Designing and Development of a standard for school Library in West Bengal

Abstract

An attempt has been made to evaluate the present status of school library system of West Bengal and propose a standard for the betterment of it. Total 400 school libraries from 19 districts were surveyed to analyze the overall scenario and identify the spatial variation regarding various aspects of school library. The result obtained from the overall analysis delineate that an alarming disparity is prevailing in the school libraries. Most of the school libraries are lacking permanent librarian, sufficient collection, procurement policy, catalogue and classification, proper arrangement and services. The overall assessment of schools depicts the general picture which is not sufficient for framing a standard unless measuring the disparity level among the schools belonging to different districts.Therefore, GIS techniques were adopted as a spatial analysis tool to examine the inter district variations. It was observed that the school libraries in Kolkata and its surrounding district are enjoying maximum facilities, as they are getting support from their authority. Districts like Purulia, Bankura, Darjeeling, Uttar Dinajpur and Dakshin Dinajpur are getting deprived from availing a good infrastructure and service. To reduce the discrimination, on the basis of the analysis a standard for school libraries in West Bengal has been proposed. But it is urgently required to have a central information system containing all the details of all the school libraries in West Bengal for a central database generation, information management and policy framing. Hence a basic operation layout of the School Library Information System was proposed. But for the implementation, school authority and the Government intervention will be required. It may help to resolve the problem and to mark the achievements of research in the field of the State. The outcome may guide to find the right direction in Library and Information Science research.