Sunday Times 2
For an educated society: A national library system using post offices in Sri Lanka
“Reading maketh a full man” – Francis Bacon
A library is by tradition a place which houses books for people to read and borrow. It is, however, sadly a place which is least visited by the public. Make a visit to any public library near your area and you will observe how vacant the vast place is. Most books are untouched for eons. Maintenance is ignored; workers keep themselves occupied by doing other things or not even being present to their work since there is hardly any work to be done.
Author W.G.T. Fernando
Why don’t people visit public libraries today? Is it not a place of knowledge?
Is it because there is no tuition master at the end of the hall trying to explain the contents of the books?
Is it because the library does not house books which help to pass the standardised tests that are forced on students?
Is it because the general public is unaware of the treasure of knowledge hidden in the library?
Somehow, however, it seems we are not asking the right questions or keeping questions open-ended. Instead of asking why people do not visit this isolated establishment, we need to ask where we can place it. These libraries need to be placed where people do actually have a good footprint. A post office seems to be the best location (after a public school) to house this ‘library’.
Post office libraries: A revenue earning avenue. Image source - https://media-assets.bookbub.com
The 4700+ post offices around the island are places where public come not only to post letters and packages. They also use services such as paying traffic fines, receiving pension, money transfers, insurance, electricity, telecom bill payments and many more. With most of the post offices being housed in spacious buildings, it is a viable proposition to set up libraries in post offices. We may call these libraries ‘Post Office Libraries or ‘PO Libraries’ or ‘POLs’.
The PO Library would not need additional staff to maintain it either. From the existing cadre, someone who is in charge of a less demanded task could maintain and accommodate the POL initially. Once the POLs attract more of the public, dedicated staff could be assigned.
What can a POL do for general public?
Since the post office would house the books, it also allows the system to make a certain book accessible nationally. Once an efficient website with a catalogue of the books available at each post office is created, a person from Medawachchiya in Anuradhapura could borrow a book from the POL at Tissamaharama in Hambantota. How is this possible you may ask?
This would be through the post office service itself with a little help from the state by allowing books be posted nationally without any cost. This way, the books at each post office could be transported to any other post office as requested by the public. The person who requested the book would then get an sms alert informing him/her to collect the book from the nearest post office.
The POL can also be used as a location for new authors to have reading sessions targeting their readers, a place for children to enjoy some reading time, a space to promote new books by publishers (revenue earning mechanism for the post office which could in-turn use that money to buy new books).
If we do not have creative action plans to encourage our youth to take to reading, we will have a troublesome future generation who will be reading only to pass exams. The POL could be the answer that the state has been looking for with the bare minimum implementation procedure.
(W.G.T. Fernando is the author of 25+ ICT books and founder of GTS, an educational game production company. He is currently reading for his PhD at General Sir John Kotelawala Defence University focusing on the thesis area of ‘creating a new education paradigm for Sri Lankan primary education system’. He can be contacted via gihangamos@gmail.com)