National Library Week 14th Nov 2021 to 20th Nov 2021

 

Every year National Library Week celebrated from 14th to 20th November. The celebrations can be traced to a practice initiated by Shri I.V.Ramayya, recognized as the "Architect of Public Library Movement in India". He organized an all India Library meeting on November 14, 1912 in Madras which led to the formation of Indian Library Association (ILA). Later ILA declared November 14 as the National Library Day. Since 1968, 14th to 20th November is being celebrated as the National Library Week all over India and various programs are held to enhance public awareness about libraries. Keeping in tune with this tradition, Kendriya Vidyalaya Bacheli celebrating the National Library Week drawing the attention of several students. Literary events like Collage, Reverse Reading, Quiz, Poster Presentation and Book Reading Competition is being held. Students from all classes will participat with zeal and enthusiasm.

Ayyanki Venkata Ramanaiah : Architect of Public Library Movement in India

Iyyanki Venkata Ramanayya or Ayyanki Venkata Ramanaiah (24 July 1890 – 1979) has been called the "Architect of the Public Library Movement in India".^[1] He is the first Indian to be awarded the Kaula Gold Medal.Through his career as an influential library leader, Ramanayya was seen as a respected peer and mentor by S. R. Ranganathan.

Iyyanki Venkata Ramanayya was born in Konkuduru village, Ramachandrapuram taluk, in East Godavari district, Andhra Pradesh, to Venkata Ratnam and Mangamamba. He studied in Tailor High School.

Influenced by Bipin Chandra Pal, Ramanayya entered public life in 1907 at the age of 19. He was

instrumental in establishing the First State Library Association in Indian – Andhra Pradesh Library Association (1914) and the Bengal Library Association (1925). He contributed to the foundation of the Madras Library Association (1928) and the Punjab Library Association (1929) at state level and the All India Public Library Association (1919) at the national level.

Between 1934–1948, Ramanayya toured the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh and organised large-scale library tours. As a result, hundreds of libraries were opened and many others reopened. He organised training camps for the library secretaries in 1920 and 1934.

Ramanayya never worked as a librarian in the technical sense but he founded thousands of public libraries throughout India, and South India in particular. P. Ramachandra Rao describes the Andhra Pradesh library movement;

In the general context of the national library movement, the Andhra library movement was conspicuous and significant, unique and described as “swayambhuv” (self-born) by Iyyanki Venkataramanayya. It was a social movement with popular participation, organised with democratic ideals, more for imbibing political consciousness and spreading literacy rather than for mere organisation of reading rooms and systematic libraries.

Ramanayya founded literary journals such as Andhra Bharati (1910), the first Telugu-language illustrated monthly, which informed people of Telugu related information. He also founded Grandhalaya Sarvaswam in Telugu in 1916, being the first professional journal on Library Science from Vijayawada, as well as the Indian Library Journal in 1924, which was the first professional journal on Library Science published in English from Vijayawada.

He helped establishment of Raja Rammohan Library in 1911 in Vijayawada. He started All India Citizens' Library Association in 1919.

Ramanayya organised hundreds of meetings and conferences at the national and state levels. People such as Rabindranath Tagore, P C Roy, and Chittaranjan Das were reception committee chairmen or presidents of different All India Public Library Conferences organised by him in various parts of India. He was the first secretary of the Andhra Pradesh Library Association along with N. Krishna Rad in 1914, as well as the All India Public Library Association which started in 1919.

Ramanayya donated about 10 acres (40,000 m²) of land in Ayyanki village for development of various facilities. A Shiva temple, known as Ganga Parwatavardhani sameta Sri Ramalingeswara Swamy, exists because of him.