A Library Campus in Rural Bihar

PRAYOG is a library-based organization. Started in 2013, it works in Bihar’s Gopalganj district. Its vision is to ensure that every child has access to diverse children’s literature. The organization tries to ensure that children are able to understand texts and share the joys of reading. Its outreach is in government schools and community sites.

Libraries become what they are, because of the people involved. The way they engage and open up their collection to children are important factors, so are interactions and utilization of spaces, etc. In October 2022, PRAYOG started a library campus that also aims to function as a resource centre. Its goal is to facilitate interactions and engagements, on books and libraries, within and outside the library community as well.

The teams’ collective efforts have helped in shaping this up. Children from nearby villages are members of the library. The library as a space, and its collection, is opened to them through engagements in various activities like book displays, book talks, library games and read alouds, etc. Individuals and groups from different organizations and various geographies of Bihar, and from diverse contexts, visit this space to take away some of the doables for children’s libraries in their own sites and programs. Working with children, they are able to see how libraries are helpful in engaging with children right from their early education stage. These visitors also learn and explore ways to start and run libraries of/on their own.

The campus has also become a hub for the organization’s capacity building exercises. PRAYOG strongly believes in building its own capacities first. Some of the focus areas now are engagements with children and their contexts, and evolving the library for and with them.

Partnerships are a critical element of PRAYOG’s work. It invites different kinds of partners to the campus. Some partners help with technical support. Some others are collaborators. A few others support financially. The organization tries to engage all these different kinds of partners in the library space in a spirit of mutual learning. All this is perhaps reflective of the work of PRAYOG’s diverse team. Each member brings in their diverse experiences. The team collectively works together to make this a vibrant space.

Libraries as learning spaces

This page and the succeeding one: Children hailing from nearby villages are members of the library. The Prayog team engages with the children through various activities like book displays, book talks, library games, read alouds, etc.