session was an enjoyable one and the students picked up techniques for improving their writing skills.

Dr. Pillai also visited the small exhibition which was on in the library and appreciated the efforts of our students. In the Book Talk Corner she asked our students about the books they were presenting and questioned them in detail. She also interacted with some of the class VIII students who had conceived of an advertisement on their favorite book.

The Library Week ended on a welcome note with a creative writing workshop by Dr. Pillai, who not only gave our students valuable writing tips but also motivated them to read.

Ms. Tarannum Athar and Ms. Vandana Misra.