Bangalore International Centre launches free children's library

Libraries are a fast-eroding figment in the rapid pace of the present day. Long gone are the days when children would cradle books; now tablets and phones lay waste to their attention spans. Bangalore International Centre’s (BIC) new children’s library – open for children on every Sunday – seeks to remedy this modern malaise.

Like the rest of BIC’s offerings, the new children’s library – called Around the World in 50 Days (referring to the fact that a calendar year has around 50 Sundays) is completely free to access. While it formally opened about a month ago, it is still taking shape, with borrowings having begun from Sunday, October 12. To be able to borrow books, one has to register at least three visits to the children’s library.

One of the core strengths of the children’s library is perhaps knowing the best utility for the space. The wide, sprawling area, utilised often as a performance space, has one of its best uses in the interactive sessions held in it. A typical Sunday at the children’s library opens with a facilitated session where children – and sometimes their parents as well – are invited to participate. The target age-group for most of these sessions and the library’s curation as well, is 6-14. Every session requires RSVP-ing ahead via the BIC website.

Aruna Gopakumar, Founder of The School of You, was the storytelling facilitator on October 5. Through various stories, she made around 24 children, with their parents, engage in one of the primary lessons reading has to teach us: empathy. “I feel that emotional and social skills are built through these interactions. It is important to look at stories from different angles. Learning is not a one-way street,” she added. She asserted that the participation of the parents helped in warming the kids – essentially strangers – to each other.

Advaita Manikkath, Programmes Associate at BIC, explained that the current inventory comprises around 900 books, with a specific focus on picture books. Champaca is in charge of the curation, with the project being funded by Doorbeen and H T Parekh Foundation. “We want the parents involved as well; we want this to be a place that inculcates reading and dialogue at the family level,” she remarked.

Among the little regulars of the library are six-year-old Savreen and five-year-old Jeeva. Both try to make it every week, and stay back even after the sessions are over, till the library’s closure at 6 pm. Savreen’s favourite book at the library is The Twits by Roald Dahl, while Jeeva goes for picture books with animals in them.