Cultural affairs adviser to the interim government Mostofa Sarwar Farooki on Tuesday said that the country鈥檚 libraries needed to be more user-friendly.
He was speaking at a press conference on National Library Day, held at the Sufia Kamal auditorium of Bangladesh National Museum in the capital Dhaka on the day.
鈥榃e need to set air conditioners at the public libraries, which will make it easy for people to read for a long time and we also need to increase library hours for readers,鈥� Farooki said, adding that they were working to identity fake private libraries which were receiving government allocation.
Genuine private libraries can get higher government allocations once the fake ones are identified, the adviser said.
National Library Day will be observed today in the country through different programmes with the theme 鈥楽amriddha Hok Granthagar Ei Amader Angikar鈥� (May the library prosper 鈥� This is our commitment).
The Department of Public Libraries under the cultural affairs ministry will observe the day through different programmes with the aim of making people more library-oriented, increasing reading habits and establishing libraries as the people鈥檚 universities.
Bangla Academy, Jatiya Grantha Kendra, Department of Archives and Library, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Kabi Nazrul Institute, Dhaka University, Library Association of Bangladesh and district administrations, among others, will also organise different programmes to observe the day.
Cultural affairs secretary Md Mafidur Rahman, director general of National Museum Nafriza Shayma and director general of Public Libraries Monish Chakma were present at the press conference.
鈥楽eventy-one public libraries run across the country and we have more than 27 lakh books for people. We have planned to create e-book format of the books,鈥� said Monish, adding that they had also planned to open a pilot project at the upazila level to improve reading skills of the school children.
Mafidur said that they focused on e-library, which could also help to collaborate with renowned libraries in the world.
The government declared February 5 as National Library Day in 2017 and the day was first observed in 2018.
