By Bhogtoram Mawroh
On 3rd October, 2015, Saiden village, located near Nongpoh (headquarter of Ri Bhoi district) opened its own public library. This event is very significant for many reasons. Firstly, the opening of a library is happening at a time when libraries in general are facing a crisis of relevance. The growth of digitization and information technology has created alternative sources of information against the conventional ones like the library. The internet revolution which started more than two decades ago has brought about a rich plethora of sources which any library, especially one such as this, would find it extremely difficult to compete with. Apart from expanding the sources of information the most important innovation that makes the internet superior is the ease at which this information can be searched. A few key words typed into a search engine and one can have all the information they desire. And all of this can be done from anywhere and at anytime. Gone are the days when one had to spend long hours in the library searching for the books they wanted. This ease and extravagance of information is hard to beat. Indeed, the inability to compete with digital innovations that have made searching and reading easy is a general problem that libraries are facing all around the world. And secondly, there is a specific problem that has been making the news recently, the purported Digital India Revolution – the attempt to improve online infrastructure and provide internet connectively to the remotest parts of rural India. All of this suggests that the odds are heavily stacked against a library, especially one that has started in a nondescript location. So is the library doomed to failure? Not at all, in fact the opposite is the case.
To begin with, the basis of all information technology are not the electronic equipments but electricity, i.e., power. Power is the juice that makes all these technologies function and without electricity none of the sophisticated gadgets will work. So in order for information technology to change the lives of the people, provision of electricity is the prime requisite. However, just over half of the rural households in India use electricity as their primary source of lighting, i.e., almost half of the rural households have no access to electricity. In North East India, except Sikkim which has a very small population base and huge hydroelectric potential, a substantial proportion of rural populations are still living in darkness. The case of Meghalaya is much worse with rural electrification being lower than the national average. To make matters worse, access to electricity and enjoyment of reliable service are not the same things. Even in places that get electricity, it is only for a few hours. Furthermore, load shedding especially during the dry months is a major problem and a common recurrence in Meghalaya. The memory of the power crisis of the previous year is still very fresh. This means that around half or more people in the state are not able to take advantage of the benefits of information technology and as such they will be bereft of the benefits Digital India claims to bring about. This story is not Meghalaya-specific but will be repeated in most parts of rural India. Since access to reliable electricity is not the case at the present (though it is hoped that this should change as soon as possible) an approach rooted in fantasy is not helpful. But since the benefits of information technology cannot be accrued at the moment the argument that libraries are therefore relevant is also not the right approach. Arguing from the negative is not sustainable. So question arises as to what are the advantages of having a physical library?
Libraries retain one aspect which digital technologies have taken away from us – the human contact. Learning is not a solitary exercise. Though one can read alone, but if he/she wants to truly understand and grasp the full implications of what is being learned it has to be shared. Knowledge grows by debate and deliberations and therefore, it needs a space where people can come together. One can argue that information technology does provide that space. The advance in information technology has brought the world closer. We can connect with anyone in the world (provided they want the same) which brings us into contact with people who share the same ideas. In this way ideas are exchanged, collaborations launched and relationships established. All of this is done without any physical human contact. This lack of human contact is further reinforced by another aspect of information technology – personalization, i.e., ‘done by you, for you and on your own device’. It is the individual who establishes the connection for his/her personal interest through the medium of a personal device, i.e., computers or phones. The most important implication of all this is that it is persons (a homogenous group) who are coming together and not people (a heterogeneous group). And this is the biggest challenge to learning: learning progresses by engaging with those who have a different perspective rather than spending time with people who think in the same way. Additionally, the lack of direct contact can also hinder learning in another way. One may learn a lot from YouTube but it is not the same as sitting in a class. In a class one can directly interact with the teachers in a two-way process, which is what learning is all about. Here knowledge emerges out of interaction rather than it being delivered or imposed unto someone. Even when a two-way communication over virtual space is possible it is more productive when physical face-to-face contact is practiced. Skype has not replaced seminars and conference where people from all over the disciplinary fields congregate at one place to discuss their work. In fact more of these kinds of seminars and conferences are becoming a norm. A library is a place where people can come into physical contact with each other. This physical contact in turn helps prevent knowledge becoming an incomplete and passive entity, an anathema to the practice and pursuit of knowledge. Library thus is a dynamic social space where knowledge is not only disseminated but also created.
But maybe the most important appeal of a physical library and a public one as such is that it provides important social services. Internet is not a free commodity and the information that we access has a price tag on it. Depending on how high we can pay, efficiency of the service varies. Also many sites, especially academics-based ones are paid sites where payment is required to access materials from it. However a public library provides the same service to everyone. Here all are equal. The most important leveler though is the fact that even people who reside in areas that have no electricity can still enjoy the services of a library – you don’t need electricity to be able to read a book, a candle light will do! A library provides knowledge to everyone irrespective of which class they belong to and which area they reside in. In many developed nations, e.g. USA, public libraries have become a place where the homeless come to read during the day time before returning to the streets or their shelters at night. Whether our libraries back home are performing this function is not known. But this demonstrates the capacity of libraries in promoting and delivering social well-being.
In Meghalaya more than 1/4th of the people are illiterate and almost half of the population resides in darkness. In a situation such as this the efforts of the people of Saiden village in coming forward to establish a public library is highly commendable. It has a great potential to act as a vehicle for improving the lives of not just the host population but of the surrounding areas as well. It is hoped that this effort will have an effect to galvanize others to start similar initiatives in the rural areas of the state and bring learning and education to everyone.
(The author is a guest lecturer in the department of Geography, North-Eastern Hill University and also a co-coordinator of Thma U Rangli-Juki (TUR) )